A tragic reality caught on tape.

Brian Ross and his Blotter team tonight bring us the investigation into a small plane that was wrongly shot out of the sky above Peru in April 2001. The Cessna was mistaken for a drug-smuggling aircraft.

Aboard, a family of American Christian Missionaries, the Bowers, was instantly torn apart – mother Roni and infant daughter Charity killed by gunfire – father Jim and 6-year-old son Cory surviving the crash. Pilot Kevin Donaldson also lived, injuring both legs.

The Peruvian Air Force fired the fatal shots from a gunship, but they were working at the time alongside the CIA on a drug prevention program.

The CIA has issued a response to this incident.

Rep. Hoekstra Says CIA Has Not Been Held Accountable for Deaths of Roni Bowers and Her Baby Daughter

The certificate was only one of several that emerged from the prestigious Salon du Chocolat in Paris, the annual summit of the world’s master chocolatiers. But it may be enough to start a revolution in Peru. In October 2009, chocolate produced from the cacao beans of a small agricultural cooperative deep in one of the country’s rain forests was named the most aromatic in the world by the Salon. “We used to be known for making cocaine paste, but now we are known for chocolate,” says Elena Rios, 52, secretary of the Tocache Agroindustrial Cooperative. Rios herself gave up growing coca leaves 10 years ago, opting to take part in a program to replace her plants with cacao. “There were only 12 of us when we started; now we have hundreds. Our success is contagious. No one wants to grow coca in Tocache. Everyone is thinking about chocolate.”

via From Cocaine to Chocolate: Farmers in Peru Change Crops – TIME.