Exposing America's School of Assassins
by Sharlyn Grace and Matt Olson
On November 18, people from across the United States will converge on a small town in Georgia to protest the existence of the School of the Americas (SOA), now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), as they've done for over a decade. This year the demonstration is particularly important because a bill to cease operations at the institute faces a vote in Congress next summer.
Founded in Panama in 1946 as a Latin American military training facility, SOA mainly focuses on teaching potential military leaders how to control civil disobedience in their native countries. Forced out of Panama under the conditions of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1984, SOA took up its new home at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Despite the location change, the school continues to operate completely in Spanish (even though non-Spanish speaking U.S. agents are often assigned to inspect the base).
A SOA training manual unwillingly released in 1996 contains extensive information on identifying and containing an "imminent guerrilla attack," indicators of which included strangers visiting towns and cities – an anomaly also known as tourism. In order to maintain the peace and to support democratic governments, trainees are taught to capture, blindfold, molest, and threaten the families of anyone lobbying against the current government. Students benefit from guest lecturers who teach them which parts of the body are most susceptible to torture.
In true democratic spirit, SOA students learn to view criticism of their administration or any of its programs as threats of covert guerrilla behavior. When guest lecturer and human rights advocate Charles Call spoke to trainees in 1993, he reported that SOA instructors strongly resisted the concept of "increased civilian control." At the time of Call's lecture, only one class was devoted to democratic ideals, while 41 others taught combat skills.
SOA students have gone on to perpetrate some of the most astonishing human rights violations in Latin American history. Some SOA supporters have argued that out of the school's 60,000+ graduates, some "bad apples" are bound to surface. However, the prevalence of their involvement in civilian massacres suggests a more direct involvement. Dictators from across Central America, such as CIA-installed Manuel Noriega in Panama, have graduated from the SOA, and many of the people within their military factions have also been molded by its curriculum. When the United Nations compiled a list of human rights criminals from the civil war in El Salvador during the early 1990's, two-thirds were alumni of the SOA. In Mexico, ten of the twelve people responsible for killing 900 civilians during the El Mozote massacre were graduates.
Graduates of the SOA also conduct specific assassinations. In 1980, the murder of Archbishop Romero, while he was saying mass, built the Catholic lobby against the SOA. After the killing of eight innocents, including six Jesuit priests, on the University of Central America (UCA) campus in El Salvador in 1989, the School of the Americas Watch formed "to speak for those who cannot.”
The annual demonstration outside the SOA's gates takes place on the anniversary of the UCA killings in late November. The SOA finally came under fire in 2001, partially due to increased participation in the protest and lobbying efforts.
Instead of closing the facility, Congress opted to rename it. WHINSEC has tried to distance itself from the established reputation of the SOA by adding a token human rights class to the curriculum and allowing civilian enrollment in order to satisfy critics. However, the name change has not altered WHINSEC's mission. Georgian senator and SOA proponent Paul Coverdell told newspapers that the name change was "basically cosmetic" and would not alter the school's operations. The school's stable $10 million budget ensures brutality will continue in Latin America.
As November 18 nears, Chicagoans ready themselves for the 13-hour drive to Fort Benning to join tens of thousands in condemning an institution, determined once again to speak for those who cannot. Until its gates are locked forever, the existence of WHINSEC fundamentally undermines basic human rights in its construction, teachings and application in Latin America.
On November 18, people from across the United States will converge on a small town in Georgia to protest the existence of the School of the Americas (SOA), now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), as they've done for over a decade. This year the demonstration is particularly important because a bill to cease operations at the institute faces a vote in Congress next summer.
Founded in Panama in 1946 as a Latin American military training facility, SOA mainly focuses on teaching potential military leaders how to control civil disobedience in their native countries. Forced out of Panama under the conditions of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1984, SOA took up its new home at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Despite the location change, the school continues to operate completely in Spanish (even though non-Spanish speaking U.S. agents are often assigned to inspect the base).
A SOA training manual unwillingly released in 1996 contains extensive information on identifying and containing an "imminent guerrilla attack," indicators of which included strangers visiting towns and cities – an anomaly also known as tourism. In order to maintain the peace and to support democratic governments, trainees are taught to capture, blindfold, molest, and threaten the families of anyone lobbying against the current government. Students benefit from guest lecturers who teach them which parts of the body are most susceptible to torture.
In true democratic spirit, SOA students learn to view criticism of their administration or any of its programs as threats of covert guerrilla behavior. When guest lecturer and human rights advocate Charles Call spoke to trainees in 1993, he reported that SOA instructors strongly resisted the concept of "increased civilian control." At the time of Call's lecture, only one class was devoted to democratic ideals, while 41 others taught combat skills.
SOA students have gone on to perpetrate some of the most astonishing human rights violations in Latin American history. Some SOA supporters have argued that out of the school's 60,000+ graduates, some "bad apples" are bound to surface. However, the prevalence of their involvement in civilian massacres suggests a more direct involvement. Dictators from across Central America, such as CIA-installed Manuel Noriega in Panama, have graduated from the SOA, and many of the people within their military factions have also been molded by its curriculum. When the United Nations compiled a list of human rights criminals from the civil war in El Salvador during the early 1990's, two-thirds were alumni of the SOA. In Mexico, ten of the twelve people responsible for killing 900 civilians during the El Mozote massacre were graduates.
Graduates of the SOA also conduct specific assassinations. In 1980, the murder of Archbishop Romero, while he was saying mass, built the Catholic lobby against the SOA. After the killing of eight innocents, including six Jesuit priests, on the University of Central America (UCA) campus in El Salvador in 1989, the School of the Americas Watch formed "to speak for those who cannot.”
The annual demonstration outside the SOA's gates takes place on the anniversary of the UCA killings in late November. The SOA finally came under fire in 2001, partially due to increased participation in the protest and lobbying efforts.
Instead of closing the facility, Congress opted to rename it. WHINSEC has tried to distance itself from the established reputation of the SOA by adding a token human rights class to the curriculum and allowing civilian enrollment in order to satisfy critics. However, the name change has not altered WHINSEC's mission. Georgian senator and SOA proponent Paul Coverdell told newspapers that the name change was "basically cosmetic" and would not alter the school's operations. The school's stable $10 million budget ensures brutality will continue in Latin America.
As November 18 nears, Chicagoans ready themselves for the 13-hour drive to Fort Benning to join tens of thousands in condemning an institution, determined once again to speak for those who cannot. Until its gates are locked forever, the existence of WHINSEC fundamentally undermines basic human rights in its construction, teachings and application in Latin America.
posted by The Protest at 10/22/2005
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