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The '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' ('''WHISC''' or '''WHINSEC'''), formerly '''School of the Americas''' ('''SOA'''; ]: ''Escuela de las Américas''), is a ] facility at ] in ]. Its motto is ''Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad'' (Liberty, Peace and Brotherhood). <ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = A Welcome from the Commandant | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/whinsec/about.asp?id=33 | accessdate = May 16 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> The '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' ('''WHISC''' or '''WHINSEC'''), formerly '''School of the Americas''' ('''SOA'''; ]: ''Escuela de las Américas''), is a ] facility at ] in ]. Its motto is ''Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad'' (Liberty, Peace and Brotherhood). <ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = A Welcome from the Commandant | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/whinsec/about.asp?id=33 | accessdate = May 16 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> It has a history of supporting controversial ] regimes and guerilla organisations.


The institute is a training facility operated mostly in the Spanish language, especially for ]n military personnel, but also civilians and from other nations. Presently roughly 1,000 students per year attend WHINSEC which was created as part of the ]. The institute is a training facility operated in the Spanish language, especially for ]n military personnel. As of 2006 the school now offers its Command And General Staff course to United States military for whom Spanish is their primary language. The course which is formally called ILE is the same which United States military officers attend only in Spanish. Somewhere around 60,000 people attended the facility when it was called the School Of The Americas. Presently roughly 1,000 students per year attend WHINSEC which was created as part of the ].


Some of those who had taken courses at the earlier School of the Americas had a history of supporting controversial ] regimes and guerilla organisations, employing ] and otherwise infringing upon ]. There have also been criticisms of training manuals used between 1987 and 1991. In response to this type of past criticism, WHINSEC was created instead, and several changes were implemented. A human rights program is taught at the beginning of all of the Institute's more than twenty classes. Instruction consists of human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations.<ref></ref> The school has frequently been charged with supporting regimes in Latin America with a history of employing ] and otherwise infringing upon ], something the school has staunchly denied. In response to this type of past criticism, a human rights program is taught at the beginning of all of the Institute's more than twenty classes. Instruction consists of human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations.<ref></ref>


==History== ==History==
The institute's remit is "to provide professional education and training" while "promoting democratic values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding of United States customs and traditions".
The Latin American Training Center – U.S. Ground Forces was first established in Panama during 1946 and trained more than 8,000 U. S. military members. Many Latin Americans trained along with their U.S. counterparts. During 1949 the Latin American Training Center expanded and became the U.S. Army Caribbean Training Center with the additional mission to help modernize Latin American and Caribbean militaries. During 1963, under President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, the training center expanded again and was renamed the U. S. Army School of the Americas (USARSA). During 1984, the school moved to Fort Benning, near Columbus, Ga., under the terms of the ]. More than 61,000 officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers have graduated from or attended courses at these U. S. Army schools.<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref>


WHISC's ]10 million budget is funded by the US Army and by tuition fees, usually paid through the ] (IMET) grants, the International Narcotics Control (INC) assistance programs, or through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
Congress withdrew the Secretary of the Army’s authority to operate USARSA in the FY01 National Defense Act thereby forcing the school to close at the end of 2000. Instead, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was created.<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref>


In 1946, the SOA was established in ] at ], at what is now called the Melia Hotel<ref>George Davies, , ''The First Post'', dated August 16, 2006, accessed August 14, 2006.</ref> as the ]n Training Center - Ground Division. It was renamed the U.S. Army School of the Americas in 1963. It relocated to Fort Benning in 1984, following the signing of the ].
⚫ ==Changes==
⚫ ]


In 2000, mounting pressure upon the ] to stop funding the SOA caused ] to rename the school the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, abbreviated as WHISC or WHINSEC. <ref>{{cite web | author = Center for Media and Democracy | title = School of the Americas changes its name | url = http://www.prwatch.org/spin/January_2001.html | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref>
After the legal authorization for the former '''School of the Americas''' was repealed in 2001 and the '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' was established.


The school currently known as WHINSEC was first established in the Panama
The Schol of the Americas war run by the US army, WHISC by the ]. The student body includes law enforcement officers, and governmental and nongovernmental civilians as well as military representatives of our hemispheric neighbors.<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref>
Canal Zone in 1946 as the Latin American Ground School (LAGS) (Bouvier 122). According to Lesley Gill, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University, “The establishment of the Ground School coincided with renewed U.S. expansionist ambitions in the Americas and partially filled a power vacuum created by WW II, which ruptured long-standing military ties between European imperial powers – particularly France, Italy, and Germany – and Latin America” (Gill, 62). As many European nations faced the daunting task of reconstruction following the war, the “victorious and relatively unscathed U.S. moved in to fill the void left by the Europeans and to consolidate its position as a global superpower.”


Initially, the School’s mandate was to teach nation-building skills such as bridge-building, well-digging, food preparation, and equipment maintenance and repair. However, after President Truman signed the ], an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, in 1947, along with the leaders of twenty Latin American countries, the U.S. Army became increasingly involved in Latin America. The Rio Treaty provided that “any attack on an American nation will be met by collective sanctions in line with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.”
The curriculum includes classes in the areas of peace support operations such as disaster relief, peacekeeping operations, democratic sustainment, international operational law, intelligence, oversight of the military, support to law enforcement and civilian operations, information operations, and advanced counterdrug operations. The institute offers professional military education courses for the leadership development needs of military officers and non-commissioned officers. There is a command and general staff officer course, as well as officer advanced courses and NCO development courses.<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref>


Two years later, in 1949, the Army renamed the Latin American Ground School to the U.S. Army Caribbean School – Spanish Instruction and began to instruct Latin American military personnel along with U.S. Army personnel. By 1956, the School began to focus its training efforts primarily on Latin Americans and has instructed its classes solely in Spanish ever since.
⚫ According to the website for the ] <ref>{{cite web | author = Center for International Policy | title = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | url = http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref>, the new law codified the old SOA's decade-old practice of inviting a "Board of Visitors" to review and evaluate "curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, and academic methods." the Board of Visitors "must include the chairmen and ranking minority members of both houses' ]s (or surrogates), the senior Army officer responsible for training (or a surrogate), one person chosen by the ], the head of the ] (or a surrogate), and six people chosen by the Secretary of Defense ('including, to the extent practicable, persons from academia and the religious and human rights communities')."

However, the School’s curriculum was not altered until after the Cuban revolution in 1959. The success of Fidel Castro and his ragtag band of guerrillas caused the American fear of “conspiring communists in Latin American peasant villages” to magnify in the already intense Cold War era (Gill, 73). The School became known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas in 1963 and its curriculum changed its focus from nation-building skills to counterinsurgency in order to prevent communism from spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere.
According to one SOA official, “The importance of sound, bilateral security relationships in the Western Hemisphere became very clear as Hitler and Mussolini assiduously attempted to court the nations of Latin America.”

⚫ ==Changes==
⚫ ]

After the legal authorization for the former '''School of the Americas''' was repealed in 2001 and the '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' was established, all students are now required to receive eight hours of instruction in "], the ], ], civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society." In addition, courses now focus on leadership development, counter-drug operations, peace support operations, ], or "any other matter the ]] deems appropriate" as well as requiring a Board of Visitors to review "curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, and academic methods" and evaluate whether or not it is "consistent with U.S. economic policy goals toward ] and the ]." Several pages on its website describe its human rights initiatives. But, though they account for almost the entire training programme, combat and commando techniques, counter-insurgency and interrogation aren't mentioned. At the ] vigil in November 2006, invitations were given to the members of the public to visit the school.

⚫ According to the website for the ] <ref>{{cite web | author = Center for International Policy | title = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | url = http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref>, the Board of Visitors "must include the chairmen and ranking minority members of both houses' ]s (or surrogates), the senior Army officer responsible for training (or a surrogate), one person chosen by the ], the head of the ] (or a surrogate), and six people chosen by the Secretary of Defense ('including, to the extent practicable, persons from academia and the religious and human rights communities')."


==Controversy== ==Controversy==
The school has been at the center of many human rights controversies. Repeated efforts led by Representative ] in Congress to curtail training at WHISC have failed. In 1999, after the mysterious disappearance of ] (a graduate from the school) and disclosures about ] manuals being used in the training, the ] adopted a bill to abolish the school, but its passage was stymied in a House-Senate conference committee. A bill to abolish the school with 123 co-sponsors was introduced to the House Armed Services Committee in ]. <ref>{{cite web | author = The Library of Congress | title = H.R.1217 | url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.01217: | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> The school has been at the center of numerous ]. Repeated efforts led by Representative ] in Congress to curtail training at WHISC have failed. In 1999, after the mysterious disappearance of ] (a graduate from the school) and disclosures about ] manuals being used in the training, the ] adopted a bill to abolish the school, but its passage was stymied in a House-Senate conference committee. As a ], in 2001 the Pentagon changed the name of the school. A bill to abolish the school with 123 co-sponsors was introduced to the House Armed Services Committee in ]. <ref>{{cite web | author = The Library of Congress | title = H.R.1217 | url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.01217: | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref>


===US Training Manual=== ===US Training Manual===
Line 52: Line 62:


===Human rights abuses=== ===Human rights abuses===
There has never been an actual case of human rights violations directly caused because of the tactics learned by former students of the SOA or WHINSEC. There is no "cause and effect" credited to these actions. To say that the three weeks that a given student spends learning will shape his decisions into committing atrocities rather than the years of turmoil in their country is laughable.
⚫ The earlier School of the Americas has been accused of training members of governments guilty of serious ] and of advocating techniques that violate accepted international standards, particularly the ]. Persons who have completed courses at the SOA include men such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Notorious Graduates | url = http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=205&cat=63 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> Because many of its students have been associated with ]s, and coups in Latin American countries, the school's acronym is reparsed by its detractors as the "School of the ]s".


⚫ The SOA has been accused of training members of governments guilty of serious ] and of advocating techniques that violate accepted international standards, particularly the ]. Graduates of the SOA include men such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ]. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Notorious Graduates | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=205&cat=63 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> Because many of its students have been associated with ]s, and coups in Latin American countries, the school's acronym is reparsed by its detractors as the "School of the ]s".
Defenders of the argue that no school should be held accountable for the actions of only some of its graduates.<ref>http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm.</ref>


WHINSEC in recent years has put into place a ] aimed as preventing human rights abusers from gaining a seat at the school. This system prevents any student from having a seat at the school if there are human rights abuse accusations against them or against any unit they were a member of. There was an attempt made in 2006 by the Board Of Visitors to work cooperatively with the ] to prevent human rights abusers from getting seats at the school. The attempt was unsuccessful as of the end of 2006.
Before coming to WHINSEC each student is “vetted” by his/her nation. Students are first screened by their own government and then screened by the U. S. embassy in that country. If there is any hint of wrongdoing in the student’s past, the student is not permitted into the United States to attend WHINSEC. .<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref>


All students are now required to receive a between eight and over forty hours of instruction, at beginning of each of the more than twenty classes, in "human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations."<ref></ref> A human rights program is taught at the beginning of all of the Institute's more than twenty classes. Instruction consists of human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations.<ref></ref>


===South Americans refuse to send soldiers=== ===South Americans refuse to send soldiers===
Line 65: Line 75:
===SOA Watch=== ===SOA Watch===
{{main|School of the Americas Watch}} {{main|School of the Americas Watch}}
Citing the call of slain Archbishop ], that "we who have a voice must speak for the voiceless", ] Fr. ] and a small group of supporters formed ] in 1990. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = About SOA Watch | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=100 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Paul Mulshine|title=The War in Central America Continues|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20021219221936/http:/216.247.220.66/archives/politics/watchwar.htm|accessdate=6 November|accessyear=2006}}</ref> They began to research the SOA, educate the public, lobby Congress, and practice ] at Ft. Benning. Each year a number of protesters are arrested and prosecuted for acts of ] including trespassing onto federal property in an attempt to create more awareness for the ]. Citing the call of slain Archbishop ], that "we who have a voice must speak for the voiceless", ] Fr. ] and a small group of supporters formed ] in 1990. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = About SOA Watch | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=100 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Paul Mulshine|title=The War in Central America Continues|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20021219221936/http:/216.247.220.66/archives/politics/watchwar.htm|accessdate=6 November|accessyear=2006}}</ref> They began to research the SOA, educate the public, lobby Congress, and practice ] at Ft. Benning. Each year a number of protesters are arrested and prosecuted for acts of ] including trespassing onto federal property in an attempt to create more awareness for the ].

===Demonstrations===
There is usually a demonstration at the main entrance to Ft. Benning in late November each year. In 2005, the demonstration drew 19,000 people. <ref>{{cite web | author = Independent World Television | title = 19,000 people rise up against the School of the Americas | url = http://www.iwtnews.com/soa_protest/ | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> The date for the annual demonstration commemorates a Latin American massacre linked to the SOA, which was on ], ]. Six ] ] priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter were murdered at the ] (UCA). Of the 27 soldiers cited for that massacre by a ] ] ], 19 were SOA graduates. The School itself officially denies that its curriculum teaches tactics contrary to human rights standards.

The November anniversary of the UCA massacre continues to be an important focus for the growing ] movement to close the SOA/WHISC. Indeed, the original band of ten resisters who gathered at the main gate of Ft. Benning in 1990, to commemorate the first anniversary of the UCA massacre, has grown in recent years to an attendance of thousands. People attend to honor victims of SOA graduates &ndash; as well as their survivors &ndash; with music, words, educational workshops, puppets and theatre. Estimates for the 2004 ] attendance was 16,000 and for the 2005 vigil, nearly 20,000.

Traditionally, the legal vigil and memorial service concludes with a mock funeral procession, using the ], onto Ft. Benning, with all who choose to march onto the post technically at risk for arrest. Subsequent to the ] and the erecting of a security fence at the main gate of Ft. Benning in 2001, protesters who wish to take their mourning onto the post need to go over, under, or around that fence, as opposed to the simple marching of the past. Over the years, hundreds and even thousands have chosen to risk arrest for criminal trespassing.

At the 2002 protest, the city of Columbus began requiring all attending the event to submit to a metal detector search at the designated entrance. After a lengthy legal battle, however, in October, 2004, the ] ruled unanimously that the forced search was unconstitutional.


==Notable graduates== ==Notable graduates==

Revision as of 05:28, 14 June 2007

File:Soa logo.gif
Former logo of the School of Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia

The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly School of the Americas (SOA; Spanish: Escuela de las Américas), is a United States Army facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Its motto is Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad (Liberty, Peace and Brotherhood). It has a history of supporting controversial anti-communist regimes and guerilla organisations.

The institute is a training facility operated in the Spanish language, especially for Latin American military personnel. As of 2006 the school now offers its Command And General Staff course to United States military for whom Spanish is their primary language. The course which is formally called ILE is the same which United States military officers attend only in Spanish. Somewhere around 60,000 people attended the facility when it was called the School Of The Americas. Presently roughly 1,000 students per year attend WHINSEC which was created as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.

The school has frequently been charged with supporting regimes in Latin America with a history of employing death squads and otherwise infringing upon human rights, something the school has staunchly denied. In response to this type of past criticism, a human rights program is taught at the beginning of all of the Institute's more than twenty classes. Instruction consists of human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations.

History

The institute's remit is "to provide professional education and training" while "promoting democratic values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding of United States customs and traditions".

WHISC's $10 million budget is funded by the US Army and by tuition fees, usually paid through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) grants, the International Narcotics Control (INC) assistance programs, or through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

In 1946, the SOA was established in Panama at Fort Gulick, at what is now called the Melia Hotel as the Latin American Training Center - Ground Division. It was renamed the U.S. Army School of the Americas in 1963. It relocated to Fort Benning in 1984, following the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty.

In 2000, mounting pressure upon the United States Congress to stop funding the SOA caused the Pentagon to rename the school the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, abbreviated as WHISC or WHINSEC.

The school currently known as WHINSEC was first established in the Panama Canal Zone in 1946 as the Latin American Ground School (LAGS) (Bouvier 122). According to Lesley Gill, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at American University, “The establishment of the Ground School coincided with renewed U.S. expansionist ambitions in the Americas and partially filled a power vacuum created by WW II, which ruptured long-standing military ties between European imperial powers – particularly France, Italy, and Germany – and Latin America” (Gill, 62). As many European nations faced the daunting task of reconstruction following the war, the “victorious and relatively unscathed U.S. moved in to fill the void left by the Europeans and to consolidate its position as a global superpower.”

Initially, the School’s mandate was to teach nation-building skills such as bridge-building, well-digging, food preparation, and equipment maintenance and repair. However, after President Truman signed the Rio Treaty, an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, in 1947, along with the leaders of twenty Latin American countries, the U.S. Army became increasingly involved in Latin America. The Rio Treaty provided that “any attack on an American nation will be met by collective sanctions in line with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.”

Two years later, in 1949, the Army renamed the Latin American Ground School to the U.S. Army Caribbean School – Spanish Instruction and began to instruct Latin American military personnel along with U.S. Army personnel. By 1956, the School began to focus its training efforts primarily on Latin Americans and has instructed its classes solely in Spanish ever since.

However, the School’s curriculum was not altered until after the Cuban revolution in 1959. The success of Fidel Castro and his ragtag band of guerrillas caused the American fear of “conspiring communists in Latin American peasant villages” to magnify in the already intense Cold War era (Gill, 73). The School became known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas in 1963 and its curriculum changed its focus from nation-building skills to counterinsurgency in order to prevent communism from spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere. According to one SOA official, “The importance of sound, bilateral security relationships in the Western Hemisphere became very clear as Hitler and Mussolini assiduously attempted to court the nations of Latin America.”

Changes

Official seal of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

After the legal authorization for the former School of the Americas was repealed in 2001 and the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was established, all students are now required to receive eight hours of instruction in "human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society." In addition, courses now focus on leadership development, counter-drug operations, peace support operations, disaster relief, or "any other matter the Secretary deems appropriate" as well as requiring a Board of Visitors to review "curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, and academic methods" and evaluate whether or not it is "consistent with U.S. economic policy goals toward Latin America and the Caribbean." Several pages on its website describe its human rights initiatives. But, though they account for almost the entire training programme, combat and commando techniques, counter-insurgency and interrogation aren't mentioned. At the School of the Americas Watch vigil in November 2006, invitations were given to the members of the public to visit the school.

According to the website for the Center for International Policy , the Board of Visitors "must include the chairmen and ranking minority members of both houses' Armed Services Committees (or surrogates), the senior Army officer responsible for training (or a surrogate), one person chosen by the Secretary of State, the head of the United States Southern Command (or a surrogate), and six people chosen by the Secretary of Defense ('including, to the extent practicable, persons from academia and the religious and human rights communities')."

Controversy

The school has been at the center of numerous allegations of state terrorism by the US military. Repeated efforts led by Representative Jim McGovern in Congress to curtail training at WHISC have failed. In 1999, after the mysterious disappearance of Victor Escobar (a graduate from the school) and disclosures about torture manuals being used in the training, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a bill to abolish the school, but its passage was stymied in a House-Senate conference committee. As a cosmetic gesture, in 2001 the Pentagon changed the name of the school. A bill to abolish the school with 123 co-sponsors was introduced to the House Armed Services Committee in 2005.

US Training Manual

See also: Torture manuals

On September 20, 1996, the Pentagon released seven training manuals prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses in Latin America and at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). According to the Third World Traveler, these manuals show how U.S. agents taught repressive techniques and promoted the violation of human rights throughout Latin America and around the globe. Amnesty International describes the contents of the document to contain instructions in motivation by fear, bounties for enemy dead, false imprisonment, torture, execution, and kidnapping a target's family members.

Human rights abuses

There has never been an actual case of human rights violations directly caused because of the tactics learned by former students of the SOA or WHINSEC. There is no "cause and effect" credited to these actions. To say that the three weeks that a given student spends learning will shape his decisions into committing atrocities rather than the years of turmoil in their country is laughable.

The SOA has been accused of training members of governments guilty of serious human rights abuses and of advocating techniques that violate accepted international standards, particularly the Geneva Conventions. Graduates of the SOA include men such as Hugo Banzer Suárez, Leopoldo Galtieri, Manuel Noriega, Efraín Ríos Montt, Fulgencio Batista, Augusto Pinochet, Robert Mugabe, Vladimiro Montesinos, Guillermo Rodríguez, Omar Torrijos, Roberto Viola, Roberto D'Aubuisson, Victor Escobar and Juan Velasco Alvarado. Because many of its students have been associated with death squads, and coups in Latin American countries, the school's acronym is reparsed by its detractors as the "School of the Assassins".

WHINSEC in recent years has put into place a vetting system aimed as preventing human rights abusers from gaining a seat at the school. This system prevents any student from having a seat at the school if there are human rights abuse accusations against them or against any unit they were a member of. There was an attempt made in 2006 by the Board Of Visitors to work cooperatively with the SOA Watch to prevent human rights abusers from getting seats at the school. The attempt was unsuccessful as of the end of 2006.

A human rights program is taught at the beginning of all of the Institute's more than twenty classes. Instruction consists of human rights training in law, ethics, rule of law and practical applications in military and police operations.

South Americans refuse to send soldiers

In 2004, Venezuela ceased all training of Venezuelan soldiers at the School of the Americas. On March 28, 2006, the government of Argentina, headed by left-wing President Nestor Kirschner, decided to stop sending soldiers to train at the School of the Americas, and the government of Uruguay affirmed that it will continue its current policy of not sending soldiers to the SOA/WHINSEC. In 2007, Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, decided to stop sending Costa Rican police to the SOA/WHINSEC. Costa Rica has no military, but had sent some 2,600 police officers to the school.

SOA Watch

Main article: School of the Americas Watch

Citing the call of slain Archbishop Óscar Romero, that "we who have a voice must speak for the voiceless", Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois and a small group of supporters formed School of the Americas Watch in 1990. They began to research the SOA, educate the public, lobby Congress, and practice nonviolent resistance at Ft. Benning. Each year a number of protesters are arrested and prosecuted for acts of civil disobedience including trespassing onto federal property in an attempt to create more awareness for the School of the Americas Watch.

Demonstrations

There is usually a demonstration at the main entrance to Ft. Benning in late November each year. In 2005, the demonstration drew 19,000 people. The date for the annual demonstration commemorates a Latin American massacre linked to the SOA, which was on November 16, 1989. Six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter were murdered at the University of Central America (UCA). Of the 27 soldiers cited for that massacre by a 1993 United Nations Truth Commission, 19 were SOA graduates. The School itself officially denies that its curriculum teaches tactics contrary to human rights standards.

The November anniversary of the UCA massacre continues to be an important focus for the growing grassroots movement to close the SOA/WHISC. Indeed, the original band of ten resisters who gathered at the main gate of Ft. Benning in 1990, to commemorate the first anniversary of the UCA massacre, has grown in recent years to an attendance of thousands. People attend to honor victims of SOA graduates – as well as their survivors – with music, words, educational workshops, puppets and theatre. Estimates for the 2004 vigil attendance was 16,000 and for the 2005 vigil, nearly 20,000.

Traditionally, the legal vigil and memorial service concludes with a mock funeral procession, using the Presente litany, onto Ft. Benning, with all who choose to march onto the post technically at risk for arrest. Subsequent to the September 11, 2001 attacks and the erecting of a security fence at the main gate of Ft. Benning in 2001, protesters who wish to take their mourning onto the post need to go over, under, or around that fence, as opposed to the simple marching of the past. Over the years, hundreds and even thousands have chosen to risk arrest for criminal trespassing.

At the 2002 protest, the city of Columbus began requiring all attending the event to submit to a metal detector search at the designated entrance. After a lengthy legal battle, however, in October, 2004, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the forced search was unconstitutional.

Notable graduates

Country Graduates
 Argentina Leopoldo Galtieri, Roberto Eduardo Viola
 Bolivia Hugo Banzer Suárez
Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles
 Ecuador Guillermo Rodríguez
 El Salvador Roberto D'Aubuisson
 Guatemala Efraín Ríos Montt
 Panama Manuel Noriega, Omar Torrijos
 Peru Vladimiro Montesinos, Juan Velasco Alvarado
 Venezuela Juan Manuel Sucre Figarella

Trivia

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (June 2007)

Sources

  1. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "A Welcome from the Commandant". Retrieved May 16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. George Davies, ‘I’ll take the CIA torture suite’, The First Post, dated August 16, 2006, accessed August 14, 2006.
  4. Center for Media and Democracy. "School of the Americas changes its name". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. Center for International Policy. "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. The Library of Congress. "H.R.1217". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. Third World Traveller. "US Training Manuals Declassified". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  8. "Unmatched Power, Unmet Principles: The Human Rights Dimensions of US Training of Foreign Military and Police Forces 2002 Report of Amnesty International USA (Amnesty International USA)" (PDF). Amnesty International. 2002. Retrieved April 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
    *"Pentagon Investigation Concludes that Techniques in SOA manuals were 'mistakes.'". SOA Watch. February 21, 1997. Retrieved April 14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  9. School of the Americas Watch. "Notorious Graduates". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. School of the Americas Watch. "National Venezuela Solidarity Conference". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. School of the Americas Watch. "Argentina & Uruguay abandon SOA!". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  13. School of the Americas Watch. "¡No Más! No More!". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  14. School of the Americas Watch. "Costa Rica to Cease Police Training at the SOA/WHINSEC". Retrieved May 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  15. School of the Americas Watch. "About SOA Watch". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  16. Paul Mulshine. "The War in Central America Continues". Retrieved 6 November. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  17. Independent World Television. "19,000 people rise up against the School of the Americas". Retrieved May 6. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  18. National Lawyers Guild Calls for Immediate Extradition of Luis Posada to Venezuela, NLG press release, April 20, 2005. Accessed 24 February 2007.

Further reading

See also

External links

Official government websites

Other websites

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