The Observer, October 6, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 6
Free Speech Zone: Government funded SOA educates human rights violators
While the United States of America treasures its self-conception as a beacon of freedom and liberty throughout the world, our history continually betrays this ideal. For example, throughout the Cold War, and even until this very day, the United States has continued to prop up many of the world's most illiberal and authoritarian regimes. One theater where this unfortunate contradiction is most evident is in Latin America, where deplorable violations of human rights have been carried out for years under the nose of the United States government, which has conveniently turned a blind eye.
It would be unfortunate enough if our government has ignored the suffering of millions on our own geopolitical doorstep for decades, but the fact that many of the worst human rights violators of the past 50 years were trained by the United States government is simply inexcusable. Included among the distinguished alumni of this tradition are dozens of the most wicked and malevolent characters of the military and security apparatus of various Latin American countries including Guillermo Rodríguez and Manuel Noriega.
The mechanism by which the United States military churns out these Latin American despots is the School of the Americas (SOA), now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). (The name was changed from SOA to WHISC in 2001 due to the dreadful reputation the institution has acquired over the years.) This institution, which resides on American territory (in Ft. Benning, Ga.), has actually seen funding increase in recent years despite massive public pressure to shut it down. While the curriculum of the WHISC/SOA claims to include only "legitimate" methods for maintaining security and countering political resistance, there are serious doubts over the ethical nature of the "education" attendees receive. According to documents released by the Pentagon in 1996 amidst severe political pressure to account for the actions of WHISC/SOA graduates, attendees were taught that execution, kidnapping, and torture were effective and acceptable techniques for obtaining intelligence and controlling resistance. Since then, the military has claimed that it has instituted courses on the importance of respecting human rights and the due process of law at the WHISC. However, the supposed change in curriculum has not yielded results as SOA/WHISC as recent activity has shown. Only last year, eight civilians were killed at the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Urabá, Colombia by troops under the command of an SOA graduate.
The continued existence of the SOA/WHISC is completely intolerable. So much so that even the security-obsessed, Republican-dominated Congress has seen nearly-successful efforts to shut the school down in the past decade. There is no justifiable reason for our government to continue to train murderers and paramilitaries by the hundreds, unless of course there are ulterior motives at hand. If you thought that the current Administration's ambivalence towards "quaint" documents like the Geneva Convention is repugnant, consider that disregard for human rights have been commonplace in the foreign policy of the United States for decades. The SOA/WHISC is the most evident and abhorrent example of these policies. If George Bush is genuine about his commitment to democracy and human rights (which he clearly is not), he would shut down the SOA/WHISC immediately.
The annual School of the Americas protest and vigil takes place November 17-19, 2006 in Ft. Benning, Georgia. For further information on the offenses committed by SOA graduates and for transportation information for the march and vigil, visit www.soawatch.org
