US Vote Could Close ‘School of the Americas’
SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to take what advocates are calling a historic vote this week to close the largest U.S. military training ground for soldiers from Central and South America.
The vote comes on the initiative of Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), who has offered an amendment to the Foreign Operations and Appropriations Bill that would prevent any U.S. tax dollars from funding the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
The institute is better known as the School of the Americas, which was its official name until the year 2000.
“Human rights abuses by graduates of the school have been widespread,” argued Joao da Silva, communications coordinator for School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots group that raises awareness about the school’s checkered past.
“They have engaged in torture and targeted killings of their enemies, and in this case the enemies were mostly trade unionists and human rights workers,” da Silva said.
The School of the Americas was founded in 1946, primarily to prevent communism from spreading in Central and South America. During the 1970s and 1980s many right-wing military dictatorships came to power throughout Latin America; many of their leaders had attended the school.
Among the School of the Americas’ more than 60,000 alumni are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzar Suarez of Bolivia.
According to School of the Americas Watch, graduates were also responsible for the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians in El Salvador; the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero; and the massacre of 14-year-old Celina Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos, and six Jesuit priests in El Salvador; among hundreds of other human rights abuses.
Representatives of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, also known as WHINSEC, did not return phone calls by deadline.
“The School of the Americas is not very well known in the United States, but it’s very well known in Latin America,” said Christy Thornton, director of the New York-based North American Congress on Latin America, which publishes a leading journal on Central and South American Affairs.
“The School of the Americas is for many a symbol of U.S. imperialism. Closing it would help restore credibility to the U.S. in the eyes of the rest of the world,” she added.
Thornton said the rise of anti-American left wing leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is in part a reaction against past U.S. support for authoritarian governments in the region.
In recent years, four countries have decided to withdraw their soldiers from WHINSEC. In 2004, Chavez stopped sending Venezuelan soldiers to the school, and last year Argentina and Uruguay announced they would end co-operation as well.
Last month, they were joined by Costa Rica, which does not have a standing army but had sent police officers there for training. The country’s president, Oscar Arias, won the Nobel Peace Prize 20 years ago and has dedicated himself to international arms control.
Costa Rica’s public safety minister Fernando Berrocal told Agance France Press that Arias made the decision with regard to “the most sacred principles of the country’s history.”
“We must understand that this decision does not in any way contradict our alliance with the United States in the struggle against crime and neither does it impede cooperation in security programs to professionalize our police,” he said.
Opponents of the school are optimistic that their measure to close it will pass this year. School of the Americas Watch’s da Silva said the Democratic tide at U.S. polls last November could prove decisive.
“Thirty-five representatives who opposed this last year lost their seats in the November midterms,” he noted.
Last year, a similar measure to close the school failed by 15 votes in the House of Representatives. To cut off money for the school, measures would have to pass both the House of Representatives and Senate this year.
Copyright © 2007 OneWorld.net
“Thirty-five representatives who opposed this last year lost their seats in the November midterms,” he noted.
Come on..let’s see some real action: Close it!
The School of The Americas has become redundant ever since they started teaching torture in the mainstream US Military.
No need for a special school…just have your fascist friends drop by any basic trainng camp to get the latest in thumbscrews and gential electrocution….SHAME ON THE USA
US Vote Could Close ‘School of the Americas’–
The sooner the better. By the way if this vote should somehow fail, we will still know who scuttled it and can take appropriate action in 08, so this is a win-win situation. Bravo Jim McGovern!
One of the main drivers of the closing of the school movement is Father Roy Bourgeois. I have met Father Roy and can attest this man of God is special in his preserverance, dedication, action, and energy. He is a Viet Nam Veteran, decorated with a Purple Heart, who became a priest. He worked in Central America during the 80’s and witnessed the repression of the Reagan Adminstration by providing support of training Central American solders, who are loyal to U.S. backed puppet governments. The Economic Hitman describes the use of these CIA jackles.
The closing of the school would be a positive move. This training center provided muscle to stomp out forces that attemped to break the chains of depotism and obtain some sense of self determination. Resourses of these countries were always the main goal of this policy.
If the closing of this school travels smoothly through congress and is truly shut down, not just name changed as before, it may indicate that the Free Trade Agreements superceeded it’s use. But, I doubt it.
This along with everything else that’s out there to petetion, this is a worth while cause. Maybe if some economic justice is given to the people of Central America our illeagal Immigration might just slow down.
The McGovern amenment failed by just a few votes when the house voted late last night.
I e-mailed my congressman and told him I was disappointed that he had not voted for the McGovern amendment and human rights. He had promoted terror, torture, and murder. And he was disgusting.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll536.xml
It’s always disheartening to hear that a school, this sacred place of education and enlightenment, is closing. I’ve never heard of the School of Americas. I would assume its medium of communication and curriculum is in Spanish because the article says it is for Latin America. Does anyone know whether the school offers PhD in Linguistics or California Teacher Certification, and whether they offer student loans and alumni placement services? Also, if it’s quarter or semester based? I’ve been TORTURED to find answers to my query, but of no avail.
“Providence seems to have ordained that the United States should plague Latin America with misery in the name of freedom” These words were spoken in 1827 by Simon Bolivar. Is it any wonder that Latinos are suspicious of American style democracy. I believe that this wave of Latino immigration is a way of saying if you can’t beat them join them. The other Americans are finished with being the USA backyard.
I recall the words of Miguel de Escota of Nicaragua when asked if he had anything to say to people in the US. He said, “Tell them we are worried about them. We feel that any country which unleashes such violence against the poor peasants of Nicaragua will ignore the needs of its own poor. We believe that one day the people of the US will be some of the most oppressed in the world”.
I made my first trip to Nicaragua in 1988. I had a strong sence of familiarity, but I had never been to the Third World before. No! Wait! I have been. I was born in Detroit. That is about as Third World as you can get, complete with repression and cops who torture.
So much for the Democratic-controlled House.
180 Dems voted yes. 42 voted No, 1 voted Present (whatever that means) and 12 did not vote.
172 Reps voted No. 23 voted Yes and 7 did not vote.
Clearly, the Dems carried the day against this important measure. If the chickens who did not have the guts to show up voted yes, it would have carried. Or if the Dem no vote simply sat with the chickens (which is where they belong) they would have won.
Or to look at it another way, the Dems could only carry 75% of their own vote. And this wasn’t even an issue which would cost them dollars from lobbyists.
How low do we set the standards?
David says:
I believe that this wave of Latino immigration is a way of saying if you can’t beat them join them. The other Americans are finished with being the USA backyard.
************
Call it Montezuma’s revenge–and there isn’t any kaopectate that will fix it.
Can’t happen fast enough for me. If it does close, it would mark a profound change in the imperialist mindset of Washington. Now, if we could just get rid of NAFTA, the Americas might look forward to being an imperial-free zone.
Zoya Don’t forget to read the good news. US VOTE COULD CLOSE ‘SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS’ That would be a step in the direction of Imperial free zone.
Saila, I must be particularly gullible today, you actually had me going for a moment!
Hey- this news is a sort of cliffhanger: will they or won’t they vote to tear down that house or horrors? I’m gonna go crazy with anticipation here…
http://www.soaw.org/
Hmmmm, what next?
Nothing that a laser-guided B-57 nuke couldn’t sterilize.
I cannot believe that no-one, but NO-ONE, has called the ‘School of the Americas’ what it really is; a terrorist training camp on US soil.
I wish this article had come out when there was still something that could be done - it seems like a tease to publish “good news” after it’s already turned sour. The House was voting on it last night, according to my rep’s office, and SOA Watch sent news of the defeat this morning.
The Republican/Democrat split was especially telling. I’d love to figure out why good, hardworking, salt-of-the-earth people like my dad vote Republican. I’ve been thinking of making him a deal - I’ll get the kids baptized if he can truly help me understand how a loving, kind, forgiving person like him can support a military of invasion and torture. I’ve probably answered my own question there. I think there’s something twisted up in our religions that makes us care more about a ritual than human suffering.
You just reminded me of an article I wrote 5 years ago. I will not submit all of it just the part that I found pertinent.
God and the Christian bible is portrayed with infinite power and wisdom, stern and frightning and angrily destroy’s anyone who disobeys him symbolically represented by the right side of the political spectrum. Jesus is the embodiment of self-sacrifice, which elates him in the holiness and power of his father. To allow your child to be sacrificed even for a good cause is violent and cruel and you can NOT escape the harsh fact that this morally amounts to murdering one’s own child.
The crisis of the absent father and sacrificed son is everywhere present in our modern culture. It is reflected today as men are sent off to slaughter in Iraq, rather that to solve problems in a peaceful way.
CLOSE IT. CLOSE IT NOW. CLOSE IT FOREVER.
Just do it. Do it now! Get rid of this egregious institution. Stop funding this death squad brigade. Stop teaching people how to use a system that enables death and destruction in order to put US compliant dictators and governments in control that dimish and devalue their base citizenship.
Chavez - pull them out of the round robin circuit of providing money to the WB and the IMF.
I was so pleased to hear that you had paid back the last cent owed to them from the ‘infrastructure upgrades’ that thew had saddled you wuth.
Well done. Now you are free. Now you can, with other previously fiscally demonised countries, set up a South American equivalent of a funding body that will oversee improvement in your area of the world. Just don’t succumb to the power games that will beset you. Good luck to you and all those who want to throw off the US yoke of financial dominance. Don’t allow a private body to print your currency. That’s what the US gave credence to and now it is paying a price that can never be extinguished.
CLOSE IT NOW AND TURN IT INTO A SANCTUARY FOR THE HOMELESS WITH ALL THE PROGRAMS PEOPLE NEED TO HEAL.
………as if Tibee4! That would be considered a “weakness” of this fine country.
Here’s a great tool for educating people on the issue, http://www.hiddeninplainsight.org It’s a DVD about the SOA and it features people like Eduardo Galeano, Barbara Lee Michael Parenti and Noam Chomsky.
I’d like to hear the Democratic presidential candidates asked what their opinions are on our terrorist training camps like the SOA.
i can certainly believe the ignorant Carolina reps voting not to close like Henry Brown, McIntyre i have seen so far
they are obviously corrupt bought off pieces of shit i would just use for fish bait these are also the same guys that voted against funding gor public radio, so they do not want me listening to “all things considered’ and ‘prairie home companion’
i have personal problems with a trainer from there and would love to find where all these guys love to take them fishing
time for action folks,
eliminate these arrogant xenophobic military assholes
for good, their kids also so they do not grow up to be assholes like their dads
anyone in us military is trained to kill folks NOT like them littlwe brown people brainwashed, unlike other countries military
thank God now i was never in military
serious times calls for serious solutions
Viva Revolution
oh, and i cannot wait until the day the 12 million illegal hispanics start the La Moviemento Raza, taking back what was stolen from them
all you white ass honky southern rednecks beware
you will get what you deserve
too much cell phones,TV drug, vid games etc.
Troll alert. senorpescado above.
Calm down Senorpescado! Take your meds as prescripted.
“Among the School of the Americas’ more than 60,000 alumni are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama…”
But John Perkins (author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) said of Torrijos: “The book was dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been my clients, whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits — Jaime Roldós, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama.” Later on he writes:
“Torrijos earned a reputation for listening to the dispossessed. He walked the streets of their shantytowns, held meetings in slums politicians didn’t dare to enter, helped the unemployed find jobs, and often donated his own limited financial resources to families stricken by illness or tragedy.”
Doesn’t sound like a ‘notorious dictator’ to me.