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⚫ ]]]
{{totally disputed}}
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 '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' ('''WHISC''' or '''WHINSEC''') 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 former ] had a controversial history of teaching torture technniques between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses, and according to an article in '']'' "UN commissions and research organizations have linked SOA graduates to many of the region's most heinous massacres, assassinations and torturous interrogations over the years". Because of this, the school was closed in 2000. Instead the WHINSEC was created with many changes compared to the earlier school, such as a human rights program is now 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 institute teaches primarily in the ], especially for ]n military personnel, but is also open for civilian and persons from outside Latin America. Close to 60,000 people attended the facility when it it was under the name of the School Of The Americas. Presently roughly 1,000 students per year attend WHINSEC which was created as part of the ].<ref>{{cite web | author = Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation | title = FAQ | url = https://www.benning.army.mil/WHINSEC/about.asp?id=37 }}</ref> 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 ].

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, the school in 2004 created a human rights protection training course, requiring each student to take eight hours of instruction. The school has also included in much of its course work training in the 'principles of democracy'. Critics accuse the school of teaching these classes to only a few students and argue that the minimum of eight hours of ethical instruction mandated by recent law is not sufficient.


==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".
]


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 the former ] 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==
As a result of the controversy surrounding the former ], the '''Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation''' has many changes.


The School of the Americas was operated by the US Army, and WHISC by the ]. The student body includes now law enforcement officers, governmental and nongovernmental civilians, as well as military representatives of Western hemispheric nations.<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 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>


The school currently known as WHINSEC was first established in the Panama
The curriculum now 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>
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.”
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>


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.
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>


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 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')."
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.”

Although preparing Latin Americans to repel an attack by a nonhemispheric power, particularly one tainted by Communism, was the highly-publicized reason for the United States’ emphasis on equipping and training Latin Americans, others assert that the United States’ main objective was to protect its economic interests in the region. Some of these economic interests included coffee in Central America (1), the Panama Canal agreements formalized in 1901, and the United Fruit Company and its subsidiary, the International Railways of Central America (IRCA).

⚫ ==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 ] was at the center of numerous ]<ref>{{cite book |last=Gareau |first=Frederick H. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=State Terrorism and the United States |year=2004 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |id=ISBN 1-84277-535-9 |pages=pp22-25 and pp61-63}}</ref>. In 2001 the Pentagon changed the name of the school.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} A bill to abolish the current Institue 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===
{{seealso|Torture manuals}} {{seealso|Torture manuals}}
Line 52: Line 64:


===Human rights abuses=== ===Human rights abuses===
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".
The former ] has been accused of training members of governments guilty of serious ]. Professor Gareau argues that the ] is a terrorist training ground. He notes a UN report which states the school has "graduated 500 of the worst human rights abusers in the hemisphere." Gareau claims that by funding, training and supervising Guatemalan 'Death Squads' Washington was complicit in state terrorism.<ref name="Gareaupp22">
{{cite book |last=Gareau |first=Frederick H. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=State Terrorism and the United States |year=2004 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |id=ISBN 1-84277-535-9 |pages=pp22-25 and pp61-63}}</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.
Because many of its students have been associated with ]s, and coups in Latin American countries, the former school's acronym is reparsed by its detractors as the "School of the ]s".

The website ] claims that the "U.N. Truth Commission's" statistics on the extent of the former school's role in El Salvador's human rights violations shows:
<BR>
] assassination 3 officers cited --- 2 were SOA graduates<BR>
Murder of US nuns 5 officers cited --- 3 were SOA graduates<BR>
Union leader murders 3 officers cited --- 3 were SOA graduates<BR>
El Junquillo massacre 3 officers cited --- 2 were SOA graduates<BR>
El Mazote massacre 12 officers cited --- 10 were SOA graduates<BR>
Dutch journalist murders 1 officer cited --- he was an SOA graduate<BR>
Las Hojas massacre 6 officers cited --- 3 were SOA graduates<BR>
San Sebastian massacre 7 officers cited --- 6 were SOA graduates<BR>
Jesuit massacre 26 officers cited --- 19 were SOA graduates<BR>

Defenders 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>


===Demonstrations=== ===Demonstrations===
Annual demonstration have been held at the main entrance to Ft. Benning in late November since 1990. 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 ], ]. 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. 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 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.

Professor Gareau has reported that people protesting against the school are frequently beaten and arrested, "By the year 2002, 71 demonstrators had served a total of 40 years of jail time for protesting in front of the School of the Americas". This includes an 88 year old nun.<ref>{cite book |last=Gareau |first=Frederick H. |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=State Terrorism and the United States |year=2004 |publisher=Zed Books |location=London |id=ISBN 1-84277-535-9 |pages=pp22-25 and pp61-63}}</ref>.


===South Americans refuse to send soldiers=== ===South Americans refuse to send soldiers===
In 2004, a School of the Americas Watch delegation began visiting government officials in Central and South America to request they send no more troops to be trained at WHINSEC. Venezuela ceased all training of Venezuelan soldiers at the WHINSEC in 2004. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = National Venezuela Solidarity Conference | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1259 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> On ], ], the ], headed by President ], decided to stop sending soldiers to train at the WHINSEC, and the government of ] affirmed that it will continue its current policy of not sending soldiers to the WHINSEC. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Argentina & Uruguay abandon SOA! | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1290 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = ¡No Más! No More! | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/newswire_detail.php?id=1077 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> In ], ], president of ], decided to stop sending Costa Rican police to the WHINSEC. Costa Rica has no military, but had sent some 2,600 police officers to the WHINSEC.<ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Costa Rica to Cease Police Training at the SOA/WHINSEC | url = http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=1540 | accessdate = May 31 | accessyear = 2007}}</ref> In 2004, Venezuela ceased all training of Venezuelan soldiers at the School of the Americas. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = National Venezuela Solidarity Conference | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1259 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> On ], ], the ], headed by left-wing President ], decided to stop sending soldiers to train at the School of the Americas, and the government of ] affirmed that it will continue its current policy of not sending soldiers to the SOA/WHINSEC. <ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Argentina & Uruguay abandon SOA! | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1290 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = ¡No Más! No More! | url = http://www.soaw.org/new/newswire_detail.php?id=1077 | accessdate = May 6 | accessyear = 2006 }}</ref> In ], ], president of ], 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.<ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Costa Rica to Cease Police Training at the SOA/WHINSEC | url = http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=1540 | accessdate = May 31 | accessyear = 2007}}</ref>


===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. 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 ].


⚫ 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.
=== Opposition in Congress ===
Representative ] and 123 co-sponsors introduced a bill to abolish the WHINSEC in ]. The bill was referred to the ], but never made it to consideration before the full house. <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> Representative McGovern has since reintroduced the bill in the ] with 112 cosponsors. The bill is currently pending before the ]. <ref>{{cite web | author= The Library of Congress | title = H.R. 1707 | url = http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bd0bJh:@@@L&summ2=m&|/bss/d110query.html | accessdate = July 7 | accessyear = 2007 }}</ref>


⚫ 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.
==Notable graduates of the former School of the Americas==

⚫ 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==
<div style="font-size:90%"> <div style="font-size:90%">
{| class="wikitable" {| class="wikitable"
Line 105: Line 97:
|- |-
|Cuban exile |Cuban exile
|] - According to the ], not in SOA Watch database of graduates.<ref>, NLG press release, ], ]. Accessed ] ].</ref> |]<ref>, NLG press release, ], ]. Accessed ] ].</ref>
|- |-
|{{flagcountry|Ecuador}} |{{flagcountry|Ecuador}}
Line 114: Line 106:
|- |-
|{{flagcountry|Guatemala}} |{{flagcountry|Guatemala}}
|]
|] - According to , not in SOA Watch database of graduates.
|- |-
|{{flagcountry|Panama}} |{{flagcountry|Panama}}
Line 123: Line 115:
|- |-
|{{flagcountry|Venezuela}} |{{flagcountry|Venezuela}}
|] - Not in SOA Watch database of graduates. |]
|} |}
</div>
<ref>{{cite web | author = School of the Americas Watch | title = Notorious Graduates | url = http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=205&cat=63 | accessdate = July 11 | accessyear = 2007 }}</ref>

==Trivia==
{{Trivia|date=June 2007}}

*The words ''] (one for all, and all for one!)'' are taken from ]' ]. They are also the official motto of ].
*The band ] released a song titled "School of the Americas."
*The hardcore band Kaospilot, from ], released a song titled "School of Assassins" on their 2003 self-titled album on ].
*The band ] released a song titled "The School of Assassins" on the 2004 '']'' album.
*] has a song entitled "Song for the SOA #2," discussing the theoretical shutting down of the School of the Americas.


==Sources== ==Sources==
Line 267: Line 267:
*] *]
*] *]
⚫ *]


==External links== ==External links==
Line 379: Line 378:
] ]
] ]
]
]
] ]
⚫ ]
] ]


Revision as of 06:59, 22 July 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, the school in 2004 created a human rights protection training course, requiring each student to take eight hours of instruction. The school has also included in much of its course work training in the 'principles of democracy'. Critics accuse the school of teaching these classes to only a few students and argue that the minimum of eight hours of ethical instruction mandated by recent law is not sufficient.

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.”

Although preparing Latin Americans to repel an attack by a nonhemispheric power, particularly one tainted by Communism, was the highly-publicized reason for the United States’ emphasis on equipping and training Latin Americans, others assert that the United States’ main objective was to protect its economic interests in the region. Some of these economic interests included coffee in Central America (1), the Panama Canal agreements formalized in 1901, and the United Fruit Company and its subsidiary, the International Railways of Central America (IRCA).

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

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.

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.

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.

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)
  2. George Davies, ‘I’ll take the CIA torture suite’, The First Post, dated August 16, 2006, accessed August 14, 2006.
  3. 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)
  4. 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)
  5. 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)
  6. 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)
  7. "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)
  8. 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)
  9. 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)
  10. 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)
  11. 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)
  12. 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)
  13. 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)
  14. 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)
  15. 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)
  16. 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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