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Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

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Official seal of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

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 Department of Defense facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. Its motto is Libertad, Paz y Fraternidad (Liberty, Peace and Brotherhood). The school has a controversial history of teaching the techniques of torture, and according to UN commissions, many of its graduates have been linked to the most egregious human rights crimes perpetrated in the western hemisphere, who were trained at the school at U.S. taxpayer expense. Because of this, the school has been reorganized as the WHINSEC, and 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.

The institute teaches primarily in the Spanish language, especially for Latin American 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 National Defense Authorization Act.

History

File:Soa logo.gif
Former logo of the School of Americas

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 Panama Canal Treaties. More than 61,000 officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers have graduated from or attended courses at these U. S. Army schools.

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.

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 WHINSEC 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. Professor Gareau argues that the School of the Americas 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.

Graduates of the SOA include men such as Hugo Banzer Suárez, Leopoldo Galtieri, Manuel Noriega, 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".

Defenders argue that no school should be held accountable for the actions of only some of its graduates.

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 School of the Americas in 2004. On March 28, 2006, the government of Argentina, headed by 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 WHINSEC. In 2007, Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica, 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 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.

Opposition in Congress

Representative Jim McGovern and 123 co-sponsors introduced a bill to abolish the school in 109th Congress. The bill was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, but never made it to consideration before the full house. Representative McGovern has since reintroduced the bill in the 110th Congress with 112 cosponsors. The bill is currently pending before the Committee on Armed Services.

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 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 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.


Changes

As a result of the controvery, after the legal authorization for the former School of the Americas was repealed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was established.

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

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.

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.

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."

According to the website for the Center for International Policy , 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' 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')."

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. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  4. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  5. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  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. Gareau, Frederick H. (2004). State Terrorism and the United States. London: Zed Books. pp. pp22-25 and pp61-63. ISBN 1-84277-535-9. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. 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. http://www.ciponline.org/facts/soa.htm.
  12. 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)
  13. 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)
  14. 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)
  15. 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)
  16. 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)
  17. 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)
  18. 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)
  19. The Library of Congress. "H.R. 1707". Retrieved July 7. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Text "/bss/d110query.html" ignored (help)
  20. 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)
  21. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  22. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  23. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. "FAQ".
  25. 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)
  26. National Lawyers Guild Calls for Immediate Extradition of Luis Posada to Venezuela, NLG press release, April 20, 2005. Accessed 24 February 2007.
  27. George Davies, ‘I’ll take the CIA torture suite’, The First Post, dated August 16, 2006, accessed August 14, 2006.

Further reading

See also

External links

Official government websites

Other websites

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