Protest SOA’s teaching of human rights abuses
by Sarah Brown-Anson
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, more commonly known by its name until 2001, the School of the Americas (SOA), is a military training center in Ft. Benning, a United States Army installation located outside of Columbus, Ga. Each year around 1,000 soldiers and military leaders from Latin America receive training from the U.S. government there, and have done so since the SOA moved to Ft. Bennington from Panama in 1984. Soldiers are trained in police, military and counterinsurgency techniques. Since 1946, over 60,000 Latin Americans have been trained at this school, and many have gone on to commit human rights abuses in their home countries. According the organization School of the Americas Watch, which has advocated for the closure of the school since the group’s formation in 1990, the SOA has graduated at least 11 Latin American dictators. It is not just a coincidence that so many atrocities have been committed by SOA graduates; for years human rights abuses have been taught at the school. In 1996, the pentagon released training manuals that were used at the SOA that advocated illegal activities such as executions, torture and blackmail.
Most recently, the School of the Americas Watch has reported on the role of graduates of the SOA in the military coup in Honduras. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran military, General Romeo Vásquez, and the head of the Honduran Air Force, General Luis Prince Suazo, who are both graduates of the School of the Americas, have both been instrumental forces in the coup that overthrew democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya.
Amnesty International is a not-for-profit organization that strives to defend the human rights of all individuals. We believe that all of the approximately 275 military schools that train foreign soldiers in the U.S. should be closed, including the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. We view the training schools as a part of the larger problem of inappropriate U.S. intervention in foreign countries, especially in Latin America.
Earlham College’s Amnesty International student group is partnering with a group of concerned students, the Earlham SOA Team, to sponsor a trip to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in Ft. Benning, Ga, for the annual protest that is organized by School Of the Americas Watch. This is a large protest that draws thousands of people each year, and participants can be part of performances, training in nonviolent tactics, direct action and non-arrestable and low-risk protesting. The group from Earlham College will leave Friday, Nov. 20 and return to Earlham on Sunday, Nov. 22. Anyone is welcome to take part. An information session will be held Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 pm in LBC 317. Please contact Rachel Dana (rsdana07), Chris Perbix (cjperbix09) or Eva Marengo Sanchez (emmaren09) to get involved, or for more information.
Information obtained from:
http://soaw.org/type.php?type=8
http://soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=851
http://www.soaw.org/site/pressrelease.php?id=144
http://www.amnestyusa.org/arms-trade/military-training-and-human-rights/the-training-schools/page.do?id=1101476
Sarah Brown-Anson is a freshman undeclared major and can be reached at sbrown09@earlham.edu.
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