To the Editor of West By Northwest:

I am writing with appreciation that a reporter from the Register Guard was present at our protest on January 17 to urge the closing of the Army School of the Americas, and that there was an article in the local daily paper the following day. On that day, there were demonstrations in 35 cities, in Germany, Canada, Austria, Chile, Honduras, as well as the United States. In late December, perhaps responding to an outcry of thousands around the world, the notorious Army School of the Americas was closed, with much media outreach. On January 17, it was reopened under a new name: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

This school was founded in 1946, and has been located at Fort Benning in Georgia since 1984. It trains Latin American troops in commando tactics, military intelligence, and psychological operations. For a number of years, there has been a requirement that human rights be taught, but this has been a low priority of students. The bulk of the instructors are Latin American military officers. In 1996, a White House report revealed the existence of training manuals used at the SOA that advocated torture, execution, and blackmail. This school costs U.S. taxpayers between $10 and $20 million annually.

Numerous international human rights groups, including United Nations truth commissions, Amnesty International, and Americas Watch, have documented the involvement and leadership of SOA graduates in atrocities, from the assassination of Archbishop Romero and the El Mozote massacre of 900 in El Salvador, in the 1980's, to the current relationship between the military, including SOA graduates, and paramilitary atrocities in Colombia. SOA troops have used their skills against their own people. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced into refuge. Yet the Army School of the Americas has never admitted to its legacy of torture and oppression nor taken responsibility for the actions of its notorious graduates. Will there be dramatic changes with this new name? The late Senator Paul Coverdell, an SOA supporter, said that the changes would just be "cosmetic." Rep. Maxine Walters said, "Cold War, Drug War, whatever they call it, it is still a war against the poor."

Peg Morton

See companion piece - Area Report from the Annual Vigil to Close the School of the Americas