Close the SOA!
»Sign Up to Travel to Fort Benning, GA for the
National Rally and Vigil to Close the SOA, Nov. 16-19
The Pentagon’s School of the Americas (SOA) has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in civilian-targeted warfare tactics since it opened in Panama in 1946. SOA graduates have been responsible for torture, murder, and other human rights atrocities, including the 1980 murders of Cleveland’s Jean Donovan and Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel in El Salvador.
The purpose of the School of the Americas is, and has always been, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries. Countries with the worst human rights record have consistently sent the most soldiers to be trained at the SOA. For example: Bolivia during the reign of terror of General Banzer; Nicaragua during the Somoza family dictatorship; El Salvador during the period of bloodiest repression; and currently Colombia. Furthermore, International Reports have documented the following:
United Nations Truth Commission Report:
This report on El Salvador cites over 60 Salvadoran officers as committing the worst atrocities during that country’s brutal civil war. Over two-thirds of those named were alumni of the SOA.
For example:
19 of 26 cited for the assassination of 6 Jesuit priests.
10 of 12 cited for the massacre of over 900 at El Mozote.
2 of 3 cited for the assassination of Archbishop Romero.
3 of 5 cited for the murder of 4 U.S. church women (two from Cleveland
3 of 3 cited for the murder of union leaders.
“State Terrorism in Colombia”
This Human Rights Watch report is the definitive work on Colombian military officials responsible for violations in that country. Of the 247 cited, 124 were SOA graduates.
For example:
3 cited for the Trujillo “chainsaw” massacre of 107 villagers.
9 cited for the Segovia massacre of 43, many were children.
8 cited for the Uraba massacre of 20 striking banana workers.
U.S. State Department Reports
Since 1998, the US State Department has cited SOA graduates as being responsible for carrying out human rights abuses in Colombia, including massacres of civilians and raids on human rights offices.
Colombia and the SOA
- Colombia has the highest number of SOA-trained soldiers, AND the worst human rights record in the Americas.
- Hundreds flee their homes & 10 civilians die from the political violence each day.
- In the 1980s, Central American soldiers topped enrollment at the SOA. They had the worst human rights record
- Today, Colombia tops SOA/WHINSEC enrollment AND human rights abuses.
- Colombia is one of the top recipients of US military training in the world!
- Since 2000, the US has sent over $3 billion to fund the war in Colombia. In 2004, Congress doubled the cap on U.S. troops in Colombia, now raised to 800 + 600 advisors.
Trained at the SOA, many soldiers & officers of the Colombian military (and former soldiers now with the paramilitaries) are responsible for human rights abuses—including assassinations—against civilians.
The Colombian military is linked to the paramilitary death squads—as documented by the US State Department. The paramilitaries are responsible for the majority of civilian massacres.
February 2005: SOA graduate Gen. Hector Fandiño’s 17th Army Brigade is suspected in the San José de Apartadó massacre of 3 children and 5 adults.
June 2002: Colombian police arrested SOA grad John Fredy Jiménez for the murder of Archbishop Isaías Duarte.
1999: SOA graduates Army Captain Juan Carlos Fernández López and Colonel Víctor Matamoros are indicted after paramilitaries massacred 145 people in La Gabarra, Norte de Santander.
1998: The 20th military brigade is disbanded for human rights abuses. The commander was SOA graduate Paucelino Latorre Gamboa
“Every known terrorist camp must be shut down”
Contrary to the “War on Terrorism” propaganda and that “every known terrorist training camp must be shut down,” the United States government has been training terrorists at this school for years—and is still at it. The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Assassins.
The SOA re-located from Panama to Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia, in 1984. In 1996, the SOAWatch movement successfully forced the Pentagon to release training manuals that were used at the School of the Americas. These manuals advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution. The New York Times reported, “America can now read for themselves some of the noxious lessons the United States Army taught thousands of Latin Americans.”
These SOA training manuals advocate targeting those who…
- support “union organizing or recruiting”
- distribute “propaganda in favor of the interest of workers”
- “sympathize with demonstrations or strikes”
- make “accusations that the government has failed to meet the basic needs of the people”
New Name, Same Shame
Although the Pentagon “closed” the SOA in December 2000, they re-opened it a month later under a new name: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). However, A 2002 report released by Amnesty International, “Unmatched Power, Unmet Principles,” called for a suspension of training at the SOA/WHINSEC and for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the school. Amnesty refutes the claim that the WHINSEC is a new institution, stating WHINSEC “is essentially the same school as SOA, with the same primary mission conveying military skills to members of Latin American armed forces.” Changes at the school “do not absolve the US government of responsibility for identifying and prosecuting those responsible for past human rights violations perpetrated by the SOA…The independent commission of inquiry should recommend appropriate reparations for any violations of human rights to which training at SOA contributed, including criminal prosecutions, redress for victims and their families, and a public apology.”
This notorious “School of Assassins” is funded by U.S. tax dollars. The mission of this “new school” is to promote democracy. Couldn’t the US better promote democracy by de-funding military training and increasing support for economic development, public administration, civilian human rights training and judicial reform? Today, soldiers from Colombia top enrollment at the SOA. With the highest number of SOA/WHINSEC-trained soldiers on active duty in all of Latin America, why does Colombia have the worst human rights record in this hemisphere? Why are there well-documented links of collaboration between the Colombian military and right-wing paramilitary death squads?
Keeping the SOA open, with its long, bloody history, is an insult to the people of Latin America and to the memories of the thousands who have died at the hands of SOA-trained soldiers. To begin to wipe the blood from our hands and to start a new era in US relations with Latin America, we must Close the SOA!
Join the IRTF to speak truth to power outside the gates of Fort Benning.
Each November, hundreds from Ohio—high school and college students and people of all ages—join thousands from across the hemisphere at Fort Benning, Georgia, for a peaceful and reverent protest against US military training and the School of the Americas. Hundreds have risked arrest through civil disobedience. “Crossing the line” onto the army base, they carry coffins and crosses bearing the names of the murdered and disappeared. Those choosing legal protest place crosses, photos and flowers in the fence to create a memorial wall. Please consider joining us in this powerful, transformative experience. The SOA vigil has been the largest annual peace gathering in the United States since the Vietnam War.
More Information
- SOA Watch - an organization seeking to close the US Army School of the Americas through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work.
- Banner photograph by crazbabe21 on Flickr of 2006 School of the Americas protest
http://www.flickr.com/photos/crazbabe21/2303237471/ - Drawings throughout article by Rini Templeton, available on RiniArt.org
- Other site acknowledgements