School of the Americas Protest

SOA FACTS

  Note: SOA is now referred to as WHISC (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation)

What is the School of the Americas or WHISC?

The School of the Americas (SOA) is a US Army training school that trains soldiers and military personnel from Latin American countries in subjects like counter-insurgency, infantry tactics, military intelligence, counter-narcotics operations, and commando operations. This training is funded by US taxpayers, and all of the training is conducted in Spanish. Most of the classes are taught by Latin American instructors. According to the SOA itself, more than 60,000 members of Latin American militaries have attended the SOA since its inception in 1946.

What is the history of the SOA?

The School of the Americas was first established as the U.S. Army Caribbean Training Center in Panama in 1946 to help professionalize Latin American and Caribbean militaries. In 1963, under President John F. Kennedy's Alliance for Progress, the training center was renamed the School of the Americas. Along with the name change, the School changed to a Cold War focus. In 1984, the school was forced to move from Panama to Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia, under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaties.

Why do you want to close the SOA?

SOA graduates have included many of the most notorious human rights abusers from Latin America.  SOA graduates have led military coups and are responsible for massacres of hundreds of people.  Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia.

SOA graduates were responsible for the Uraba massacre in Colombia, the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians in El Salvador, the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, and the Jesuit massacre in El Salvador, the La Cantuta massacre in Peru, the torture and murder of a UN worker in Chile, and hundreds of other human rights abuses.

In September 1996, under intense pressure from religious and grassroots groups, the Pentagon released seven Spanish-language training manuals used at the SOA until 1991. The New York Times reported, "Americans can now read for themselves some of the noxious lessons the United States Army taught thousands of Latin Americans... [The SOA manuals] recommended interrogation techniques like torture, execution, blackmail and arresting the relatives of those being questioned."

What can I do to help close the SOA?

Call/write/fax/email your elected representative and ask him/her to support HR 1810, Rep. McGovern's bill to close the SOA/WHISC.

Tell your friends, family, and everybody you know and meet to do the same. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper and urge others to support closing the SOA.   Organize a local educational event or action.

http://www.soaw.org/home.html

Pictures
Nov. 15, 2002

Click here to download high-resolution pictures.