SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS

Virtual Truth Commission

Telling the Truth for a Better America
School of the Americas Background

Location
The U. S. Army School of the Americas is located at Fort Benning, adjacent to Columbus, Georgia. See maps.

Mission

USARSA's mission is to provide doctrinally sound, relevant military education and training to the nations of Latin America; promote democratic values and respect for human rights; and foster cooperation among multinational military forces. School of the Americas Catalog

Human Rights and "Democratic Sustainment" courses are prominent in the course descriptions of those courses which are described on line. School of the Americas Catalog

Latin American soldiers at the SOA are not taught to defend their borders from invasion. They are taught to make war on their own people. Bill McNulty, Opposing the School of the Americas, February 1998
History

1946, established in Panama in 1946 with the stated objective of promoting stability in the region.

As a result of activities by its graduates, School acquired the nickname, "Escuela de Golpes", or "School of Coups".

1984. Under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty, School of the Americas forced out of Panama. At that time, President Jorge Illueca of Panama called it "the biggest base for destabilization in Latin America", and a major Panamanian newspaper dubbed it "The School of Assassins". Bill McNulty, Opposing the School of the Americas, February 1998.

Today the School is located at Fort Benning, Georgia. It trains nearly 2,000 soldiers from Latin America and the Caribbean each year in combat skills such as counterinsurgency operations, military intelligence, sniper fire, commando tactics, and psychological operations.

Graduates

The official School of the Americas Catalog lists the numbers of graduates from each country as of January 29, 1998:

Argentina.......................................................................................612
Barbados...........................................................................................1
Belize................................................................................................4
Bolivia.........................................................................................3681
Brazil.............................................................................................336
Chile.............................................................................................3182
Colombia.......................................................................................9171
Costa Rica.....................................................................................2379
Cuba.................................................................................................237
Dominican Republic......................................................................2499
Ecuador.........................................................................................3373
El Salvador....................................................................................6583
Guatemala.....................................................................................1544
Haiti...................................................................................................49
Honduras......................................................................................3724
Mexico...........................................................................................1259
Nicaragua......................................................................................4318
Panama.........................................................................................3631
Paraguay.......................................................................................1011
Peru...............................................................................................4344
Uruguay...........................................................................................961
Venezuela......................................................................................3310
United States................................................................................1503
Total ..........................................................................................57,712

The School of the Americas Watch site provides a complete list of graduates by name, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and provides details of "Notorious Graduates". Those Notorious Graduates who appear in the School of the Americas Hall of Fame, or who have been invited to be instructors at the SOA, are named under Seven Reasons to Close the School of the Americas

George W. Baldwin writes an account of a Nicaraguan woman who with her family had to flee for their lives to avoid the terrorism of the Contras who were trained and supported by the United States to make war on their own people in Nicaragua. • Share the information with other, making it part of worship, sermons, youth activities, United Methodist Men, United Methodist Women, telling families and friends.

Murder of Jesuit priests. A 1993 United Nations Truth Commission Report on El Salvador found that SOA graduates were responsible for the Nov. 16, 1989, massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter, as well as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. Source: University of Massachusetts University Reporter,News Story on Wooster Students at Washington and Fort Benning SOAW events.

SOA: ISSUES - Drugs

"The School of the Americas was the best place a Latin American military officer could go to launder his drug money. And we routinely had students at the school who were known human rights abusers, and it didnt make any difference to us."Major Joseph Blair, former Instructor. Major Joseph Blair, SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS An Insider Speaks Out" Order Form from SOAW

History of Efforts to Close School of the Americas

In 1983, Maryknoll priest Fr. Roy Bourgeois and 10 other peace activists began to investigate the school. Bourgeois is a a Vietnam-era combat veteran who had been kicked out of Bolivia for his work with the poor. In commemmoration of Archbishop Romero, he and two others sneaked on to Fort Benning and blasted the last speech of Archbishop Romero from a boombox to trainees from El Salvador. They were all arrested. Bourgeois was given 18 months in prison. Tom Johnson, Jennifer Harbury Letters & Information

School of the Americas Bill, 1996

On Feb 5, 1997, Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, II, introduced H. R. 611 which calls for the closure of the School of the Americas. The bill cites "some of the worst human rights abusers in our hemisphere, including:

El Salvador death squad leader Roberto D'Abuisson
Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manual Noriega
Haitian coup leader Raoul Cedras
19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter
Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, Guatemalan officer linked in the deaths of an American innkeeper
Hector Gramajo, former Guatemalan defense minister found liabile in United States court for abduction, rape, and torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz, a United States citizen.
Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, leader of the "dirty little war: responsible for the deaths of 30 civilians
Two of the three killers of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
Ten of the twelve officers responsible for the murder of 900 civilians in the El Salvadoran village of El Mozote.
Three of the five officers involved in the 1980 rape and murder of four United States churchwomen in El Salvador.
Current Status of HR 611 and S980, 1997-1998

Protests and Imprisonment
The school has been the target of protests since 1989, when activists learned some soldiers linked to the rape, torture and murder of priests and nuns in South America were graduates of the Fort Benning school. School officials say the school specifically teaches its students to honor human rights, and can't be responsible for the few graduates who disregard that training. Wayne Partride, "Judges rule Fort Benning can bar protesters," Opposing the School of the Americas, February 1998
The official School of the Americas site offers an account of a protest by SOA Watch activist desecrates National Historic Building during Religious Service
Supreme Court ruling on the issue of impartiality (§ 455(a)) of the judge trying Bourgeous and the Liteky brothers.
Dick Streb, Roanoke peace activist, goes to jail
1998 School of the Americas Vigil: A Personal Narrative, by Jackson H. Day

Congressional Oversight
The FY 98 Foreign Operations Act requires that the Secretary of Defense must
- 1. Certify to Congress that "instruction and training provided by the School of the Americas is fully consistent with training and doctrine, particularly with respect to the observance of human rights, provided ...to United States military personnel;
- 2. Certify to Congressthat the Secretary of State...has developed and issued specific guidelines governing the selection and screening of candidates...
- 3. Submit to the Committee on Appropriations a report detailing the training activities of the School of the Americas and a general assessment regarding the performance of its graduates during 1996."
On February 12, 1998, the Latin America Working Group, a project of the National Council of Churches, issued an analysis of the Secretary of Defense's School of the Americas Certification Report. LAWG objected to the Secretary's continued certification of the SOA, noting its "severe, ongoing problems in curriculum oversight, few changes in the school's standard curriculum and a complete lack of monitoring of SOA graduates. The LAWG provides excerpts from manuals currently in use at the SOA organized into three categories:
- "Excerpts, typical of the manuals as a whole [which] recommend that Latin American militaries preemptively infiltrate opposition parties, yough groups, unions, civil society organizations; use children, doctors and clergy as sources; take advantage of humanitarian aid programs; and view legal political campaigning as potentially subversive;"
- "Excerpts [which] recommend that Latin American militaries institute repressive, controlling measures over the local population, making black lists of suspected civilians, instituting checkpoints, ID cards, curfews and rationing systems, and enforcing measures through arrests and exile. There is absolutely no discussion in any of the manuals about a state of seige or other legal measures that would make such suspension of civil liberties and democratic guarantees lawful."
- "Excerpts [which] cite as indicators of guerrila control normal civilian activities such as celebrating religious festivals or hosting visitors to a town. if villagers are involved in any kind of protest or simply complain about the government or armed forces, or if they are fearful of sharing intelligence with or being associated with Latin American or U. S. military, they are viewed in these passages as being influenced by guerrilas. Many of the indicators listed are ways civilian population would normally act when afraid of a repressive military."
Eleven SOA Grads Among Chilean Officers Cited in Spanish Human Rights Case" On March 13, 1998, plaintiff lawyers Joan Garces and Manuel Murillo presented a writ to the Central Instruction Tribunal Number 6 of the Audencia Nacional in Spain in which they requested that Judge Manuel Garcia Castellon immediately indict Augusto Pinochet and 30 other high-ranking officials of the Chilean dictatorship for the crimes of genocide, terrorism, torture, and illegal arrest followed by disappearance. Eleven of those military officers are graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. They include:
- Ernesto Baeza Michelsen (Comando y Estado Mayor, 1964): Former head of Investigations Police who allegedly chose 50 members of his institution to take part in the action known as Covem, in which 14 people were arrested. Of the 14, one, a journalism student, Eduardo Jara died as a consequence of the torture he received.
- Humberto Gordon Rubio (Infantry Weapons, Operaciones y Mantenamiento de Radio, Tank Gunnery Course, 1954-1955): Former head of the CNI secret police and also former member of the military Junta.
- Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann (Basic Airborne Course, 1965): Head of the DINA's international operations. According to testimony by Luz Arce (ex political prisoner arrested by the DINA secret police, who later became a DINA collaborator) Iturriaga and other officers of the DINA used political prisoners that had been tortured into collaborators as secretaries and analysts in their offices.
- Miguel Krassnoff Marchenko (Containsurgencia Urbana, 1974): Former member of the DINA, known by political prisoners held and tortured at Villa Grimaldi, Tres Alamos and Cuatro Alamos. Implicated in the death by torture of former Spanish diplomat Carmelo Soria in 1976. Took part in the assault on the residence of former president Salvador Allende who was deposed by the Army in Sept. 1973. Known for his violent treatment of prisoners.
- Fernando Laureani Maturana (Combat Arms Orientation, 1971): Former DINA member. Implicated in the 1974 kidnapping and disappearance of brothers Juan Carlos and Jorge Elias Andronico Antequera, Lauriani's was one of the few cases of military crimes to be tried after Pinochet's brutal dictatorship. Unfortunately, Pinochet brought all of his influence to bear and the case was finally handed to a military court, which absolved Lauriani and closed the case.
- Odlanier Mena (Comando y Estado Mayor, 1970): First head of the CNI secret police. Luz Arce, a political prisoner who was tortured by DINA officials, testified that Mena offered her freedom in exchange for working three years as a spy for the DINA.
- Guillermo Salinas Torres (Contrainsurgencia Urbana, 1974): Linked to the assassination of Spanish citizen Carmelo Soria.
- Other SOA graduates that face charges in the Spanish court case include: Pablo Belmar Labbe (Basico/ Orientacion para oficiales, 1968) Washington Carrasco Fernandez (Contra-Resistencia, Informacion Militar para Oficiales, 1961) and Rene Patricio Quilhot Palma (Combat Arms Orientation, 1971).
Source: Michael Katz-Lacabe at SOA Watch Continue Additional School of the Americas

Virtual Truth Commission: Telling the Truth for a Better America
Home Page | Countries | Multinationals | Names | Dates | Topics | Allies
SOA Summary | SOA Background | Reasons To Close | SOA Atrocities | Torture Manuals
SOA Opponents | SOA Defenders | Sign Guestbook | View Guestbook | Translation Service
SOA Watch Sites: | Home | FAQs | Manuals | News

Titles "Virtual Truth Commission" and "Telling the Truth for a Better America" © 1998, Jackson H. Day. All Rights Reserved. This site supports the work of School of the Americas Watch but is not affiliated with it.
The Virtual Truth Commission site is the endeavor of one person. As he finds them, links to published material on the web are provided by country, date, and name. This will start small but hopefully increase in usefulness over time. Others are encouraged to start similar web sites. Reference anything from these pages that you wish; the more sites that contain this material, the more it will enter into public consciousness and make a positive difference for change.
Contact Jack Day, Webmaster

Updated February 27, 1999
This page hosted by Get your own, Free Homepage