School of the Americas: "New Name, Same Shame", Summer 2000
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School of the Americas: "New Name, Same Shame"
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on May 18 to close the controversial Army School of the Americas (SOA) located at Ft. Benning, Georgia. But Congress also voted to establish yet another military school — the Defense Institute for Hemispheric Security Cooperation, which will operate like the SOA and be located at Ft. Benning. Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-MA) tried to defeat the Pentagon proposal with an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill, but the House rejected the bi-partisan amendment.
Critics call the Pentagon plan a cosmetic name change with no attempt to address the growing public outcry and congressional concern over the SOA's link to human rights atrocities in Latin America. SOA alumni include Salvadoran death squad leader, Roberto D'Aubuisson and Guatemalan Col. Lima Estrada, arrested in January for the assassination of human rights champion, Bishop Juan Gerardi. In 1998, assassins beat Gerardi to death with a brick just days after he released a human rights report critical of the Guatemalan Army.
The bi-partisan task force called for in the Moakley amendment would have evaluated the effect of U.S. military training on the human rights performance of Latin American soldiers. Commando and combat courses have been core curricula at the SOA and critics believe that the training contributes to human rights atrocities. Salvadoran soldiers cited by a United Nations Truth Commission for the commando-style massacre of six Jesuit priests and their two women co-workers had just completed the SOA commando course.
"Congress may have been fooled, but the people are not. The SOA has a new name, but the same shame. We will be at Ft. Benning by the thousands again this November, and we will be in the halls of the new Congress in January. We will keep coming back until we shut down the 'School of Assassins' — whatever they call it," promised Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Carol Richardson who head up the ten year effort to close the SOA.
Source: SOA Watch , 202-234-3440 , www.soaw.org
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