The School of the Americas (SOA) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers that was initially established in Panama in 1946. Since 1984, when it relocated after the Panamanian President demanded “the biggest base for destabilization in Latin America” leave, it has been based at Fort Benning, Georgia. The school, frequently called the “School of Assassins,” was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001—its former name was tarnished by released torture manuals and graduates guilty of human rights abuses. Since its inception, the SOA/WHINSEC has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers—many of whom have now been linked to massacres, torture, rape, and military coups. SOA/WHINSEC-trained members of the Honduran army are responsible for the recent coup of democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya’s government.
The School of the Americas Watch is an organization founded in 1990 by Father Roy Bourgeois, a priest who was enraged after spending four years in dictator-run Bolivia in the 1970s and hearing of the rape and murder of four Catholic Sisters by members of the Salvadorian National Guard. SOA Watch describes itself as “a nonviolent grassroots movement that works to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America and the Caribbean, to close the SOA/WHINSEC, and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the SOA represents.” Eric Lecompte, National Director for School of the America’s Watch, came to speak at M.E.Ch.A.’s Día De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) program. After his speech detailing the history of the SOA and the atrocities of its graduates, the DFP had a chance to ask him a few questions:
How did you first hear about School of the Americas?
I first learned about the School of the Americas [when] I was a high school student on the south side of Chicago. There were people from Illinois in the mid 1990s that were going down to be a part of this demonstration that was taking place at the gates of Fort Benning. So, I started to hear about it in the media in Illinois, and as a result I began to do more research. Shortly after I had an opportunity to take a trip down to Latin America and learn from people first hand about what the school was doing there.
What would you say the most common defense of the SOA is that you’ve heard?
What I’ve heard essentially is to fight communism, fight drugs, fight terrorism, and to promote democracy. Those are the things I’ve heard from those that are proponents [and] supporters of the school.
When you directly bring up SOA graduate’s involvement in massacres, what do these proponents have to say?
Honestly some of the responses are “that’s a few bad apples.” That’s some of the response. When I’ve talked very candidly with people from the Pentagon or the State Department, even in the last few weeks, they’ll say things like “well, you know those people they’ve killed are liberation theologians.” So, it’s a mindset difference —that either that these atrocities are taking place happen at the hands of a few bad apples or that somehow those who’ve been the victims had it coming to them.
How do you find out who graduates from SOA?
Well up until 1995 (sic) [2005] we would issue a Freedom of Information Act request every year and we would get a list of all the names. Sometimes even the school just handed over the names to us. But starting in 1995 (sic) [2005] they would black out all the names so we wouldn’t be able to receive them. For the past four years we don’t have a clear record of the graduates.
Does the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation claim to no longer use the torture manuals?
Yeah, I mean essentially that is a part of what they say: that they are no longer using those manuals and that the school doesn’t exist for that purpose anymore. But what they are very clear about is that the school still does teach counter-insurgency warfare, which is what we’re concerned with—it’s warfare taking place among a civilian population. [This] leads to the question in these countries that have such incredible needs for humanitarian aid, such need for constitutional reform, democratic reform, judicial reform, why is so much money being vested in their militaries? We’re not going to read tomorrow morning in The Globe that Guatemala and Mexico have gone to war with each other, so why do they have these huge militaries? The reality of it is that these militaries [are] to be used internally not externally.
You said in your speech that six countries had withdrawn their troops from training at the School of the Americas, or WHINSEC. Which were those?
Costa Rica, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, and Argentina have all totally pulled out. Chile, number 7, has done a 2/3 troop withdrawal.
And which countries still have parts of their military in training at the SOA?
Well, not all the rest [of the Latin American countries], but most of them.
Does your organization try to convince Congressmen and women to vote against the funding of WHINSEC?
We do. We have a bill in Congress right now [H.R. 2567] that has 84 members of Congress as cosponsors, including Jim McGovern, that’s 85. We also advocate for cuts in the funding of the school. We’re [also] trying to work with the [Obama] Administration to get an executive order to close the school.
In the past, who are the Congressmen and women that have opposed shutting down or defunding the SOA? Have they been mainly Democrats, Republicans, or a mixture?
We’ve had a mix. The reality of it is its mostly been Democrats [supporting the closure of the SOA], but on funding counts we’ve always been able to count on about 30 Republicans to be voting with us. The leaders of our current bill in Congress are Jim McGovern from Massachusetts—he’s really the champion—but also John Lewis from Georgia is a big supporter. We also have a few Republicans [supporting the current bill]; we have four or five Republicans signed on including Ron Paul, who are calling [for] the school’s closure.
Check out SOA Watch’s website—soaw.org—to find out more about the bill in Congress to suspend operations at SOA. Also learn how to participate in their annual protest at the gates of Fort Benning, coming up on November 20th.
