School of the Americas: The Spirited Campaign Against the SOA-WHINSEC Continues with Critics and Advocates to be Heard http://www.coha.org/school-of-the-americas-the-spirited-campaign-against-the-soa-whinsec-continues-with-critics-and-advocates-to-be-heard/#more-12456

The School of the Americas is an institution rarely spoken of in a positive light. This less-than-reputable academy was created at the beginning of the Cold War epoch as a U.S. military training facility for Latin America’s armed and police forces. The School of the Americas (SOA) would grow to become a magnet for negative criticism of United States policy and its reliance on local military regimes to keep leftist elements in check. The base was originally installed in Panama after World War II as a Latin American training center for U.S. ground forces, but broadened its mission and adopted a new name in 1963.

The institution moved to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984 after the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty, in part because of local pressure against having the U.S. sponsored facility remain in Panama.

The SOA operated until 2001 and trained over 61,000 soldiers and officers throughout its existence.A disturbingly large cluster of the school’s graduates have resurfaced over the years to gain notoriety for committing violent human rights abuses.Some were guilty of committing tortures, massacres, and other egregious human rights crimes during the “Dirty War” in Argentina or by government forces during El Salvador’s Civil War. Others eventually became legendary for their outrages at the command of oppressive Salvadoran, Bolivian, Guatemalan, and Brazilian regimes. The conduct of these tainted graduates earned the SOA a bleak reputation in both the U.S. and Latin America for producing human rights abusers who could be counted on to wreak havoc in their own countries.

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