WILL OBAMA CLOSE THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS?

COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 26 Feb 2009

Chris Steele

Barack Obama has not had much to say about closing the School of the Americas since he signed the order to close Guantanamo Bay but since the annual SOA protest last November in Georgia maybe he will change his mind. The demonstration to promote advocacy and to close the School of the Americas was from February 15-17 2009 in Washington, DC. At the annual SOA protest last November six protesters were sentenced to federal prison for non-violent direct action to close the SOA. One of the human rights advocates sentenced to prison was Denver’s Theresa Cusimano.      
 
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation formerly known as the School of the Americas is infamous for their human rights violations. The SOA is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers located in Fort Benning, Georgia. Jorge Illueca former Panamanian president called the SOA the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA hit national headlines in 1989 when six Jesuit priests and two others were murdered in El Salvador by death squads that were trained in the United States by the SOA.
 
The SOA/WHINSEC has educated dictators such as Bolivia’s Hugo Banzer, the convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles and many of Augustus Pinochet’s officers. Many criticize the SOA because American tax payer dollars are going towards printing up manuals that teach torture, repression and murder.  
 
President Obama recently closed Guantanamo Bay so many are wondering if he will close the School of the Americas. Obama closed Guantanamo to stop the spread of anti-Americanism and because it was not swiftly prosecuting terrorists.

Obama had this to say about closing Guantanamo, “We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution." Many activists claim that the SOA spreads anti-Americanism, produces terrorists and does not abide by the constitution. Democrat Dennis Kucinich and republican Ron Paul both advocate the closing of the SOA/WHINSEC.  
 
Obama highly criticized the Bush administration and how they ignored human rights. Obama also blamed the Bush administration for hurting the United State’s credibility with countries from around the world including Pakistan, Iraq, Darfur and Zimbabwe.

In Obama’s speech “America ‘Has Vacated the Perch of Moral Leader” he said, “Let me close by saying that the very depth of the anti-Americanism felt around the world today is a testament not to hatred but to disappointment, acute disappointment. The global public expects more from America.

They expect our government to embody what they have seen in our people: industriousness, humanity, generosity, and a commitment to equality. We can become that country again.” If Obama hopes to become that country again he can make a great leap by closing institutes that use US tax dollars to train soldiers who have been convicted of terrorism, rape and murder all throughout Latin America.           
 
According to www.soaw.org, “Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people.

Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.”
 
In 2007 the McGovern/Lewis Amendment was six votes away from stopping all funding to the School of the Americas. With this week’s march on Washington, DC and increased pressure from protests maybe this will get Obama’s approval to close the School of the Americas. With the recent closure of Guantanamo Bay humans rights activists are hopeful President Obama will close the infamous school. It was highly discussed and requested on his transition website www.change.gov so it just may get some attention this year.

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