Links Between Free Trade Policies and the School of the Americas
The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute
for Security Cooperation in 2001, is a combat training school for Latin
American soldiers located in Ft. Benning, Georgia. Run by the U.S. Army
since its beginning in 1946, it has trained more than 60,000 Latin American
soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, commando and psychological warfare,
military intelligence and interrogation tactics. The militaries have used
these skills to wage war against their own people, targeting educators,
labor leaders, 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 or forced
to be refugees by soldiers trained at the SOA.
The mission of the SOA has always been to protect interests of multinational
corporations and maintain the economic status quo for the rich and powerful
both in the U.S. and in Latin America. Implementation of "Free Trade" policies,
a.k.a. the economic repression of corporate globalization, could not be sustained
without a repressive military structure. Time after time, anyone who stands
in the way of the corporate agenda in Latin American countries is met with
brutal repression.The alumni of the SOA have usually been a part of these
incidents. Here are just a few examples:
Colombia--In 2002, 20 striking banana
workers were brutally murdered. Eight of the 11 Colombian military officers
charged in the slayings were SOA graduates, just some of the 10,000 Colombian
soldiers trained over the years at the SOA. Currently, Colombia is all
too frequently the scene of SOA-style repression, with countless similar
examples
of such violence.Argentina --In response to the recent economic crisis
brought on by free market reforms such as privatization and cuts in social
spending
and currency devaluation, Argentina erupted in December 2001 with massive
civil unrest and large demonstrations. The social movement's protests in
the following months were met with repression, and SOA graduates were implicated.
Argentina has a history of SOA grads acting with repressive
force, including the infamous dictator Leopoldo Galtieri who was responsible
for the Dirty
War.Bolivia--In 2000 the government sold the public water system of Cochabamba
to U.S. corporation Bechtel, which immediately doubled the price of water.
Thousands of citizens took to the streets to overturn the government's corrupt
deal with the company. SOA alumnus Hugo Banzer Suarez (SOA '88), then president
and former military dictator, sent out the armed forces to attack the protestors.
In April 2000, after Banzer declared a "state of siege," at least
8 people were killed and 100 injured in these protests.
El Salvador - In late
2002 into 2003 amid increasing protests against privatization of health
care and CAFTA negotiations, police in El Salvador are using repression to
silence
the opposition. In the ensuing wave of political violence in January 2003
one activist was killed and four were injured in a grenade attack. El Salvador's
military has notorious connections to the SOA going back to the 1980 massacre
of 900 villagers in El Mozote and, in the same year, the assassination
of Archbishop Romero as well as the 1989 massacre of the Jesuits . SOA grads
were the chief suspects in these cases and in atrocities and political
violence
throughout El Salvador's civil war. The current repression likely is linked
to SOA alumni who swell the ranks of the country's military.
|