News
Agency New Colombia*
Nyhetsbyrån
Nya Colombia * Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia
* Agence
de nouvelles Nueva Colombia *
Agenzia di Notizie Nueova Colombia * Nachrichtenagentur Neues Kolombien
Asociated
members of FELAP, Federación Latinoamericana de Periodistas
E-mail:
ann.col@swipnet.se
[NOTE: Colombia by far has the largest group of graduates
from the School of Assassins. Indeed, the Colombian security forces have
one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere. Millions of U.S.
tax-dollars contribute to the bloodshed in Colombia and to the training
of assassins. -DG]
"Some (graduates) have done bad things," said Custodia Garcia,
a young Colombian navy cadet. "But there have been many who did good things."
Colombian police agent Alexander Castallanos, who is attending the school's
11-week Commando Course, said he will use the military tactics to pursue
drug traffickers in his homeland.
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Sunday, 14 November 1999
School of Americas:
Pariah or protector?
By Richard Whitt
COLUMBUS, Georgia -- Of all the battles the U.S. Army has waged,
a tiny one at the front gate of its huge infantry training center in Columbus
has been among the hardest to win.
Led by a charismatic missionary priest with the zeal of George Patton,
the rebelliousness of a teenager and the patience of Job, a swelling army
of protesters has waged a 10-year war to close the Army's School of the
Americas at Fort Benning. They say the school has been a training ground
for Latin American dictators and assassins. Even if it no longer performs
that function, they say, its history of silent support for dictators and
their henchmen demands that the school be closed.
The group, which hopes to muster 12,000 demonstrators for four days
of events beginning Thursday, may know nothing about battlefield tactics,
but it is shrewd in handling public opinion. A decade of intense pressure
has forced the Army to look at further changes in the School of the Americas.
Army Secretary Louis Caldera said last month that officials are considering
moving the school from Fort Benning and changing its name, course offerings
and student mix because of continuing resentment and protests.
The annual protest is roughly scheduled to commemorate the Nov. 16,
1989, murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 15-year-old
daughter in El Salvador. Of the 26 soldiers identified by a United Nations
truth commission as being involved in the killings, 19 were SOA graduates.
This year some 1,500 students from Jesuit high schools and colleges
will gather at a tent at Riverfront Park for a teach-in on peace and nonviolence.
Among the speakers will be the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who
led many anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam conflict. The demonstration
usually attracts a smattering of entertainers, including Martin Sheen,
who plays the president of the United States in a weekly television series.
While opponents have long contended the school teaches torture, evidence
of that is scant and inconclusive.
Critics cite intelligence manuals used at the school that contain references
to repressive tactics that violate Army doctrine and United States codes,
and statements by a few graduates who claim they were taught torture techniques.
They point to thousands of dead and "disappeared" civilians as additional
evidence of the violence inspired by SOA-trained military.
School officials respond that the "torture manuals," written by U.S.
Army intelligence officers in Panama and handed out to a handful of students
as supplemental reading, were removed in 1991, as soon as they were discovered.
Also, more emphasis on human rights components was added to all courses
after federal reports in 1995 and 1996 recommended it.
Opponents claim that about 500 of 60,000 graduates have been implicated
in atrocities, but Army brass say it is unfair to blame the school for
"bad apples." Among them: Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and Roberto
D'Aubuisson, who planned and ordered the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop
Oscar Romero in 1980.
There also are graduates who have brought acclaim to the school, including
two colonels --- Armin Lopez Pelaez of Chile and Luis Alberto Coquet of
Argentina --- who played key roles in negotiating a peace agreement between
Peru and Ecuador.
"It's tremendously valuable for U.S. foreign policy in promoting democracy
and U.S. economic interests in Latin America," said Col. Glenn Weidner,
the school commandant. "Militaries are a part of that equation."
But the debate --- and the annual demonstration --- goes on. Over the
years, the protest has grown from about a dozen people to an event so large
that this year's event, expected to bring 10,000 to 12,000 demonstrators,
will likely be the largest single gathering of the year in this west Georgia
city on the Chattahoochee River.
The protest may be about allegations of torture, but the demonstrators'
economic impact --- estimated this year at nearly $ 7 million --- is not
lost on local tourism promoters. For the first time, the city's Convention
and Tourist Bureau is coordinating hotel accommodations, and Delta Air
Lines again is offering a travel discount.
A 10-year crusade
Careful to note that he is speaking only in a business context, tourism
deputy director Peter Bowden said:
"When it comes down to dollars and cents, we love it."
But it is not about dollars and cents on the civilian side of the boundary
line marked in white that separates base property from the protest area.
It is about what opponents say is a Cold War relic.
"This school brings soldiers from countries struggling for food, housing,
medicine, schools. They come down the road to Fort Benning, Georgia, and
they learn how to be commandos, develop combat skills. People are asking
'How is this going to heal the suffering of the poor?' " said Maryknoll
priest Roy Bourgeois, a 60-year-old former Navy officer who has spent 10
years crusading to close the school. Bourgeois has spent more than four
years in prison for crimes arising from his protests against the school.
"Early on, we learned that they could send us to prison but they couldn't
silence us," he said.
After each of his federal prison terms, Bourgeois has returned to a
tiny two-room apartment a few steps from the fort's main gate to continue
his crusade.
He is convinced that the school is a rogue operation that has taught
repression and torture.
"Is there Torture 101 class? No. Was there torture taught there? Yes,
indeed. You bet," he said.
Bourgeois said he has interviewed three SOA graduates --- from Uruguay,
Paraguay and Honduras --- who said they were taught torture techniques
when the school was in Panama. It moved to Fort Benning in 1984.
Bourgeois said he doesn't know whether the school teaches torture now,
but he knows it is not critical of graduates who use it.
"Rather than calling for their prosecution, they have called for our
prosecution," he said. "They have come at us asking for the maximum sentence
- -- and that to me says it all."
Because so many graduates have been implicated in rape and murders,
opponents have labeled it "School of the Assassins."
U.S. Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-Mass.), who investigated the assassination
of the six Jesuits in El Salvador, said he believes the school has changed
from its early days. "I think they're trying to clean it up," Moakley said.
The Army, dug in and determined, has no intention of closing the school,
but it did say last month it was considering moving the school in the face
of recurring bad publicity. Both sides now view the demonstration more
as an annual chapter in the debate about the future direction of U.S. foreign
policy in Latin America than being about soldiers studying human rights
in Army classrooms.
Civil disobedience tactics
The protesters who will gather here differ from many others in protest
movements across America in size, tenacity and methods: Protesters receive
civil disobedience training, adhere strictly to nonviolence, and many bless
the Army officers who take them into custody.
Sheen again is expected to participate. The actor led more than 2,000
protesters onto the fort's property last year and was among those detained.
It was his first SOA protest, although he has known Bourgeois for five
years.
About half of those who gather will cross a line on the pavement marking
the base boundary. If history repeats, they will be intercepted by military
police, herded onto waiting buses, driven several miles off the base and
released. Most won't be cited. About 100 are planning unspecified "high
risk" actions that could lead to arrest and prosecution.
Until last year, the Army vigorously prosecuted protesters and many
have been imprisoned.
Once, Bourgeois and colleagues entered the school and spattered their
own blood on pictures of "distinguished graduates."
Another time, they climbed a tall pine tree outside a barracks that
held Salvadoran soldiers. From the pine tree, they played a taped speech
by Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in which he had pleaded with soldiers
to lay down their weapons.
The school's beginnings
The School of the Americas was started in Panama in 1946 with the aim of
establishing better ties with and improving professionalism of Latin American
militaries.
With the Cold War came a gradual shift in emphasis to counter-insurgency
against leftist guerrillas.
Russell Ramsey, who has taught at the school since 1960, said he started
the first counter-insurgency course at the direction of then-Attorney General
Robert Kennedy. At the time, leftist guerrillas were fighting established
governments throughout Central America.
"I was 24 or 25 years old," Ramsey said. "I flew to Fort Bragg and here
came Bobby and Teddy (Kennedy). It was made clear that this was to be a
doctrine to eliminate focused resistance.
"In March 1961, I came back (from Fort Bragg) filled with the Kennedy
doctrine. It was impressive, humanistic, about nation-building and civilian
control," he said.
Current students said the school dishes out a heavy dose of human rights
training and shouldn't be blamed for atrocities committed by graduates.
"Some (graduates) have done bad things," said Custodia Garcia, a young
Colombian navy cadet. "But there have been many who did good things."
Colombian police agent Alexander Castallanos, who is attending the school's
11-week Commando Course, said he will use the military tactics to pursue
drug traffickers in his homeland.
The budget battle
The commando course, now called Small-Unit Tactical Leader Course, was
modified this year to include training for law enforcement as well as soldiers.
"It's important training for police officers because it's leadership
training," Castallanos said.
Castallanos said he is aware of the controversy surrounding the school
but dismissed its critics. The school doesn't teach any terrorist tactics,
he said. On the contrary, it teaches respect for human rights, he said.
While the Kennedy brothers may have been advocates of the school in
the 1960s, a member of a younger Kennedy generation is on the other side.
Bobby Kennedy's oldest son, former U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy II, was a leading
advocate in Congress for legislation to close the school.
In July, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230-197 to strip $
2 million from the school's scholarship funds for foreign soldiers.
The money was later restored in conference committee, but the significance
of the opponents' first victory in Congress was not lost on either side.
In addition to 171 Democrats, 58 Republicans voted to cut the school's
funding.
The School of the Americas' $ 4.2 million annual budget is barely a
chigger buried in the Pentagon's $ 263 billion spending package. The school
employs 300 instructors and staff, many of them civilian. And all of the
combat courses it teaches are available to foreign and U.S. soldiers at
other Army installations, school officials say.
The one difference is that classes at the School of the Americas are
in Spanish and thus, available to a broader range of soldier. That difference,
school officials say, is paramount.
The fight has split Georgia's congressional delegation.
Two of the most outspoken supporters, Democrat Sanford Bishop and Republican
Mac Collins, represent parts of Fort Benning.
U.S. Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a former civil rights marcher, and Cynthia
McKinney (D-Ga.) are among the most outspoken opponents.
"I believe that soldiers who disrespect the fundamental principles of
democracy should not be trained on American soil," McKinney said in a statement.
She will be among the protesters this week, and with her son, plans to
"cross the line" into Fort Benning.
Bishop denounced the vote to cut funds to the school. "It is shameful
because the horrendous accusations that have been brought against the U.S.
Army School of the Americas . . . have been proven to be false," he said
during the House debate.
"The accusations about teaching murder and torture and participating
in a prolonged conspiracy to commit atrocities and destroy democracy are
based on pure propaganda --- and not on facts," Bishop said.
But for now, at least, Bourgeois' army is on the offensive.
"He's winning," acknowledged SOA Chaplain Ruben D. Colon Jr.
In one sense, Bourgeois and his followers have already won. Due largely
to their focused criticism, the school emphasizes human rights training
in every course.
But that's not enough to satisfy critics.
"There is so much horror and death associated with that school it cannot
be reformed; it can only be closed," Bourgeois said. "And we will follow
that school wherever it goes and we will not stop until it's shut down."
GRADUATES CITED BY SCHOOL OPPONENTS:
-
Leopoldo Galtieri (Argentina) --- dictator, 1981-82; ruled when
30,000 citizens disappeared or were killed.
-
Hugo Banzer Suarez (Bolivia) --- dictator, 1971-78.
-
Luis Arce Gomez (Bolivia) --- former minister of interior serving
a 30-year sentence in Miami for drug trafficking.
-
Roberto Viola (Argentina) --- convicted of murder, kidnapping and
torture in the country's "dirty war" between 1976 and 1983.
-
Guillermo Rodriguez (Ecuador) --- dictator, 1972-76.
-
Manuel Noriega (Panama) --- dictator, 1983-89; in U.S. prison for
drug- running.
-
Omar Torrijos (Panama) --- dictator, 1968-78.
GRADUATES OF SOA INCLUDE...
Col. Armin Lopez (Chile) --- awarded U.S. Marine Corps Legion of Merit
for helping negotiate peace agreement for Peru and Ecuador. Col. Luis Alberto
Coquet (Argentina) --- awarded U.S. Marine Corps Legion of Merit for helping
negotiate peace agreement for Peru and Ecuador. Col. Walter Navarro (Costa
Rica) --- commandant, Costa Rican security forces. Gen. Alvaro A. Calderon
(El Salvador) --- chief of staff, Salvadoran army.
GRADUATES BY COUNTRY SINCE 1946:
Map shows countries in North and South America.
United States......1,579
Mexico............ 1, 852
Guatemala..........1,546
Belize................ 4
El Salvador........6, 752
Honduras.......... 3,768
Nicaragua..........4,318
Costa Rica........ 2, 399
Panama............ 3,661
Colombia.......... 9,886
Ecuador............3, 405
Brazil.............. 336
Argentina............648
Peru.............. 4, 677
Bolivia............3,878
Chile..............3,347
Uruguay.............. 983
Paraguay.......... 1,031
Venezuela..........3,365
Barbados............ .. 1
Dominican Republic 2,543
Haiti................ 49
Cuba............... . 237
Total: 60,265
Sources: SOA Watch, School of the Americas
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