School of the Americas protest starts on Saturday

The annual demonstration against the U.S.-run military training facility formerly known as the School of the Americas will be held this weekend.

Currently known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), the school has gained infamy for providing training to Latin American leaders infamous for human rights abuses including Manuel Noriega (Panama), Efrain Rios Mont (Guatemala), and Hugo Banzer (Bolivia). Critics such as the School of the Americas Watch also claim that “hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, ‘disappeared,’ massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained” since the school’s founding over six decades ago.

Backers of the WHISC claim that the school takes human rights into more serious consideration than before and that “they do not teach abuse”. Yet as School of the Americas Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois wrote in the Huffington Post today:

The June 28th coup in Honduras against the democratically-elected President Zelaya was carried out by SOA graduates General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of the of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran military, and General Luis Prince Suazo, the head of the Air Force. The leadership of SOA graduates in the coup follows a pattern of anti-democratic actions by graduates of the SOA (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, WHINSEC). The Pentagon claim -- that the institute instills respect for democracy and civilian leadership while teaching combat skills to Latin American soldiers -- has once again been disproved by the actions of the institute's graduates.

Click here for more information on this weekend’s activities being held at the WHISC at Fort Benning, Georgia. In addition, please feel free to leave your respectful comments if you're for or against the WHISC and its actions.

Image- Common Dreams (“Protesters carry crosses bearing the names of alleged victims of abuses in Latin America, during a protest, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2002, in Columbus, Ga., near the Fort Benning school that trains Latin American soldiers.”)
Online Sources- Common Dreams, School of the Americas Watch, Just the Facts, Huffington Post, Global Security