Daily Headlines: November 23, 2010

* U.S.: Approximately 5000 people protested outside the gates of Fort Benning last weekend against the military training center formerly known as the School of the Americas.

* Bolivia: "Democracy, peace and security can only be guaranteed without interventionism, without hegemony," Bolivian President Evo Morales said at a defense conference attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

* Venezuela: The owner of “pro-opposition” TV station Globovision, Guillermo Zuloaga, denied government accusations that he’s behind an assassination plot against President Hugo Chavez.

* Cuba: Did Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen quash a “recent diplomatic opening” between Cuba and Israel?

* Haiti: Gunmen reportedly attacked the convoy of leading presidential candidate Jude Celestin on Monday night.

* Peru: The Peruvian government reached a tentative agreement with Yale University for the return of thousands of Incan artifacts taken from Machu Picchu.

Image – Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times via the New York Times (“The crosses placed at the fence represent people who are missing or who are believed to have been killed by death squads.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Democracy Now, JTA, CNN, Independent

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

Kucinich joins anti-SOA protest

President hopeful Dennis Kucinich was one of the thousand of protestors who marched against the military institute formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). Kucinich spoke on Sunday during the annual vigil against the school:

Kucinich was speaking at the 18th annual protest of the school at Fort Benning that trains Latin American soldiers, police and government officials. One of his first acts as president if elected would be to close the school, he said.

"The type of thinking that produced this school is the same type of thinking that produced the war in Iraq and is producing a war against Iran," Kucinich said. The Ohio congressman and former Cleveland mayor was addressing a crowd estimated by local police to number roughly 10,000.

A spokesman for the school- now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation- said that criticism of the institute is “absurd” partly since “we operate as an open institution that anybody can see and with congressional oversight.” Nevertheless, one Salvadorian torture survivor who participated in the weekend march claimed that the ex-SOA trains human rights abusers who are “sent…back to their countries to torture people.”

Since 2004 at least four countries- Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay- have withdrawn their officers from attending the ex-SOA. According to Wikipedia, several infamous Latin American figures graduated from the institute including Roberto D’Abuisson, Vladimiro Montesinos, and Luis Posada Carriles.

Sources- Wikipedia, Associated Press, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Postbulletin.com, WTVM

Image- PRESS TV (“Dem. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich (r) joined the protest.”)

Bill could force disclosure of recent ex-SOA grads

A section of a bill being considered by the U.S. Congress could force the institute formerly known as the School of the Americas to divulge the names and courses of its graduates and instructors. The Pentagon has concealed the records of students and teachers at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) since 2005 but a provision attached to the 2008 Defense Appropriations Bill by Representative James McGovern would change that.

The WHISC has come under scrutiny for having trained former Latin American leaders accused of serious human rights abuses such as Augusto Pinochet and Efrain Rios Montt.

In May, Costa Rica’s government said that it would become the fourth Latin American in three years to withdraw from the WHISC, while the House of Representatives recently rejected a proposal to shutdown the school.

Sources- Ledger-Enquirer, San Jose Mercury News, Wikipedia, The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune

Image- Metroactive (Protestors against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation hold a vigil in 2004)

Daily Headlines: June 26, 2007

* Could former Uruguayan Juan Bordaberry’s ailing health save him from being jailed while on trial for murders during his nine years in power?

* In Argentina, the debate is intensifying between indigenous people and U.S. energy firms over land ownership.

* By a slim margin the House of Representatives voted not to close the military institution formerly known as the School of the Americas.

* Colombia, Haiti, and Chile will be some of the countries that will be visited by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in July.

Sources- International herald Tribune, Indian Country Today, Canada East

Image- BBC News

Costa Rica leaves ex-School of the Americas

Costa Rican president Oscar Arias announced on Friday that his country will no longer send police officers to train at the institute former known as the School of the Americas (SOA). Despite having only three policemen currently training at the ex-SOA, Arias arrived at his decision after meeting with activists representing an anti-SOA group.

Now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the institute has trained former leaders who were infamous for overseeing widespread human rights abuses including Roberto D’Abussion, Augusto Pinochet, and Leopoldo Galtieri.

Costa Rica joins Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay as the fourth Latin American country in three years to withdraw from the ex-SOA.

Sources- Macon.com, TVNZ, Wikipedia, Yahoo! News

Image- Metro (2003 protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation)