School of the Americas

The people at School of the Americas Watch report on the demonstrations this weekend.

As human rights activists throughout the United States travel to Fort Benning, Georgia, thousands more around the world are preparing for massive demonstrations to call for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC). Thousands are expected to gather November 17-19 at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the school, while simultaneous demonstrations will take place in Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Arizona and California.

The SOA/WHINSEC, a military training facility for Latin American security personnel, made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school over its 60-year history, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.

You can learn more here and here.