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A little history
The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that
country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former
Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the
“biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.”
The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in
every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 56 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency
techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and
interrogation tactics.
These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against
their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers,
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,
and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.
Every year at the Close the SOA event organized by the
SOA Watch groups of individuals
will cross the federal line in an act of Civil Disobedient and risk anywhere from 3 to 6 month
some time longer prison sentences. One of the prisons were they send people to is in
Lexington
Kentucky.
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