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In December 2000, Congress passed the Defense Authorization Bill HR 4205, opening the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) and repealing the authority for the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA).
The new school, WHINSEC, opened January 2001 in the exact same building.
Words from a 1995 Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) study acknowledged “concerns about the School in the post-Cold War period have surfaced, driven in part by adverse publicity over human rights violations associated with past students of the School . . . negative publicity about the School would probably continue and that a new name for the School may be an appropriate way to break with the past.”
These words make it quite clear that closing the SOA and opening WHINSEC was simply a public relations ploy, rather than a call for a complete change in the policy and training practices at the institution.
At the opening of WHINSEC, the Assistant Commandant said, “Let me therefore affirm that this faculty will continue wholeheartedly to exhibit the same enthusiasm and professional dedication to duty as they serve the new Institute. They will continue to fulfill their responsibilities with the same fervor that they have exhibited while assigned to our beloved School of the Americas. The School of the Americas has planted some very significant seeds in the fertile soil of what will soon be WHINSEC.”
To call WHINSEC a new school is ridiculous. To allow ourselves to believe that WHINSEC, with Otto Reich on the Board of Visitors (BoV’s purpose is to monitor the school, to ensure that the curriculum emphasize human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military and the role of the military in a democratic society), will actually promote human rights is naive.
To believe that bad U.S. foreign policy, as reflected by the School of the Americas, is a thing of the past is illogical.
The truth is not enough has changed. The legacy of the SOA still exists.
Whether or not you agree with the changes or lack thereof, the institute still undermines human rights and democracy in Latin America. Our own Constitution, through the Leahy Law, “specifically prohibits the transfer of U.S. aid to foreign security, military and police units where there is credible evidence linking such units to human rights violations.”
The 2002 U.S. State Department report on Human Rights Practices for Colombia says, “The Government’s human rights record remained poor. Impunity remained at the core of the country’s human rights problems. The authorities rarely brought high-ranking officers of the security forces charged with human rights offenses to trial.”
SOA/WHINSEC graduates become paramilitaries. The Colombian military has a direct relationship to the paramilitaries as outlined by the U.S. State Department and Amnesty International’s 2002 report, “Unmatched Power, Unmet Principles.”
They often aid them indirectly and even have been directly involved in paramilitary actions. This shows that we are supporting a foreign military that is directly related or linked to human rights violations, which is a violation of the Leahy Law.
Furthermore, the Bush doctrine says that any person or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorist is complicit in the murder of the innocent and will be held accountable.
Colombia does support groups and has a direct relationship to groups responsible for human rights violations, so we must hold them accountable.
As of October 2003, School of the Americas graduates comprise more than one third of the Mexican Army deserters now working with the Zetas, a group of hired assassins notorious for their extreme violence who are hired by the Gulf Cartel (a Mexican drug cartel). Mexico and Colombia are only a few examples of how the soldiers we are training are going back to their countries and counteracting American ideals of democracy, human rights and drug prevention.
According to the Amnesty International report, “Legislation enacted in October 2000 required the Secretary of Defense to begin tracking all foreign military or defense ministry civilian personnel who receive IMET (WHINSEC falls under the category of IMET) education and training as of Jan. 1, 2001.
The Department of Defense began developing a database of records on each IMET trainee, including the type of instruction received, the dates of instruction and ‘to the extent practicable, a record of the person’s subsequent military or defense ministry career and current position and location.’”
This information is not publicly accessible and there is no requirement for this information to be reported to Congress (Amnesty International’s report pg. 28). WHINSEC’s Public Relations Officer, Lee Rials, referred me to the SOA Watch’s website (www.soaw.org) to find information about SOA/WHINSEC graduates.
On March 29 the School of the Americas Watch issued a press release citing WHINSEC graduates for human rights violations.
Col. Francisco del Cid Diaz was investigated by the 1992 U.N. mandated El Salvadorian Truth Commission as having bound, beat, and shot 16 residents from the Los Hojas cooperative of the National Association of the Indigenous.
Despite record of this massacre in the State Department Human Rights Record Country Reports, Col. del Cid Diaz attended WHINSEC in 2003. While a Captain, Urzagaste Rodriguez, was one of those responsible for the kidnap and torture of Waldo Albarracin, then the director of the Popular Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia, the now Major took a 49-week officer training course at WHINSEC in 2002.
Three Colombian police officers were under investigation for personal use of counter-narcotics funds at the same time they attended the WHINSEC in 2002-03. Furthermore, the lack of follow-up and tracking of students makes it difficult to track the measure of success of WHINSEC.
The truth is that despite a change in name, the same policies exist. Even though we have changed the name, people—particularly the people of Latin America—view the school as one that promotes impunity for human rights violators.
There has not been an active change in what the school is so there cannot be an active change in what the school does.
Welcoming human rights abusers into our country and our military training schools is recklessly irresponsible and it sends a message to Latin American soldiers that even the highest government in the world turns its back on human rights.
H.R. 1258 calls for a 10-month period of closure of WHINSEC during which “a joint congressional task force will conduct an assessment of the kind of education and training that is appropriate for the Department of Defense to provide to military personnel of Latin American nations.
The task force will conduct a critical assessment of courses, curriculum and procedures appropriate for such education and training and an evaluation of the effect of such education and training on the performance of Latin American military personnel in the areas of human rights and adherence to democratic principles and the rule of law.”
Supporting HR 1258 is the most effective way for us to promote these ideals. Right now our representatives need to be encouraged to support this legislation.
Maura Carew
Senior
Spanish
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