"In 1979, over two-thirds of Latin America's people were living under
military rule. By 1993, however, not a single military regime remained
in Central or South America or the Spanish speaking Caribbean. Elected
presidents (even if former generals, as in the case of Paraguay's first
post-Stroessner government) and legislatures replaced military dictators
and juntas. Foreign observers certified the 'fairness' of elections
in Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala,
and Paraguay. Media censorship declined, and fewer cases of politically
motivated abuses of human rights were reported. Indeed, 1986 was the
first time in Central American history that Costa Rica, Nicaragua,
Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala all had elected civilian
governments at the same time".
Brian Loveman is Professor of Political Science at San Diego State
University. He is the author of "The Constitution of Tyranny:
Regimes of Exception in Spanish America".
The School of the Americas is largely responsible for this remarkable
transformation. Twenty years ago almost every Latin American
country was under some sort of repressive rule. Now only Cuba
remains. The switch to democratically elected governments has come
with a price tag...not unlike our own Revolution. Civil wars, by
their natures are more brutal and unforgiving. SOA has had
59,000 students go through a variety of different courses. According to
legitimate Human Rights organizations, (WOLA and others) less
than 300 (this would include Uruena of Colombia) are cited for alleged
crimes. This is less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the total alumni. The
number actually convicted is less than 50 (closer to 30). It is
interesting that 2 percent of graduates from seminary go on to be
pedophiles and commit other crimes. I wonder what UCLA's record is?
An interesting paradigm has been established by various disinformation
and propaganda campaigns. The propaganda simply states "If X then Y".
In this case the X is SOA and the Y is heinous chainsaw massacre type
crime. Let's look at it, and use some of the examples put forth
from Mabel and the SOA Watch. In 1956 Banzer Suarez of Bolivia
took a Motor Officer Course. He learned how to repair jeeps and
trucks and track their maintenance schedules. He is accused of human
rights violations during a tin miners revolt. It is interesting that
More than ten years after the revolt, Suarez was democratically elected
president. If we go back to our simple formula, and plug in the
variables: X=Jeep Mechanic training Y=Human rights violations and X
does not equal Y.
Let's look at another famous one. Noriega took basic infantry and Ranger
in 1965, 20 years later he became a drug pusher. Again, X simply
doesn't equal Y. There is no correlation between the school and
atrocities. Keep in mind that 1/10 of the American population are living
veterans. There are millions of veterans of the exact same courses that
Noriega took. Some of them probably deal drugs also, but they did not
learn it at Fort Benning.
The latest guy, Uruena, took a a four week cadet orientation course
at SOA when he was a senior at the Colombian Military Academy. He
had the opportunity to see the American Army train, he did a lot
of physical fitness and marched a lot. Millions of Americans have
attended the exact same cadet orientation summer camps. Probably many
of the people reading this list. Fourteen years later it is alleged
he did horrible things to people with a chainsaw. Quite simply, X
does not equal Y. Cadet Orientation Course does not equal chainsaw murder.
There are blatant flaws in the logic. The school has never in its history
ever taught murder, torture or mayhem. It is simply not true. The school
has every text it has ever used and none of them are torture
manuals. In fact, every book, lesson and operation are the same offered
to every American soldier. The School is an open book. It has never been
secretive and I will answer any question. Folks are welcome to visit
the school and in fact, to browse our library, which is extensive, and
to review every text ever used for any course in this school. That is
actually quite easy, since every manual is merely the Spanish translation
of American texts.
I didn't mean to get so long winded with this, and wanted to originally
just make our information packets available. If you would like a course
catalog and some fact sheets, or just have questions, please feel
free to cantact me. The catalogs are rather thick, so it will be better
of you could send a snail mail address. I promise I'll forward the
material. Feel free to email me specific requests if you wish.
I would like to thank everyone who has requested information,
those who e-mailed their support and especially those critics who might
benefit from a fair and impartial exchange of information.
Thanks
Major Gordon Martel
Public Affairs Officer
School of the Americas
Ft. Benning, GA., 31905