The response editorial by Lee Rials, public affairs for WHINSEC-SOA (“School of the Americas Maligned in Column”, April 15), was frustrating, unnerving and, honestly, a little creepy. (Does WHINSEC really monitor the Maroon?)
Where in the argument does “fact” distinguish itself from propaganda? Rials’s points look good on paper, but the supposed evidence of why the School of the Americas is actually an improved, even good, agency are diversionary, out of context, and just plain misleading.
Rials says, “Not one instance of a cause-effect relationship between U.S. training and later misdeeds has ever been found.” Actually, I think he or she means that the government has not officially recognized an instance yet. Currently, torture victims are working with lawyers to demand accountability from the generals that gave the orders. Many of these commanders have been traced back to WHINSEC-SOA, where they received U.S. training.
Further, the “democracy and human rights training” that WHINSEC has instituted consists of one three-hour class to “provide an overview of U.S. democracy and the trade customs and practices common to most U.S. citizens,” and a minimum of eights hours training in human rights. According to WHINSEC’s website, these classes demonstrate how deeply embedded U.S. values, respect for rule of law, and our constitutional structure have maintained a strong democracy and uninterrupted civilian control of the military throughout history.
These so-called democracy and human rights programs seem more like ethnocentric reinforcements of U.S. policy and justification for teaching Latin American soldiers to do what is necessary to spread U.S. values.
Regarding the quote Rials used from “Unmatched Power, Unmet Principles”, Amnesty International did say that WHINSEC-SOA has a different curriculum with mandatory human rights courses. However, Amnesty goes on to say, “the U.S. government has never held anyone accountable for the training manuals or the behavior of graduates of the School of the Americas,” and points out that previously distributed SOA “torture training” manuals were never recovered. The reality is that WHINSEC-SOA has a history of unjust training and has made no effort, other than superficial changes, to own up to this fact.
While WHINSEC is a worthy institution to target for injustice, it is but one training school amongst several others in the U.S. that promote a foreign policy of military (and increasingly economic) control in Latin America that should raise more than a few eyebrows and send us off to dig a little deeper.
Justine Diamond is a Sociology and Spanish junior.
