By Kenneth J. Theisen, 6/22/07
In a 214-203 vote, the House of Representatives failed to
cut off partial funding for the military school which trains officers from
Latin and Central America. The Bush regime’s
State Department budget included funding for the school. The school’s name is now
the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, but it was formerly
known as the School of the Americas
or the School of Assassins to its opponents. On June 21, 2007 the Democratic controlled
House defeated the latest attempt to de-fund scholarships for Latin and Central
American military officers. The school
trains about 1000 such officers per year.
The school located at Fort
Benning, Georgia
is best known for training Latin American soldiers who engaged in coups, death
squads, assassinations, torture, corruption, drug dealing, and other human
rights violations. In the1990s, the
Department of Defense was forced to admit that training manuals used at the
school recommended bribery, blackmail, threats and torture.
Representative Phil Gingrey one of the defenders of funding
the school stated, [The school] “may be the only medium we ever have to
engage the future military and political leaders of many Latin American
countries. If we disengage with these nations, the void created would be filled
by countries with dismal records on democracy and human rights.” DUH! Where
has Gingrey been? The U.S.,
particularly under the Bush regime, has not exactly been a model for democracy
and human rights. Has Gingrey heard of
Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, military tribunals, water boarding,
secret CIA prisons, and other models practiced by the Bush regime? Is this what
he wants to teach military officers to the south of the U.S.? The U.S.
has used this school to train some of the worst of human rights” abusers for
several decades throughout Central and Latin America. Future coup leaders and dictators learned
well from their U.S.
teachers. The Bush regime wants to
continue to pass on U.S.
imperialist values to future leaders of the military in Central and South America.
While much of the world’s attention has been focused on the Middle East, we should not forget that the Bush regime is
also still active to the south in promoting its form of democracy. On April 11, 2002 the Venezuelan government
of Hugo Chavez was overthrown in a U.S. supported coup. The democratically elected National Assembly
was dissolved, as was the Venezuelan Supreme Court. The country’s constitution
was repealed and the Bush regime quickly welcomed the new coup government. Unfortunately for the Bush regime, the coup
failed and Chavez was restored as president within 2 days. But in the ultimate
hypocrisy, Condoleeza Rice, then Bush’s National Security Advisor, lectured
Chavez on democracy, “We do hope that Chávez recognizes that the whole
world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his
own ship, which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a
long time.”
The Bush regime also continues to support and fund the
Colombian government’s war against leftist forces in that country. Despite the
Columbian government’s ties to right-wing terrorist groups, President Bush
himself visited Columbia
this year and called Columbian President Alvaro Uribe a “friend.” (See
“Columbian Government Officials Tied to Terrorist Organization”) The Columbian
government ties to death squads, peasant massacres, massive drug dealing, etc. did
not seem to interfere with the two presidents” friendship. But then why should
such little things get in the way of the Bush regime’s goal of continued
domination of the Western Hemisphere?
And despite the former School of the Americas” past record, why shouldn’t we
pretend that it has changed its methods and that it is now turning out 1000
officers per year devoted to the spread of democracy and human rights? Apparently 214 members of the House of
Representatives believed that fairy tale when they voted to continue to fund
the school.