On the 20th and 21st of November, 1999, conscientious men and women from the United States will once again - as they have year after year - be protesting in front of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. It is now expected that thousands will be arriving in order to demand the closing of the "School for Assassins."

The SOA was founded in Panama in 1946 by the United States Army in order to help Latin American governments promote "stability" and "democracy." It soon lost its credibility, however, when its graduates established at least 10 military dictatorships, and others participated in the most brutal assassinations and massacres, spilling the blood of thousands of persons in different countries in Latin America.

In 1984, the SOA was moved to Fort Benning as part of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties for the devolution of the Panama Canal. Panamanian President Jorge Illueca called this school "the largest base for destabilization in Latin America." The Panamanian newspaper "La Prensa" called it "The School for Assassins." According to the US Department of Defense, however, the SOA should "contribute directly to the carrying out of US foreign policy objectives in Latin America," and "the countries represented in the School typically represent current US interests in the region." Over the last few years, Mexico has represented those interests, since our country now has the greatest number of soldiers at the SOA.

Instruction has been given at the SOA in counter-guerrilla manuals, extortion, physical and psychological torture and military intelligence, among other subjects. There have been courses in commando and sniper operations, interrogation techniques, terrorism, urban guerrilla warfare, counterinsurgency, Low Intensity Warfare, irregular warfare, jungle operations, counterintelligence, training, domestic defense, psychological operations and anti-drug operations, among others.

THE BLOODY HISTORY

The SOA has an annual budget of 20 million dollars. US Congressional Representative, Joseph Kennedy, stated that this institution "costs millions of dollars a year, and it identifies our country with tyranny and oppression." Soldiers from the following countries have graduated from the School of the Americas: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela and Nicaragua, among others. Let us look at some examples:

In El Salvador, SOA graduates carried out the assassination of Monsignor Oscar Arnulfo Romero. Others, in 1984, raped, and later assassinated Maryknoll sisters Maura Clark and Ita Ford, Ursuline sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan. Later, in 1989, other El Salvador military personnel assassinated 6 Jesuit priests and two women at the Central American University (UCA). Nor should we forget the killing of El Mozote, where more than 900 persons, including women and children, were massacred by indiscriminate machine gun fire. Others participated in the massacre at El Junquillo, Las Hojas, San Sebastián and in the deaths of other social leaders. The Truth Commission, which came about after the Peace Accords in El Salvador, has confirmed that two-thirds of the soldiers involved in the most brutal war crimes had graduated from the SOA. Fifty years from its founding, 6776 El Salvador military personnel are calculated to have been trained in this school, second, after Colombia, with the largest number of graduates.

In Nicaragua, under the Somoza dictatorship and others, 4963 soldiers were trained at the SOA. These personnel, known as the "contras," were responsible for thousands of assassinations. In Guatemala, Colonel Julio Roberto Alpírez was implicated in the assassination of US citizen Michael Devine and Efraín Bámaca. Some 1676 soldiers trained there through 1995 were involved in many deaths, tortures and massacres. From Honduras, General Luis Alonso Discua and other officers attended the SOA. In Panama, the picture of General Manuel Noriega, former President and dictator - and currently imprisoned in the US on drug charges - hangs proudly in a room at the School of the Americas. Fifty years after the founding of the SOA, Omar Torrijos and another 4235 military personnel also attended.

From Argentina, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola were graduated, as well as more than a thousand other military personnel. It is not difficult to guess that, of the 98 Argentine soldiers accused on November 2 by Baltasar Garzón of having committed genocide and torture during the time of the dictatorship - between 1976 and 1983 - many of them were graduates of the School for Assassins.

From Peru, three imprisoned officers graduated, who have been accused of the assassination of 9 university students and a professor, as well as Velasco Alvarado and another 3997, on the school's fiftieth anniversary. In Colombia, Colonel Victor Bernal Castano, an SOA graduate, was accused of the massacre of a campesino family. More than 100 of the 246 officers involved in war crimes cited by an international human rights tribunal in 1993 were graduated from there. Fifty years from the founding of the school, the majority of its graduates have been from Colombia, approximately 9679.

In Bolivia, dictator Hugo Bánzer was at the SOA. About 4349 soldiers from here have been trained there. There have been 455 from Brazil, and 2805 from Chile. From Ecuador, military dictator Guillermo Rodríguez; from Haiti, SOA graduates participated in the coup d'etat against constitutional president Jean Bertrand Aristide.

AND MEXICO?

Mexico sent its first military personnel in 1953, and, by 1960, it had already graduated 96 soldiers. During the sixties, Mexican soldiers took 75 courses; in the seventies, the number was 197 (262% more than the previous decade); in the eighties, the total was 533 (270% more than in the 70's); and, in just the first 7 years of the 90's, there have been a total of 623 courses, already more than the total from the previous 10 years.

In 1959, Lieutenant Juan López Ortiz left the SOA after having taken courses in "Infantry Weapons" and "Infantry Tactics." Later, having become a General, he commanded troops in 1994 against EZLN indigenous in the municipality of Ocosingo, where the executions of zapatistas took place in the city market. In 1996, General Rodolfo Reta Trigos completed courses in "Military Intelligence" and "Counterinsurgency," and he was noted in 1998 as a possible successor to general Jaime Contreras as Under Secretary of National Defense (La Jornada, February 20, 1998).

During the 70's, Mexico had more officers taking courses than it had during the previous 20 years. Commander Gastón Menchaca, who completed courses in 1971 in "Irregular War Operations," would be the Commander of the 31st Military Region in Rancho Nuevo, San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Also graduating that year was Miguel Leyva García, in courses in "Command and General Staff." He then took command of the 83rd Infantry Battalion of the 31st Military Region, and, according to the Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center, human rights violations have been attributed to him in the state of Guerrero. In 1972, Harold H. Rabling graduated from courses in "Irregular War Operations," and Carmelo Teherán Montero, from "Military Intelligence." They have both been present in Chiapas during the 90's. Graduating in the 70's were: José Luis López Ruvalcaba from "Jungle Operations," who was Commander of the Mixed Operations Base of the 7th Military Region in Chiapas; Edmundo Leyva Galindo, from the "Joint Operations Course," who was also Commander of the 33rd Military Region in Guerrero; Adrián Maldonado Ramírez, from the same course, and who commanded the 33rd Military Region in Guerrero and who was dismissed one month after the massacre of campesinos at Aguas Blancas; Gerardo R. Serrano Herrera, who was sent to Guerrero and charged with human rights violations; Manuel García Ruiz, Enrique Alonso Garrido and José Rubén Rivas Peña, who were also in Chiapas, with the latter in the 31st Military Region in 1994 and later Commander of the 28th Military Region in the state of Oaxaca; Gilberto R. García González was Commander of the 27th Military Region in Guerrero and died in a helicopter accident in 1996.

During the 80's, the first three Mexicans were graduated from the "Psychological Operations" course; 210 courses were given in "Training" (there had been 60 in the previous decade), for training the trainers. General Staff Brigadier General Guillermo Llandera Cazares and Jorge García graduated from the SOA in the 80's with a course in "Latin American Joint Operations 0-16," and the latter is mentioned as having been one of those who participated in the February 1995 military maneuvers against the EZLN. In 1997 he commanded the 24th Regiment which occupied the Nuevo Momón ejido in Chiapas. Division General Juan López Ortiz, Director General of National Military Service commanded the 12th RM. On December 1, 1995, he was replaced in the 3rd RM. His specialization at the SOA was in Infantry Tactics. He participated in military actions in Chiapas.

During the 90s, another stage began in the SOA. In 1991, they began giving courses in "The Church in Latin America," in order to better "understand" the dangers of Liberation Theology. The majority of Latin Americans trained at the "School for Assassins" are now Mexicans. Since the emergence of the EZLN, the Mexican government and the US army have intensified their relationship. In addition, there is the Program for Personnel Exchange, which involves one country sending two instructors to the SOA, and the SOA in turn sending two US military personnel to the Latin American country, as in Mexico, for example. However, foreign priests and human rights observers, among others, have been expelled in order to prevent the presence of witnesses to the consequences of the military process in Chiapas.

By the first year of the conflict, around 766 military personnel had already been trained. In 1996, the "School for Assassins" inaugurated the Special Mexican Training Course and the Teachers Administration Course for the Mexican Army, from which 59 Mexican officers graduated ion 1996.

The Department of National Defense (SEDENA) stated that, over a 20 year time period (1978 to 1998), 4173 military personnel had received training abroad, of which 61% (2675) had taken several courses since 1994. In addition to sending the military to the US, they have also been trained in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, Spain, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, England, Italy, Israel, Japan, Panama, Peru, Russia, the Ukraine and Venezuela.

But they have also trained with the Kaibils of Guatemala, the most brutal and murderous military force known by any Army in Latin America. General Otto Pérez Molina, the former chief of the Guatemalan General Staff and government commissioner for the peace negotiations, confirmed that officials from the Mexican armed forces had attended the annual course given at the Kaibil school, the counterinsurgency elite of the Guatemalan army (La Jornada, September 20, 1996). Later, in June 1997, three other Mexicans graduated from the XLVIII International Kaibil Course (Prensa Libre, June 16, 1997).

Nonetheless, José Antonio Valdivia, a senator from the official party, the PRI, on January 21, 1998, denied accusations by PRD Senator Mario Saucedo that Mexican military personnel had received training abroad! Given that the 15 courses taken by the Mexican military in 1994 increased to 24 in 1995, to 148 in 1996 and to 333 in 1997, including those in Military Intelligence and Psychological Operations. And given that it is now the country with the most students at the SOA, since the war against the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) - and against the ERPI and other groups in the country - are in the US' strategic interests.

Between 1996 and 1999, around 3200 personnel, members of the Special Forces Air Transportation Group (GAFE) graduated from a counterinsurgency course with the United States Seventh Group of the Special Forces, the "Green Berets," who participated in the war in El Salvador during the 80s. Similarly, between 1996 and 1997, 49 Mexican military personnel took anti-drug courses, while 167 were taking courses in counterinsurgency. We may remember that GAFE arrived in Acteal in January of 1998, a few days after the massacre of the 45 indigenous.

Another source confirmed that, in a Pentagon document during the first months of 1997, the Mexican government sent 1500 military personnel for training in the US, a number similar to the total that had been trained over a 14 year time period. It adds that military technology transfer from the US to Mexico increased by 400% in 1997, and the Department of Defense budget increased by 800% for the training of Mexican military personnel (Proceso 1106, January 11, 1998).

According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Mexico increased its army budget by 15% this year, from 20 billion pesos in 1998 to 23.4 billion for this year, and the EZLN and the EPR are priorities.

STRUGGLE AND RESISTANCE

In April 1994, a Maryknoll Catholic priest and Vietnam war veteran, and 10 other religious persons (among them a Jesuit) began a 40-day hunger strike on the steps of the Capitol, demanding that Congress close down the SOA. It had already been confirmed then that the School of the Americas had graduated more than 56,000 Latin American military personnel, trained in combat and counterinsurgency tactics. Representative Kennedy's amendment in Congress to close the SOA was defeated by 174 votes in favor and 256 against. In a later congressional session, however, the votes in favor have increased, but they have not yet secured a majority.

On November 16, 1997, on the eighth anniversary of the assassination of 6 Jesuits and two women in El Salvador, 601 persons entered Fort Benning, crossing the prohibited line in a solemn, funeral-like procession, two by two, carrying coffins and white crosses with the names of hundreds of persons who have been assassinated in Guatemala, El Salvador and in other countries. Everyone was arrested. Only 25 of them, however, were confined in United States federal jails for 6 months, in addition to $3000 fines: Doris Sage, a 68 year old teacher; Daniel Sage, Professor Emeritus of Syracuse University, 70; Roy Burgueois, Maryknoll priest, 59; Carol Richardson, mother of 2 children, Methodist pastor, 53; Nicholas Cardel, World war II veteran, 72; Mary Earley, retired special education teacher, 67; Rita Steinhagen, a religious with San Jose de Carondelet, 70, who served in the Center for Victims of Torture; Kenneth Kennon, pastor, 72; Margaret Eilerman, Franciscan religious, 60; Anne Herman, mother of 6 children, 64; William Bichsel, Jesuit priest, 69; Mary Catherine Flanigan, Franciscan religious, 65, of the Justice Center in Chicago; Patrick Inman, retired teacher, 52; Christopher Jones, 23, a graduate in Latin American Studies; Edward Kinane, anthropology professor, 53; Randall Serraglio, graduate in Latin American Studies, 34; William McNulty, 62; Ann Tiffany, mental health nurse, retired, 62; Megan Rice, missionary and teacher, 67; Ruth Woodring, student, 24; Dwight Lawton, war veteran, 67; Mary trotochaud, 47; Rita Lacey, 63; and Richard Streb, Witness for Peace activist and World war II veteran, 72.

THE CONTEXT

In Mexico, we are experiencing a process of militarization by the State, which involves not only a greater number of military, positions, camps, weapons, military regions and budget, among other quantitative measures, but also the militarization of state structures. Military persons are present in the three branches of government: in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. We have had military personnel as senators, deputies, governors, officials in various bodies, as police - part of the forces or directing and training them. We now have a new force: the Federal Preventive Police which, by the year 2000, is expected to have 10,000 members, and 5000 of them will be military. We are also experiencing militarization in terms of their influence in the political, economic and social life at the three levels of government: municipal, state and federal.

Today, November 5, marks the second anniversary of the attack against the bishops [of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas], carried out by alleged paramilitary members from Peace and Justice in the Northern region, who were allegedly supported and trained by the military. This December 22, it will be 2 years since the Kaibil-style Acteal massacre perpetrated by paramilitaries, trained by at least one soldier who is currently imprisoned. And the Diocese of San Cristóbal is guilty of having raised the consciousness of the indigenous (Proceso 1105, January 3, 1998). Bishop Samuel Ruiz' reaching his 75th birthday - and subsequent resignation on November 3 - was, thus, an apparent victory for the federal government and the Mexican army, a victory that could apparently only be won by the years.

While Chiapas and other states in the Republic have become more filled with military camps, the populations affected by the floods in Chiapas, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco and Veracruz (where the poorest municipalities in the country are found) - totaling more than 300,000 victims and more than 300 dead - are waiting for help from military forces during this so very difficult time. This new catastrophe caused the loss of roads, bridges, educational and sanitary infrastructure, thousands of homes, maize, coffee and other agricultural products. This will, once again, be taken advantage of by the official party, with the giving out of aid for votes, and by the large transnational companies who have broken the limits of NAFTA, and who will be introducing more basic grains into the country during the next agricultural season.

The desires for a new society are reflected by the barometer of violence, which do not tolerate democracy, inclusion, participation. It is the powers who are resisting change and who are falling into a crisis of credibility and consensus over the purported benefits of the neoliberal program's globalization, which they are now trying to impose by force.

Human rights groups have risen up in all corners of the country, a barometer of the official and governmental violence against society. It is now human rights defenders who, as in many Latin American histories, are being persecuted, in order to silence the voice of the denunciations. The "Miguel Agustín Pro" Human Rights Center, in Mexico City, has now been the victim of attacks, death threats, bombs in their offices, of intimidation and kidnappings, of attempted homicides. And, now, a lawyer, Digna Ochoa, has been subjected to kidnapping, interrogation and torture.

In June of the year 2000, elections will be carried out for the presidency of the Republic, as well as for the governor of the state of Chiapas. The continuity of the economic policies imposed by the globalization of neoliberalism is at stake, at a time when the official party is in the throes of its greatest crisis of decline. These economic and political relationships require the third link, the military, in order to guarantee this continuity. If the PRI continues to govern for another 6 years, it will be more difficult for a democratic government to counter the progress of the effects of globalization, the effects of NAFTA and of the Commercial Accord with the European Union.

We must stop this escalation of violence now. The powers must understand that we cannot move to democracy, nor erect a more just and dignified society for everyone, if the state structure is founded on, and contaminated by, violence and militarization. Hopefully, we may some day see the military buildings in indigenous regions turned into school buildings, and their large gardens into recreation areas for boys and girls.

Let this Bulletin serve to support the struggle for the closing of the School of the Americas, and as appreciation for those citizens who are demonstrating and who are willing to pay, through imprisonment, what thousands of indigenous, campesinos and members of civil society have paid through blood for decades in Latin America. Here, in Chiapas, the women, children, old ones and men of the Amador Hernández community, of Moisés Gandhi, and of many other campesino, indigenous and zapatista communities, are resisting in the rain, in the mud, in the cold, day and night, camped on roads and paths, using their bodies to prevent the Army from coming into their communities, while hoping that they are able to achieve the closing of the School of the Americas. When they do achieve it, Latin America will be grateful.

Note: For more information, you can consult the pages:

SOA Watch

SEDENA:

Southern Command:

Information has been extracted from:

SOA Watch, "Speaking Truth to Power," CNY/SOA Abolitionist, Nuevo Amanecer Press, Darrin Wood, La Jornada, Prensa Libre, Diario de Yucatán, Proceso, the video, "School of the Americas: An Insider Speaks Out!" by Linda Panetta.

Note: If you wish to be placed on a list to receive this English version of the Bulletin, or the Spanish, or both, please direct a request to: ciepac@laneta.apc.org and indicate whether you wish to receive the bulletin in plain text or as a Word 7 for Windows 95 attachment.

Note: If you use this information, cite the source and our email address. We are grateful to the persons and institutions who have given us their comments on these Bulletins. CIEPAC, A.C. is a non-government and non-profit organization, and your support is necessary for us to be able to continue offering you this news and analysis service. If you would like to contribute, in any amount, we would infinitely appreciate your remittance to the bank account in the name of:

CIEPAC, A.C.
Bank: Banamex
Account number: 7049672 Sucursal 386
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, México.
You will also need to use an ABA number:
BNMXMXMM

Thank you! CIEPAC

Telephone:
in México: 01 967 674 5168
from outside Mexico:: +52 967 674 5168