The School of the Americas is now a sad and dismal part of American history. The institution was formally closed on November 15, 2000. Col. Mark Morgan told Congressional aides at a Defense Department briefing this was necessary because, “Some of your bosses have told us that they can’t support anything with the name ‘School of Americas’ on it.” But wait. A clone appears on the horizon. Yes, the School of the Assassins reopened as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) on January 15, 2001.

What that name change means:

The atrocities continue as names of School of the Americas (SOA) graduates continue to turn up wherever there are human rights violations in Latin America. The year 2000 saw former Guatemalan dictators Efrain Rios Montt and Fernando Lucas Garcia brought into court on genocide charges. During their regime thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands forced into refuge or exile. Both men, and a number of their high-ranking cabinet officials, were SOA-trained.

“Reforms” have involved only a re-packaging of the same courses so that a course which was formerly called “Psychological Operations” was re-titled as “Peace Operations.” A study of the course description reveals that little has changed. “Peace Operations” included military intelligence, psychological operations and methods of controlling the civilian population, such as establishing roadblocks and checkpoints.

Keeping this school open under any name sends a powerful anti-human rights message. Graduates include dictators, defense ministers and heads of secret police agencies who are responsible for the torture, disappearances, murder and displacement for hundreds of thousands of people. We must have an investigation into the role of previous training in human rights abuses. A truth commission must be established.

The beat goes on in Colombia. Colombia, with the worst human rights record in Latin America, has had over 10,000 troops trained at the SOA. General Mario Montoya Uribe, a SOA graduate, commands the 24th brigade which is ineligible for U.S, military aid due to its complicity in paramilitary violence. U.S. military aid under Plan Colombia has been sold to the U.S. as part of the War on Drugs. Actually, forces under Montoya’s commands are engaged in a counter-insurgency war against leftist guerillas.

Yes, the name has changed but the game is the same. We now call it the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The blood that runs is still the blood of the “insurgents” – the poor of the Latin American countries. The training still leads to horrific human rights abuses. Isn’t it time for each of us to let our government know that we are against this continued support of all too many killings and disappearances?

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Sister Marge Eilerman was arrested and jailed for protesting at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia.