SOAW–West News for March, 2004

SOAW Activists speak on 3/16 at St. Mary's College in Moraga Plus Other Items.
New Research; call Congress; new commandant.

 


School of the Americas Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
March 16, 2004
San Jose Website - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
Los Angeles Website - www.soaw-la.org
National Website - www.soaw.org

 
[Items #1-3 have more information below]
  • March 16-19, "The Media at War" Conference, UC Berkeley School of Journalism and Human Rights Center
  • March 24, Elections in El Salvador. Bay Area observers include Bob Nixon, Theresa Cameranesi, Rachel Montgomery, and Ted Sexauer.

Saint Mary's students will be presenting their observations and conclusions from last November's fact-finding trip to Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the controversial "School of the Americas."

WHEN: Tuesday,  March 16, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
WHERE: Soda Center on Saint Mary's Campus
TOPIC: The students will discuss US foreign policy in Latin America, the history of the "School of the Americas," and the difficult work of investigating -- and analyzing -- a complicated ethical issue.  Video footage from the Army base as well as the massive non-violent demonstration will be included.

The sponsors and partners of this trip: History Department, Sociology Department, Religious Studies Department, Politics Department, Latino Student Programs, Asian Pacific American Student Programs, the College of Liberal Arts, Campus Ministry, CILSA, and the Student Research and Development Fund.

For information, contact Gary Adler, Assistant Director CILSA (Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action), Saint Mary's College of California
Phone: (925) 631-4755
Fax:   (925) 631-8512
Email: gadler@stmarys-ca.edu

"The Media at War" Conference, March 16-19, UC Berkeley
The SF Chronicle (3/16/04, page B5) reports that this is expected to be an "in-depth postmortem of Iraq war coverage" with leading war reporters.
Also addressing the public conference will be Hans Blix, the United Nations' former chief arms inspector in Iraq and former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, whose wife was outed as a CIA agent after he publicly challenged administration claims on an Iraqi nuclear-weapons program.
For information on specific events, use the Website:

        http://journalism.berkeley.edu/conf/mediaatwar/index.html

HUMANITARIAN DELEGATION 2004 TO COLOMBIA
You are invited to participate in and be a cosponsor of a humanitarian delegation to two extraordinary communities in Colombia
CACARICA: July 18-August 7, 2004
SAN JOSE DE APARTADO: July 18-31, 2004

THE COMMUNITIES
The communities of Cacarica, Chocó province, and San José de Apartadó, Antioquia province, have histories of courageous nonviolent resistance to the predatory violence of armed groups in Colombia's long-running civil war.  Both have declared their refusal to cooperate with the armed groups, to give them information or even sell them food.  Both have lost many members by assassinations, massacres, and forced disappearances. Both continue to face economic blockades, legal harassment, and threats of violence.  The FOR has a permanent accompaniment team living in San José de Apartadó. Chicagoans for a Peaceful Colombia has long-standing relationships with Cacarica.

THE DELEGATION
The delegation, members of sponsoring organizations plus other professionals, church leaders and volunteers, will visit the communities and lend them support in various ways. Our careful attention - listening, watching, asking questions - honors and encourages them deeply in the midst of their sometimes terrifying struggle to survive. Besides spending time in the communities, we will meet with NGOs, grassroots organizations, and government and diplomatic officials in Bogotá and Medellín.

COST
Cost for each delegate is $1,400; this includes all expenses in Colombia, including in-country travel.  Round-trip airfare to Colombia is additional.  Fundraising tips can be provided if needed.

CONTACT
Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach
Fellowship of Reconciliation,
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
2017 Mission St. #305, San Francisco, CA 94110
415-495-6334; fax: 415-495-5628
forcolombia@igc.org
www.forusa.org


 
 


School of the Americas Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
March 29, 2004
San Jose Website - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
Los Angeles Website - www.soaw-la.org
National Website - www.soaw.org
  • NEW RESEARCH FINDINGS on SOA/WHINSEC
  • CALL CONGRESS THIS WEEK in coordination with Washington, DC Lobby Days.  Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
  • WHINSEC has a new COMMANDANT, Colonel Gil Perez
  • "Campaign of Fear in SALVADORAN ELECTIONS," a report by Rachel Montgomery, will be forwarded in a separate e-mail.

SOA Watch has astounding new research that incriminates the training at SOA/WHISC.  We are planning to release the information in a briefing on Capitol Hill to Congressional Representatives and the Media on March 29, 2004.

Summary of the NEW RESEARCH INFORMATION:

Point 1 - The SOA/WHISC claims that all their applicants must undergo a stringent 5-step vetting process. "Specifically, Chiefs of Missions should ensure that all nominees for training or travel grants, military or civilian, in country or in the U.S., are scrutinized for records of human rights abuses, corruption, or criminal activities that would render them ineligible or inappropriate for U.S. training programs."

In practice, however, the screening process for applicants to SOA/WHISC is mostly cosmetic. There are a number of students with well-documented prior histories of human rights abuses in their home countries subsequently studying at SOA/WHISC.  Hence SOA/WHISC is still actively supporting human rights abusers.

In a well known and high profile case, Col. Francisco del Cid Diaz was investigated by the 1992 U.N. mandated El Salvadorian Truth Commission as having bound, beat, and shot 16 residents from the Los Hojas cooperative of the Asociacion Nacional de Indigenas. Despite record of this massacre in the State Department Human Rights Record Country Reports, Col. del Cid Diaz attended WHISC in 2003. While a Captain, Urzagaste Rodriguez, was one of those responsible for the kidnap and torture of Waldo Albarracin, then the director of the Popular Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia, the now Major took a 49-week officer training course at WHISC in 2002.  Three Colombian police officers were under investigation for personal use of counter-narcotics funds at the same time they attended the WHISC in 2002-03. You can view the names of these graduates in our briefing paper (see link below).

Point 2 - a 1995 Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) study undermines the claim that the Army planned to close the SOA forever and that WHISC is a completely new institution with a new mission. The main objective was to have the public forget about negative publicity surrounding recent horrifying public revelations.

Point 3 - In a 2003 thesis study, entitled, "Trained to Torture: A Statistical Analysis of Human Rights Violations Committee by Graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas, 1960 - 2000", submitted to the University of Wisconsin - Madison as part of a Master of Science Degree, Katherine McCoy studies this question:  "Does U.S. Military training help improve human rights in other countries by providing a powerful alternative example of how to be both effective and professional, or erode human rights by providing the legitimacy and resources to perpetuate abuses?"

Download and familiarize yourself with the briefing paper that has been prepared by the SOA Watch Legislative Working Group, which includes local activists, David Mezzera and Theresa Cameranesi.

Full NEW RESEARCH briefing paper (4 pages)
     PDF version: www.soaw.org/*/newresearch.pdf
     html version: www.soaw.org/new/article.php

We need you to be a part of a coordinated grassroots effort to educate Members of Congress about these new findings. Incorporate this new information into your talking points about the SOA/WHISC and use them for the NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS THIS WEEK.  This coordinated effort of activists across the country will make Congress feel the full effect of SOA Watchers!

Urge your Representative to support HR 1258.
Urge Senators to support legislation to close the SOA/WHISC .

Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

COLONEL GIL PEREZ featured by WVTM, GA on March 12, 2004
A Cuban immigrant is now running the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which has been the focus of protesters who accuse the school of training soldiers who have committed crimes in Latin America.  Colonel Gil Perez becomes the second commandant of the institute, formerly known as the Army School of the Americas.  He takes over for Colonel Richard Downie who has retired after more than 28-years in the Army.  Downie spent the last three years serving as the first commandant of WHINSEC.  Perez says the school has nothing to hide, and he wants to educate the protesters about the institute.  Perez says he has experienced a life of restrictions on citizens in Cuba and the free life known by Americans.  He says democracy is the better option.  Perez immigrated to the United States in 1962.  He graduated from Miami's Florida International University and received his Army commission in 1977.  Before coming to Fort Benning, he was chief of staff of the U-S Army South, which was then headquartered in Puerto Rico.

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[For archived news from previous posting,
click on: February.]