Re: Reagan is the most overrated President of all time by a long shot, no?
http://www.soaw.org/type.php?type=8
The Reagan administration knew about and fully supported the following operation, the same can be said about several other administrations too, both republican and democrat.
What is the SOA?
The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the ?Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,? is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the ?biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.? The SOA, frequently dubbed the ?School of Assassins,? has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.
Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, ?disappeared,? massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.
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Official seal of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
The
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (
WHISC or
WHINSEC), formerly the
School of the Americas (
SOA;
Spanish:
Escuela de las Am?ricas) is a
United States Department of Defense facility at
Fort Benning near
Columbus, Georgia in the United States.
Between 1946 and 2001, the SOA trained more than 61,000
Latin American soldiers and policemen. Some of them became notorious for
human rights violations, including generals
Leopoldo Galtieri,
Efra?n R?os Montt and
Manuel Noriega,
dictators such as
Bolivia's
Hugo Banzer, some of
Augusto Pinochet's officers<sup id="cite_ref-SOA_WATCH_0-0" class="reference">
[1]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-George_Davies_1-0" class="reference">
[2]</sup>, and the founders of
Los Zetas, a
mercenary army for one of Mexico's largest drug trafficking organizations, the
Gulf Cartel.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference">
[3]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference">
[4]</sup> The
terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was educated there in 1961, although he never graduated.<sup id="cite_ref-CNN_4-0" class="reference">
[5]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-Lawyers_Guide_5-0" class="reference">
[6]</sup><sup id="cite_ref-NSARCHIVE_6-0" class="reference">
[7]</sup> Critics of the school argue that the education encouraged such practices and that this continues in the WHINSEC. This is denied by the WHINSEC and its supporters who argue that the alleged connection is weak. According to the WHINSEC, the education now emphasizes
democracy and
human rights.