HR 2567- Suspend Operations at the SOA/WHINSEC

Summary: The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians.

In an attempt to deflect public criticism and disassociate the school from its dubious reputation, the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001. The name change was a result of a Department of Defense proposal included in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal 2001, at a time when SOA opponents were poised to win a congressional vote on legislation that would have dismantled the school. The name-change measure passed when the House of Representatives defeated a bi-partisan amendment to close the SOA and conduct a congressional investigation by a narrow ten-vote margin.

HR 2567 recognizes that the change that occurred in 2001 was primarily a cosmetic change, and that the abuses of graduates in the 80s and 90s have yet to be fully investigated. The bill states that the School would only be closed pending an independent investigation of the so-called torture manuals, and accusations against graduates.

Illinois Co-sponsors:

Melissa L. Bean (IL-8)

Danny K. Davis (IL-7)

Luis V. Gutierrez (IL-4)

Phil Hare (IL-17)

Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL-2)

Bobby L Rush (IL-1)

Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)

For More Information

For the text of HR 2567 and a full list of co-sponsors, click here.

SOA Watch Website