July 14, 2003
School of the Americas

In Counterpunch, a report on the U.S. government's 3 year old Plan Colombia, 1.3 billion dollars to fight the war on drugs.

(While we wait for the decision whether Rios Montt will be allowed to run for president of Guatemala.)

SOA Watch: Training Colombia's Killers in the US

From the report:

Many of the Colombian officers cited in the reports graduated from the School of the Americas (SOA) - a US military training institution for Latin American soldiers - and certainly the strategy of using paramilitary groups for the military's dirty work is nothing new for SOA students.

Roberto D'Aubuisson established the Death Squads that were responsible for much of the violence in El Salvador in the 1980's, and Benedicto Lucas Garcia masterminded the creation of the Civil Defense Patrols in Guatemala. Mexico's Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the SOA's elite Command and Staff Course, called for the "training and support for self-defense forces or other paramilitary organizations in Chiapas."

Posted by Dave at July 14, 2003 09:25 PM