School of Americas Debated Again

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Via Cursor, I see the House is debating yet again whether to close the School of Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). Here’s a good, totally objective place for background. Here too. Already, four South American countries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and Uruguay) have in recent years stopped sending their officers for training at the school, which has graduated 62,000 officers and 11 dictators throughout its history, including Efraín Ríos Montt, Augusto Pinochet, and Roberto D’Aubuisson, the founder of death squads in El Salvador. Odds are, the House won’t vote to shut the school down (Rep. Jim McGovern has been trying to get this done for years now), but might as well note the effort…

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