Still training to torture? US training of military forces from Latin America

Abstract

It is widely assumed that the School of the Americas (SOA), a US training school for Latin American military forces, advocated repression during the Cold War. To demonstrate this, previous research has tended to focus on establishing correlations between training and specific human rights abuses by individuals trained at SOA. A stronger case can be made through detailed analysis of SOA training manuals within the context of US foreign policy towards the global South. Public protest led to SOA's re-launch in 2001. Most protestors assume that this change was purely cosmetic. Based on extensive fieldwork, I argue that changes were genuine, and the School now has a commendable human rights programme. This is in contrast to most US military training, domestic and foreign, which remains secretive and devoid of adequate human rights instruction. The paper argues that a resurgence of support for repression since 9/11 undermines progress at the School.