| The "School of the Americas" in Georgia should be shut down. |
| [A]t least six of the military officers who implemented the [June 28, 2009 military coup that overthrew the legitimate government of Honduras] and the subsequent Iran-like repression of pro-democracy protests are graduates of the (in)famous "School of the Americas." The SOA, providing US training to Latin American military personnel, has long been known throughout Latin America as the "School of Coups," or sometimes the "School of Assassins," because so many coup plotters and abusers of human rights have trained there. The coup leaders in Honduras, Generals Romeo Vasquez and Luis Suazo, are both SOA alumni, twice so in the case of Vasquez, and other coup plotters are also SOA grads. Although the SOA has officially changed its name to "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," the old epithet "school of coups" evidently still fits. And despite the coup, Honduran soldiers are still training at the SOA as if nothing had changed.
Source: "Honduras: Lessons From the Coup: Or, Why Are We in Honduras Anyhow?" by: John Lamperti, t r u t h o u t.org - 30 August 2009 [A]fter Wednesday's [August 12, 2009] attack [on protesters in Houndouras]... the knowledge that many people had been beaten, and something more deep and ominous which was responsible for the collective dread I was sensing around me. People felt powerless and impotent with the knowledge that dozens had been detained, were likely being subjected to torture and there was virtually nothing they could do to stop it. The "Security Adviser" for the Micheletti regime [that instigated the coup in Hondouras in 2009] is the infamous Billy Joya, dreaded for his participation in Battalion 316, one of the death squad organizations from the 1980s. His "specialty" is inflicting terror by targeting children or other family members for torture and disappearance. He is, of course, one of the many death squad thugs trained in torture at the School of The Americas. Source: |
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