Human Rights Violators Essay, Research Paper

Human Rights Violators

The School of the Americas was opened in 1946. It originated in Panama. As a result of the Panama Canal Treaty in 1977, the school was relocated to Fort Benning, Georgia (USARSA History). The major objective of the school of the school is to provide military training to Latin American and US military personal. Their main objectives are to promote democracy and human rights. US foreign policy, military counter drug policy and civil patrol are also among the objectives of the school.

With that bit of history I believe the School of the Americas should be shut down. Their graduates have been linked to many atrocities that range from human-rights violations to assassinations. The school does not live up to its promise and therefore should be shut down. The main reasons the school should be shut down are: the necessity of the school, the money it costs to operate the school, and the atrocities committed by their graduates.

The school was founded in 1946. This came after the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. During the forty years of the Cold War the United States

would train people to overthrow communist governments that

were in control of their country at the time. In order to train these people in large quantities the school was set up. That was back in the day when people had to worry about whether or not the Russians were going to launch a nuclear missile at the United States.

The Cold War ended when the Iron Curtain fell. Since the main objective of the school was to teach containment of communism they should have closed the doors at that point in time. At the time of the Cold War, that was to be expected. Most of the countries in Latin America have established governments in place and have nothing to fear except a possible natural disaster.

Within the past couple of months Rep. Joe Moakley, from the state of Massachusetts, introduced an amendment that would cut funding for the School of the Americas (USARSA). The proposed cut would be approximately two million dollars. And according to the US Army School of the Americas website, the proposed budget cut would cut the school s current budget in half. In all practical purposes the budget cut would shut down the school.

The plan to cut the funding to the school is a good idea. That would free up two million dollars that could be used for social security or other federally funded

programs. The money would be better spent on people who actually need the help.

With the money that would be saved by closing the school, the United States could help the governments and the citizens of Latin American countries in a none military way. The money could be given to given as loans and the government of the country receiving the money could use it to train their military. And the United States could even monitor the ways in which the money is spent. That would ensure that money is being spent on the right programs. The United States or even the United Nations could look at their training tactics and make sure torture is not part of their curriculum.

There is no need to train people of other militaries or even our military on how to torture someone. That is why the United Nations has laws that state the proper way to interrogate a person in custody. The law states that violence to the health, life, physical, or mental well-being in particular, murder as well as cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any other form of corporal punishment (Protection of Victims). This leads into my next reason why the School of the Americas should be closed.

There are at least a handful of crimes against

humanity that have been committed by graduates of the School of the Americas. The crimes include the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador. Two of the three officers involved were graduates of the School of the Americas. Nineteen of the twenty-six persons involved in the death of the six Jesuit priests and their two female companions were graduates of the school. The notorious drug kingpin and former leader of Nicaragua, General Manuel Noriega, is also a graduate of the School of the Americas. A handful of death squads in Honduras were formed by graduates of the School of the Americas (School of the Americas Watch).

The above named incidents were not random, but well thought out plans of attack. They also involved military skills taught their commanding officers at the School of the Americas. The above named above continue to happen today. The most recent to date is 1994. The event involved the murder of nine university students and professors in Peru. Some of the highest-ranking officials involved in the murder were graduates of the school (Shut Down the School of the Americas). The tactics learned by these human rights violators were learned on US soil. It is sad that the US would allow its own people to teach tactics of torture and

information that could be used to commit crimes against humanity.

There are two main arguments as to why the School of the Americas should remain open. The first involves the graduates of the school. The second is tied into the first, in that it deals with human rights.

There have been over fifty thousand graduates from the School of the Americas. A very small percentage of the graduates have been linked to crimes against humanity. That still does not give them the right to continue training the people tactics that could be misunderstood. The curriculm should be more specific and place less emphasis on counterinsurgency.

Human rights are taught to each and every cadet and officer that takes any class at the School of the Americas. They might take the course but they might not understand what is taught to them. The class might be taught but might not go into much detail about specific human rights policy.

The School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, should be closed. A number of their graduates have committed numerous crimes against humanity. Also, the money that could be saved by closing the school is a large sum of money. That money could go towards government projects.