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President Barack Obama expressed “deep concern”
over the military coup that ousted democratically elected Honduran
President Manuel Zelaya and called for the “restoration of
constitutional order.” Then he flew to Russia to meet its
president.
For a moment we thought, a US
leader has at last departed from previous policy regarding fascist
military dictatorships in Latin America—which the US invariably
supported (or set up as in Chile) during and after the Cold War. But
nowhere in his Honduras statement has the US president called for
the immediate return of Zelaya to his office.
It appears that US officials are
stalling for the next November elections perhaps to preempt the
likes of Zelaya from being elected or reelected. Zelaya made
Honduras part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or
ALBA, which includes Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Bolivia, El Salvador
and Venezuela), charting new pro-people directions for Latin
America. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in April 2002 was briefly
overthrown in April 2002 by generals (Efraim Vasquez Velasquez and
Ramirez Paredes) who were graduates of the US School of the Americas
(SOA). Chavez is familiar with moves of the US backed elite and
military to unseat him.
The role played by SOA trained
military in installing dictatorships and committing human rights
violations is one of the shameless legacies of the US in Latin
America. Since 1946 the SOA (originally based in Panama and now Fort
Bening, Georgia) has trained 60,000 officers (army and police) from
17 Latin American countries, with Colombia having 10,000 alumni and
Nicaragua, Panama, and Bolivia having more than 4,000 alumni each.
Expectedly topnotcher Colombia has the “worst human rights records
in Latin America.” (SOA Watch).
Honduras has 3,697 SOA graduates,
with Gen. Juan M. Castro becoming military dictator in 1975. Two
other generals (Policarpio P. Garcia and Humberto Regalado) in
1980-1982 were involved in founding the Battalion 3-16 death squads
with the help of Argentinian SOA graduates.
Panama president Jorge Illueca,
who had the SOA removed from his country in 1984, called it “the
biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” Others called
SOA the “school for dictators,” “school for assassins,” and
“nursery of death squads.” Techniques taught in SOA were applied
in other countries as well like Vietnam (Operation Phoenix) and the
Philippines (ever since). Training may be in Fort Benning or in
military exercises (like Balikatan).
The SOA curriculum includes
psychological warfare, counter-insurgency, interrogation techniques,
torture, and liquidation methods. It teaches soldiers “how to
subvert the truth, muzzle union leaders, activist clergy and
journalists, and make war on their own people . . . to subdue voices
of dissent.” It instructs students in the “techniques of
marginalizing the poor, the hungry, and dispossessed . . . to stamp
out freedom and terrorize their own citizens.” (Third World
Traveller).
Now called the “Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation” the SOA has trained
100,000 military and police officers and soldiers from 150
countries.
The Philippine military and
police has had its full share of the training. Is it a wonder why
the country has a dismal human rights record of extrajudicial
killings, torture, unexplained disappearances of persons, and
suppression of dissent?
The US under Obama has not made
any headway in winning hearts and minds in Latin America with the
continued blockade of Cuba, covert CIA activity to disrupt ALBA, and
a cavalier statement on the naked grab of power in Honduras. Now
that he has dismantled the Guantánamo detention center he may well
support the Kennedy bill abolishing the SOA.
Kalayaan College
This school that used to be in
Riverside, Marikina, has moved to a four-story building on 22 Manga
Road (cor. Aurora Boulevard) in New Manila, Quezon City, next to the
Betty Go Belmonte LRT 2 Station. Founded about five years ago
Kalayaan College (KC) is described as a “cooperative of UP
professors” founded as it was by retired UP professors and
administrators including former President Jose V. Abueva, economics
Prof. Gonzalo Jurado, biology Prof. Virginia Samson, English Prof.
Thelma B. Kintanar, and former UP registrar Emeteria Lee, with a
teaching faculty from the UP campus on a part-time basis and retired
professors (some on full time). Most have Ph.Ds.
Many students come from those who
seek “UP quality education” but found themselves a little below
the high cut-off point of the UPCAT list of successful examinees.
For all intents and purposes, they are as good and motivated as
those who make it in UP. I should know for I taught two semesters in
a very innovative literature curriculum designed by professor
Kintanar, Ph.D, Stanford. I had to stop because of the distance from
Cavite to Marikina. Now I devote my extra time to teaching students
at Imus Institute nearby.
President Abueva told incoming
students last June that KC is committed not only to learning but
also to helping build character by developing “habits of mind”
(knowing), “habits of heart” (feeling and conviction), and
“habits of action” (putting knowledge, feeling, and conviction
for the benefit of self and the common good).
eaordonez2000@yahoo.com
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