Text of: 801-NonDis
The Committee recommends concurrence as amended as follows:The United Methodist Church calls upon the US President and the US Congress to close the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning, Georgia.
History
The SOA was established by the US in 1946 in Panama to promote stability and combat communism in the region. It moved to Ft. Benning, Georgia in 1984 under terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Panama's President Jorge Illueca called it the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America," and a major Panamanian newspaper called it "The School of the Assassins." The School trains 900-2,000 soldiers a year from Latin America and the Caribbean. In its 50-year history, the SOA has trained more than 60,000 military personnel.
Controversy about the School continued with the release in March 1993, of the United Nations Truth Commission Report on El Salvador. This report indicated that 48 military officers cited for human rights violations were trained at the SOA. Other findings in the report about SOA graduates:
-19 of the 26 officers involved in the 1989 murders of Jesuit priests and the subsequent cover-up;
- 2 of the three soldiers involved in the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero;
- 3 of the five soldiers involved in the 1980 murder of US church women;
- all three soldiers cited for the 1981 murder of union leaders;
- 2 of 3 cited for the 1981 El Junquillo massacre;
- 10 of 12 cited for the 1981 El Mozote massacre;
- 3 of 6 cited for the 1983 Las Hojas massacre; and
- 6 of 7 cited for the 1988 San Sebastian massacre.
In September 1996, the Department of Defense (DoD) released copies and translations of seven Spanish-language training manuals taken out of circulation in 1991 when the DoD discovered material and passages condoning murder, torture, kidnaping and extortion. According to the DoD, the manuals had been used from 1982 to 1991 by instructors at the SOA and by mobile training teams of the US Southern Command. The material in these manuals violated US law. The DoD ordered the manuals and their source material destroyed.
US Foreign Policy Context
According to Jeffrey Davidow, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, US foreign policy objectives for Latin America and the Caribbean are: to promote free trade and economic integration in order to enhance economic development and assist American business; to strengthen democracy and the rule of law to ensure that the values and principles that have
guided the US thrive throughout the hemisphere; to combat drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and environmental degradation to minimize the impact of these transnational problems; and to encourage sustainable development and poverty alleviation programs to improve living standards for all citizens of the region (testimony by Jeffrey Davidow before the House International Relations Committee, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, 3/19/97).
Davidow also stated that, "Disparities in income, inadequate health and education, fragile democracies and the narcotics trade create conditions of tremendous cost and risk to US national interests." The two Summits of the Americas (Miami, 1994 and Santiago, 1998) put forward the vision of a hemisphere of free trade, strong democratic institutions, and fewer problems with drugs, environmental degradation and poverty. But the reality is that US assistance to the region is at an all-time low.
The SOA is not the kind of assistance Latin America needs. The School's original goal of fighting communism in the region is not valid. The real security "threat" to the US from Latin America is the poverty that exists there, forcing people to migrate to already overcrowded cities, or further north. Faced with starvation, some Latin American people have become involved in the drug trade.
US foreign policy objectives do not take into consideration the needs of the people of Latin America. Where they appear to do so, these objectives in practice contradict each other. Through our continued military training in Latin America, we have maintained a relationship of control and obligation to the power elite. We have traded our focus on fighting communism to free trade and economic expansion. Access to resources has been restricted to the few business, government and military elite. This reality has kept most of the Latin American population in poverty. Most of the people do not see the benefits of free trade and economic development. Military rulers and rulers supported by the military have prevailed at the expense of human rights and freedoms.
Expanding the principles which have guided the US may not be greeted warmly by the people of Latin America. Continuing to favor military institutions over democratic movements is not the route to sustainable communities in Latin America. The principles which result in our policy have led to the oppression and suffering of many people in Latin America. If given a choice, many citizens in Latin America would probably opt for the prevalence of their own rich culture, allowed to flourish unimpeded by selfish, outside interests, and not for an imported version of what the US has decided is best for them. As Christians, we cannot support such condescension. The United Methodist Bishops have stated, "It is not the function of Christian witness to "westernize," "easternize," "Americanize," or in other ways acculturate human attitudes and responses. It is the function of the Christian to bring the full dimensions of a gospel of love and justice to bear upon the human situation." An enemy of peace, as outlined by the Bishops, is economic exploitation. "With networks of economic and military interests intruding into almost every land, [the "superpowers"] frustrate authentic self-determination, manipulate power relationships, and disturb the essential ingredients of international community." (Both quoted statements are from the "Bishops' Call for Peace and Self-Development of Peoples.")
The government's most recent justification for the SOA is to train soldiers to combat narco-terrorism in Latin America. This allows the SOA to accuse its opponents of being "soft" on fighting the international drug trade.This sudden shift in public relations strategy has occurred at a time when some Latin American military officers training at the School have been accused of laundering drug money and participating in the drug trade.
Closing the SOA may seem like a small step in the overall US foreign policy scheme, but it is an important symbol of US policy toward Latin America. Closing the School would send a message to the people of Latin America and encourage the emergence of policies that create real security in the region. At a time when we are looking for real assistance for Latin America, the SOA should not be seen as a substitute for that.
The SOA claims thatThough the percentage of its students who have been implicated in atrocities is small. The question must not be what number or percentage of SOA trained soldiers have been involved in atrocities, but how people have been victimized by SOA trained soldiers. The question must be how to best use limited natural, economic and human resources to create real security in the hemisphere. US foreign policy must be guided by an ethic that is based on long-range objectives and real security. Advancing policies that continue to impoverish most Latin American citizens, or even maintaining the status quo is unacceptable to us as Christians. From a security and foreign policy standpoint they don't make sense either. Establishing acceptable living conditions for all the people of the Americas should be our goal. The SOA is not a means to that end. As the United Methodist Bishops stated in the 1992 Episcopal Address:
"Peacemakers of the world must insist that the arms trade and all military assistance programs for poor nations must cease . . . The common enemy of humanity is militarism . . . We will have no peace on or with the earth until the people of the earth live together in the harmony of a just social order."
Action:
Based on our historical advocacy for human rights and against the militarization of societies, The United Methodist Church urges the US President and the Congress to act immediately to close the US Army School of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Georgia. The $20 million in funding provided to the School annually should be used to support sustainable living and conflict resolution in Latin America, not to further militarize societies.
We urge all United Methodists in the United States to work actively to close the School
of the Americas and to educate and inform others about closing the School. United Methodists are encouraged to contact the President, their Senators and Representatives to support legislation to close the School.
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