[Iowa-dx] FW: Costa Rica Announces Withdrawal from SOA/WHINSEC!

[Libris Fidelis]

SOME GREAT NEWS ON WHO IS PULLING OUT OF TERRORISM
UNIVERSITY!  BUT WHY WAIT FOR THE CURRENT TRAINEES
TO FINISH THE COURSE ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?  <blink>  <blink>

>From: School of the Americas Watch <info@soaw.org>
>Reply-To: media@soaw.org
>To: LibrisFidelis@hotmail.com
>Subject: Costa Rica Announces Withdrawal from SOA/WHINSEC!
>Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 16:46:59 -0400 (EDT)
>
>SOA WATCH NEWS & UPDATES
>= www.SOAW.org =
>
>May 17, 2007
>
>1. Costa Rica to Cease Training at the SOA/WHINSEC!
>2. Colombian Warlord Confirms Collusion with SOA/WHINSEC Graduates
>
>=============================================
>COSTA RICA TO CEASE TRAINING AT THE SOA/WHINSEC
>=============================================
>
>Costa Rican President Oscar Arias announced Wednesday that Costa Rica
>will cease to send police to train at the U.S. Army Ft. Benning facility 
>after
>citing its history of involvement in military coups and human rights abuses
>throughout Latin America.
>
>Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the decision after talks with a
>delegation of the School of the Americas Watch, including the Rev. Roy
>Bourgeois (founder of SOA Watch) and Lisa Sullivan Rodriguez of the
>SOA Watch Latin America Project who traveled to Mexico and Costa Rica
>to meet with human rights organizations, community organizers and
>political leaders.
>
>Costa Rica has no army, but has sent approximately 2,600 police officers
>over the years to be trained at the school. Minor Masis, leader of Costa
>Rica's former "Comando Cobra" anti-drug squad attended the School in
>1991 and returned to Costa Rica, only to serve a 42-year jail term for
>rape and murder committed during a 1992 drug raid. Costa Rica currently
>has three policemen at the center.
>
>"When the courses end for the three policemen we are not going to
>send any more," Arias said.
>
>Costa Rica is the fourth country to announce a withdrawal from the
>SOA/WHINSEC. In 2006, the governments of Argentina and Uruguay
>announced that they would cease all training at the school, becoming
>the second and third countries to announce a cessation of training. In
>January of 2004, Hugo Chavez announced that Venezuela would no
>longer send troops to train at the school.
>
>Costa Rica's withdrawal from WHINSEC is a great victory for human rights
>in Latin America. With this major breakthrough, Costa Rica adds its name
>to the list of countries who are rejecting the destructive approach of
>institutions such as the SOA/WHINSEC. Combat training and military
>spending as a means to "solve" social problems does not bring peace and
>democracy.
>
>--> More about this Breaking News! -
>http://www.soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=1368
>
>--> Read More about the Latin America Project -
>http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=1510
>
>--> Email/Fax your Representative urging her/him to Support HR 1707! -
>http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/soaw/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6882
>
>============================================
>COLOMBIAN WARLORD CONFIRMS COLLUSION WITH SOA/WHINSEC
>GRADUATES
>============================================
>
>Salvatore Mancuso, the former Commander of the right wing United
>Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, testified Tuesday that the
>paramilitaries, branded "foreign terrorist organizations" by the U.S. State
>Department in 2001, were aided by high ranking Colombian military
>officers in training and logistics.
>
>Mancuso, testifying in a closed hearing in the city of Medellin, said the
>Colombian state supported the paramilitaries since their creation in the
>1980's and that "paramilitaries are a state policy".
>
>Amongst the military and government officials signaled by Mancuso as
>collaborators are General Rito Alejo del Río, General Martín Carreño
>Sandoval, General Harold Bedoya Pizarro, General Fernando Landazabal,
>Colonel Alfonso Manosalva Flores, and the current Minister of Defense,
>Juan Manuel Santos. The six men received training or served as
>instructors at the U.S. Army School of the Americas and have been
>accused by Mancuso of inciting and promoting paramilitary intervention
>in certain regions of Colombia.
>
>The strategy of using civilian paramilitary groups and death squads to
>avoid government oversight and accountability has been a common
>tactic of SOA/WHINSEC graduates throughout Latin America.
>Salvadoran SOA/WHINSEC graduate and ARENA party founder
>Roberto D'Aubussoin established the Death Squads that were
>responsible for much of the violence in El Salvador in the 1980's.
>General Manuel B. Lucas Garcia, who attended the school in 1965 and
>1970, masterminded the creation of the Civil Defense Patrols in
>Guatemala. Mexico's Jose Ruben Rivas Pena, who took the
>SOA/WHINSEC's elite Command and Staff Course, called for the
>"training and support for self-defense forces or other paramilitary
>organizations in Chiapas" as a response to the Zapatista uprising in
>1994.
>
>The Colombian military is the largest recipient of US military funding
>and training in Latin America and holds over 60% of the seats available
>to attend courses at WHINSEC.
>
>--> Continue Reading -
>  http://www.soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=1369
>
>==========================================
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