The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas

by Lesley Gill

Located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, the School of the Americas (SOA) is a U.S. Army center that has trained more than sixty thousand soldiers and police, mostly from Latin America, in counterinsurgency and combat-related skills since it was founded in 1946. So widely documented is the participation of the School’s graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Lesley Gill goes behind the façade and presents a comprehensive portrait of the School of the Americas. Talking to a retired Colombian general accused by international human rights organizations of terrible crimes, sitting in on classes, accompanying SOA students and their families to an upscale local mall, listening to coca farmers in Colombia and Bolivia, conversing with anti-SOA activists in the cramped office of the School of the Americas Watch—Gill exposes the School’s institutionalization of state-sponsored violence, the havoc it has wrought in Latin America, and the strategies used by activists seeking to curtail it.

Based on her unprecedented level of access to the School of the Americas, Gill describes the School’s mission and training methods and reveals how its students, alumni, and officers perceive themselves in relation to the dirty wars that have raged across Latin America. Assessing the School’s role in U.S. empire-building, she shows how Latin America’s brightest and most ambitious military officers are indoctrinated into a stark good-versus-evil worldview, seduced by consumer society and the “American dream,” and enlisted as proxies in Washington’s war against drugs and “subversion.”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, War, American History, Anthropology, Latin American History

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 13, 2004

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're out of the loop, the School of the Americas is the former name of a Georgia-based military school for officers and others from the various Latin American militaries. Why, you might ask, would a military school in America be training military folks from countries almost all ran by violent, punishing military dictatorships?
Well, your answer is right there. For decades, the SoA was the premier place for all your favorite southern hemisphere maniacs to learn the finer art of warfare, both physical and psychological, with some torture apparently thrown in for good measure. Gill looks at the history of the SoA and a lot of its curriculum. More than this, she goes beyond to look at how this knowledge is applied locally. For example, the "war on drugs" in some places the justification for sending the officer corps to the SoA, quickly becomes a "war on everyone in our way". Peasants and the indigent always suffer the most, and Latin America is no exception.
Gill also looks at the interesting facet of capitalist inculcation, for lack of a better word, where poor Latin American military men and their families are given a taste of American greatness during their semesters in the States, all part and parcel in creating what Gill calls an "imperial military", a cross-border, cross-cultural military behemoth that essentially props up shitty governments America likes, nothing new there.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

There seems to be little reason for the nations of Central America to have standing armies—indeed Costa Rica has never had one. Armies are used in civil wars (large scale slaughter of peasants, workers, students and indigenous people) or occasionally armed struggle against the United States and its proxies although that is usually left to irregular rebel troops that can be mopped up easily enough. Nicaragua was occupied by the United States from 1912 to 1933; U.S. troops took part in “police duty” after an election in Panama in 1918 and stayed for a few years; the civil war in Guatemala, supported and directed by the CIA and State Department, decimated that unfortunate country from 1960 to 1996; the El Salvador civil war was short by comparison—only 12 years from 1981 to 1992. At least 75,000 civilians were killed in the Salvadoran civil war, over 200,000 in Guatemala.

The nations between Mexico and Colombia have spent almost no time fighting each other but have expended years in suppressing unrest by their own citizens. One would think that the men who refined the use of death squads and rural massacres wouldn’t need much instruction in their deadly work, just a regular supply (trainloads if possible, thank you) of 5.56 x 45mm NATO rounds along with enough carbines and light machine guns to replace those that are lost, sold or abandoned in the field. When the mission is mass carnage against unarmed civilians—crimes against humanity bordering on genocide—the quantity of ammunition is more important than the quality of those firing the weapons. However, as detailed in Leslie Gill’s book the armed forces of Central and South America have been in regular attendance at The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation--formerly the US Army School of the Americas, more informally as the School for Assassins--so their commanders and civilian leaders must think they are acquiring some valuable knowledge.

The benefits for the United States are clear or it is to the participants if less so to just about everyone else knowledgeable about the SOA. Looking at it with a partisan but meticulously methodical eye, Leslie Gill sees the symbolic dimension as a function of continued domination of Latin America by the United States, both the hardest of hard power—counterinsurgency by mass carnage—and the softer power of updated portrayal of the nineteenth century racist notions of the civilizing effect of European and Euro-Americans, “grounded in economic, cultural and national attributes”.

The training of Latin American military officers at Fort Benning conflates legitimate political and civic opposition with armed rebellion. For example "local or national political parties that have goals, beliefs or ideologies contrary or in opposition to the National Government" are named as targets for counterintelligence operations including student groups, trade unions and most civil society organizations even those that seem apolitical. Teaching illiterate campesinos to read would be branded as dangerous and subversive to most Central American governments. Manuals used at the school have warned against and shown how to counter “subverting the government by means of elections in which the insurgents cause the replacement of an unfriendly government official to one favorable to their cause"—keep in mind that this is part of training provided to military officers by the military of the United States.

An indication of the civilizing mission of the school is that alumni included 48 out of the 69 Salvadoran military personnel named in the UN Truth Commission's report for human rights violations, over 100 Colombian military officers" linked human rights abuses, several Peruvian military officers who took part in the planning and implementation of the 1992 mass killing of university students and many Honduran grads participated in Battalion 316, the clandestine army unit charged with torturing and “disappearing” opponents of the regime.

Some of the details of “The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas” are dated. There have been cosmetic reforms of the lipstick on a pig variety—a short class in respect for human rights has been added to the curriculum, segregation by race, mirroring the policies of the invited armed forces, has been officially abolished. But even though it was written in 2004 but it is clear that the mission of establishing U.S. influence and control of the officer corps of Latin American military continues unabated.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just to clarify - while the book does mention many countries in passing, this is overwhelmingly focused on South America. The author's case studies involved interviewing trainees and the American trainers associated with anti-coca campaigns in Colombia and Bolivia. While Honduras, El Salvador, etc. do all make appearances (enough for me to learn about them), they are more of an aside in the grand scheme of the book.

On page 57 the author writes about ethnographic seduction - about the pitfall where ethnographers doing case studies can begin to go too strong in their rapport and uncritically accept everything that their informants say about themselves. The author interviews a wide range of people - US military personnel, Colombian and Bolivian soldiers, coca farmers, activists, bureaucrats, priests, random pawnshop workers.

A great strength of this book is that while the author makes their opinion very clear from page 1 - that the US uses SOA to create footsoldiers for (neo)imperial control - they are able to set that aside to give a fair presentation and analysis of all these myriad perspectives. While never shaking from their moral foundations, they are able to carefully consider the interests and perspectives of people that virulently disagree with, as well as to critically assess the truth-value from informants that they are more sympathetic to. This isn't "both-sidsing" the issue at all, because the author still makes her opinion clear - but it is helpful to see that she can really hear what the officers are saying before she (correctly) critiques them in her writing.

This book has 8 chapters which focus on the following:

Ch. 1 - Founding of SOA as a place to introduce LatAm soldiers to middle class white military officers in Georgia.

Ch. 2 - What a class is actually like; the author sat in on lectures and spoke to students.

Ch. 3 - The history from the 1940s to about the 1980s, including talking to former students and trainees. This focuses on Central America and the Cold War, as well as the Dominican Republic, Argentina, and Bolivia.

Ch. 4 - This follows the career of one SOA student who was first inducted into the Bolivian military in the 1970s. What is interesting is that he didn't even want to be a solider - he was conscripted and forced to stay on.

Ch. 5 - The Command and General Staff course, and how it is used by the US to mold Latin America's officer class and thereby influence LatAm militaries significantly.

Ch. 6 - How even one US official regards the role of LatAm militaries as defending their countries' domestic status quos rather than defending the nation, and how this view percolates through the SOA students.

Ch. 7 - The Colombian and Bolivian gov't campaigns against coca farmers.

Ch. 8 - The anti-SOA movement in the 1990s in the US.

And the conclusion wraps up with a bigger picture of US imperialism, especially in the wake of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars (the book was printed in 2004).

This is solid book about SOA influence, and the author is fantastic at both communicating her opinion (which I agree with) while giving fair analyses to the diverse cast of informants.

[Margot O’Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you’re bored and pick up a book that your professor told you to read forever ago and accidentally find your dissertation topic

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

a decent look at the shame of our nation--a torture training school on u.s. soil, paid for by u.s. tax dollars, hidden in plain sight at fort benning in columbus, ga.

[Jacques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this read. I guess my only gripe is that it focuses a lot on the personalities of the School of the Americas members (Gill is an anthropologist so it makes sense) and sometimes does not balance with the human carnage of the graduates. But that was the point of this text, not to retell the violence but to look at its causes from the perspective of these American funded graduates. Otherwise I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about US imperialism in Central/South America.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the pedigree, history, identity and atrocities of its graduates, the US ought to be goddamn ashamed! In fact they were so much, they [closed it down -- no...] RENAMED the fucking thing about 20 years ago. How many more genocidal, terroristic fascist maniacs can we keep putting on thrones throughout the Americas as we spend another century overthrowing democratically elected governments? Recommended.

[Sarah Skinner · Rating 5 out of 5]

a well-written ethnographic study written on the school of the Americas and it’s role in building and maintaining a repressive military apparatus that propped up US empire in the Latin Americas during the Cold War/dirty wars of Latin America by manipulating and controlling Latin American security forces through military training. Gill has great access to sources and such amazing interviews, eye-opening!!!

[Rick Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A challenging read for anyone who is not well-versed in Latin American history in relation to the US. However, there is much to be learned if you take your time. I enjoyed this book and learned a lot. Great read for the history of the SOA and it's role in the present difficulties in Central America. This is why there is such a flood of immigration.

[Shae Lifson · Rating 5 out of 5]

harsh tokes

[James Midkiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful and interesting analysis: Lesley Gill is a good investigator although she could write in a more objective style.

[Jeneane Sorensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening

Extensive research. Well written. Useful for my paper on SOA
I was very impressed with the facts presented as well as being appalled at the events

[Marla McMackin · Rating 4 out of 5]

School of the Americas is anthropologist Lesley Gill’s examination of “how the United States constructs a repressive military apparatus, in a region long considered by many to be its ‘back-yard,’ through the lens of the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas” (p. 6). Over ten chapters, Gill doesn’t present any new history of the controversial military training center, but instead traces related empire building relationships through the experiences of three groups – U.S. and Latin American military personnel, peasants in coca-producing regions of Columbia and Bolivia, and members of a grassroots movement dedicated to closing down the school.

U.S. efforts to train Latin American military personnel date back to 1939, when courses were first offered at bases in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1946, the U.S. Army established the Latin American Ground School, which was renamed the School of the Americas (SOA) in 1963. It remained in Panama until 1984, when it was moved to Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia as the Panamanian government prepared to take control of the Canal Zone. The training center came under fire in the 1990s, when a list of graduates revealed the names of “some of the hemisphere’s most notorious dictators, death squad operatives, and assassins (who had taken) part in some of the worst human rights atrocities of the cold war” (p. 137). The SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001 in an effort to clean up its tarnished reputation, but “remained dedicated, as it always had been, to training new cohorts of officers ready to defend the ramparts of the American empire” (p. 233).

As an anthropologist, Gill’s work relies heavily on personal observation and interpretation of experience, both personal and otherwise. She is not concerned with uncovering any new facts about the SOA, but constructing new meaning from its history. What emerges is a multi-faceted analysis of the military training center as an imperialist tool for building and maintaining an empire. Gill first puts her examination in context with a consideration of the ways different soldiers experience life in Georgia and at the SOA and how officials there justify its mission and combat claims that it is a school of assassins. Next, she examines the growth of the training center during the Cold War and then the experiences of one Bolivian trainee.

The most compelling arguments are presented in two chapters that analyze how the SOA builds ties to future senior officers in Latin American militaries and how those ties operate as the students return home. Her conclusion: “The new opportunities offered to rising members of the Latin American officer corps…secured their collusion in the U.S. imperial project to a considerable degree. The SOA represented much more than a combat training center…It incorporated upwardly mobile officers into a transnational world of power and privilege, and it presented them with possibilities for advancing their social and economic interests at home.” (p. 235). Gill gives equal attention to those living in coca-growing regions of Columbia and Bolivia, where she argues the war on drugs not only provides justification for continued U.S. military intervention that includes recruitment to the SOA, but also creates a culture of impunity that supports state-sponsored violence toward peasants and results in deepening social fragmentation.

Finally, Gill examines the development of an ongoing movement to close the SOA and end military training for Latin American security, including the tactics used and successes and failures. She concludes that despite the pressure, “the policies that gave birth to the SOA at the dawn of the cold war, and then spawned the invasions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, and Panama, generated the Contras, trained death squads, and supported right-wing military dictators from Rios Montt in Guatemala to Pinochet in Chile, will remain in place” (P. 243-44). And with these policies, military training centers similar to the School of the Americas.

Although Gill remained objective during her time at the SOA and during interviews, it is apparent she sides with those who would like to see the training center shut down. Michael D. Gambone of Kutztown University of Pennsylvania asserts that School of the Americas is less a history of the controversial military institution than a lengthy rationale for its closure and an overhaul of American foreign policy. J. Patrice McSherry of Long Island University called it a useful study of the SOA and a good introduction for students, but I do not agree. The work is certainly a thought-provoking read, but students of history will want to start this study elsewhere.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a one-sided book. Gill takes the stance that all US military intervention has caused harm to Latin America. I will agree that we have not had the best success with our policies toward the region, but none of the negative side-effects were intended to be malicious. Gill presents the SOA as if it were the one symbol for the US attempts to corrupt and manipulate the governments of Latin America. Although she talks with some school officials, she does not spend sufficient time explaining their side of the controversy. She does take a critical look at the protesters and show how the movement turned from a serious fundamental disagreement into a circus of fanfare. This is an interesting book and it provides good information, albeit a little skewed. Nevertheless, this is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand Latin America. I just recommend that you also read something from the other perspective.

[nell · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent connections between structural, repressive, and symbolic violence. as usual, lesley is amazing.

[Cherie · Rating 3 out of 5]

B Wondering what the real hype is behind the school in the U.S. that trains military from Central America - and what they train them? Woah, no wonder things are really messed up.

[Margaret Adams]

Found and read while staying at a hostel in Guatemala. Topical to say the least.