New name won’t bring change
I want to express my appreciation for the excellent and comprehensive article published in your paper concerning the protest on Jan. 17 urging the closure of the Army School of the Americas (SOA). On that day, there were protests in 35 cities on three continents. Countries included Germany, Austria, Canada, Honduras and Chile, as well as many actions in the United States. We were protesting the reopening of the SOA under a new name, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Numerous human rights groups, including United Nations truth commissions, Amnesty International and Americas Watch, have documented the involvement and leadership of SOA graduates in atrocities, from the assassination of Archbishop Romero, six Jesuit priests and four Catholic religious in El Salvador in the 1980s, to the current relationship between the military, including SOA graduates, and paramilitary atrocities in Colombia. SOA troops have used their skills against their own people. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred and forced into refuge. Yet the Army School of the Americas has never admitted to its legacy of torture and oppression nor taken responsibility for the actions of its notorious graduates.
Will there be dramatic changes with this new name? The late Sen. Paul Coverdell, an SOA supporter, said that the changes would be “cosmetic.” Rep. Maxine Waters said, “Cold War, Drug War, whatever they call it, it is still a war against the poor.”

Peg Morton

Eugene