Truthout contributor JP Sottile discusses the rebranded School of the Americas, WHINSEC, continued US military involvement in Central American conflicts and global military training with drug traffickers and terrorists replacing Communists.
The long history of US involvement in Central America has its roots in the Monroe Doctrine. President Monroe in a few paragraphs in an address to Congress in 1823 laid out the policy of US primacy in the Western Hemisphere in terms of economic interests and political influence. Fast-forward to the Cold War with the Soviet Union and Central America was one of the bloodiest fronts in the many proxy wars the US fought with its ideological and economic enemy. Truthout Contributor JP Sottile has written about a key component in fighting Cold War battles – and now the wars on drug and terrorism. The US Army School of the Americas in Georgia was the key training facility for Central American groups engaged in right-wing coups and repression in the 1980s. The School of the Americas was officially closed in 2000. However, it quickly returned to operation as the rebranded Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) during the final months of the Clinton Administration. Though the name of the organization has changed, its mission is the same: protect the interests of corporate capitalism through military violence and topple governments and repress groups that threaten those interests through democratic reforms.