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SOA/WHINSEC Grads in the News
February 2008
SOA Grad Convicted for Murder of Narcotics Police
Lt. Byron Carvajal, together with fourteen other Colombian soldiers, face up to 60 years in prison for the murder of ten elite counternarcotics police agents.
Byron Carvajal attended the School of the Americas for Weapons Orientation as a cadet in 1985
Cali, Colombia (AP) - A cashiered army lieutenant colonel and 14 soldiers were convicted Monday of murdering 10 elite counternarcotics police agents in an ambush that showed how deeply drug corruption threatens Colombia's security forces.
Lt. Col. Byron Carvajal and his soldiers face prison sentences of up to 60 years. Prosecutors want Judge Edmundo Lopez to impose the maximum.
The convictions came despite numerous attempts to subvert the trial, including a prosecutor's offer to help the defense in exchange for more than $400,000, senior police officials and prosecutors familiar with the case told The Associated Press.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing investigations, said the bribe was never paid and the prosecutor who sought it had been removed from the case before he made the offer.
Carvajal was convicted of ordering the May 22, 2006, ambush in the town of Jamundi, where an informant told police they would find at least 220 pounds of cocaine at a psychiatric center. When police pulled up, the soldiers cut them down with 420 bullets and seven grenades. No drugs were found.
Carvajal, who was not at the scene, said his soldiers believed they were surprising leftist rebels. The other defendants refused to testify to avoid incriminating themselves.
Defense attorney Eugenio Vergara said the defendants would appeal after April 21 sentencing.
Carvajal claimed innocence even after the verdict, insisting he "had no motive whatsoever to order the murder of these agents."
He and former Lt. Harrison Castro described themselves as wronged patriots: "I've fought so that all you people here today can be free," Castro told the court.
Prosecutors didn't present evidence about suspected motives. Top army officials initially called it tragic "friendly fire." Senior police officials told the AP they believe the soldiers were protecting a major drug trafficker.
One thing is clear, chief prosecutor Mario Iguaran told the AP: "It was a massacre related to organized criminals."
Mafias have long tried to infiltrate security forces, but Colombia's soldiers rarely kill colleagues in the service of drug lords. While witnesses linked Carvajal to Wilson Figueroa, a drug trafficker captured last year in Cali, those ties were not explained.
Colombia has received some $700 million in U.S. foreign aid annually since 2000, much of it for counternarcotics operations.
The slain agents, some of whom trained in the United States, belonged to the most elite unit of Colombia's judicial investigative police, working closely with DEA agents to seize cocaine and arrest traffickers, said Nicolas Munoz, the agency's deputy director.
Most died of shots to the head, neck and chest. In the midst of the fusillade, some managed distress calls, and Gen. Carlos Sanchez issued a radio order to the troops: "Stop. Stop please. Stop, they're police."
Police got off just 30 shots. Not a single soldier was wounded. The courtroom, filled with relatives of the slain officers, was silent as the verdict was read.
January 2008
School of Americas Graduates Implicated in Bogotá Bombings
(by John Lindsay-Poland)
A director of Colombian military intelligence and another officer implicated in a series of false attacks and a bombing that killed a civilian and injured 19 soldiers in Bogotá in 2006, attended the US Army School of the Americas, an examination of records shows.
The Colombian Public Ministry is investigating Colonel Horacio Arbelaez, former director of the Army’s Joint Intelligence Center; Major Javier Efrén Hermida Benavides; and Captain Luis Eduardo Barrero for orchestrating placement of bombs in a Bogota shopping mall and other sites in July 2006, on the eve of President Uribe’s inauguration for his second term. At the time of the bombing and false attacks, they were attributed to guerrillas of the FARC. In most cases, the bombs were not detonated, but were denounced by the accused officers and deactivated to demonstrate the FARC threat and show military intelligence was doing its work.
(Photo: Maj. Hermida and Capt. Barrero)
 Hermida took two courses at the School of the Americas, including a three-month military intelligence intensive in 2000, while Arbelaez took an infantry course at the School in 1981. A statistical study by sociologist Katherine McCoy found that the more courses Latin American officers took at the School, the more likely they were to commit abuses. (Latin American Perspectives, 2005, http://lap.sagepub.com )
In addition, the Army Joint Intelligence Center that Arbelaez directed receives US aid, according to a State Department list of units vetted to receive assistance.
The officers reportedly collaborated with a FARC deserter on placing the bombs, according to tapes, videos and documents. Hermida, who claims his innocence, told a Colombian radio station that the operation at the shopping mall was carried out with knowledge of high military officials.
Hermida and Barrero also face criminal charges for the false attacks, five of which had been united into one case by the Prosecutor General’s office.
Arbelaez, who is now Colombia’s defense attaché in Israel, was previously head of intelligence for the Army’s 18th Brigade. That brigade, based in oil-rich Arauca state, has received extensive assistance and in-country training from US Special Forces.
Press reports identified Hermida and Barrero as belonging to the Army’s 13th Brigade part of which receives US assistance, as well as to a regional military intelligence center that also receives US aid.
August 2007
SOA/WHINSEC Instructors Jailed for Involvement in Colombian Drug Cartel
After barely averting a cut in funding by a six vote margin in Congress and becoming a focus of widespread criticism for its lack of transparency, the SOA/WHINSEC is once again making headlines due to crimes committed by its graduates.
(Photo: Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez, alias "Don Diego")
A recent criminal investigation into the Colombian Army’s Third Brigade, has prompted the arrest of thirteen high ranking officers accused of providing security and mobilizing troops for Diego Montoya (alias “Don Diego”), the leader of the Norte del Valle Cartel and one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted criminals.
Two former instructors of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) are among the thirteen. Colonel Quijano, a former commander of Colombia’s Special Forces, and Major Mora Daza, taught “peacekeeping operations” and “democratic sustainment” at WHINSEC in 2003-2004.
Over HALF of the thirteen military officials implicated in the drug cartel protection ring attended the U.S. Army School of the Americas and/or its successor institute, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Colonel Javier Escobar Matinez, Major Javier Isaza Muñoz, Major William E. Ortegon, General Hernando Perez Molina and retired Major Juan Carlos Agudelo received training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas as part of a U.S. funded assistance program to Colombia in the fight against outlaw paramilitaries and drug cartels. All five are now under arrest for collaborating with the drug cartels they were trained to fight against.
In 2006, Colombian military officers from the Third Brigade ambushed an elite, U.S.-trained anti-drug squad in the Valle town of Jamundí, killing ten policemen. The officer who ordered the attack, Colonel Bayron Carvajal, now under arrest, also attended courses at the School of the Americas.
These events serve as a sad reminder of the consequences of the SOA/WHINSEC’s policies, or lack thereof, regarding the tracking of its students and evaluating the actual results of the training it provides. The school claims to be a tool for furthering democratic values and human rights in the Western Hemisphere yet the facts show that a significant number of its graduates have consistently engaged in human rights violations and criminal activity.
Colombia ranks number one as the largest recipient of military aid in the hemisphere, with an estimated $584 million dollars for 2007, and fifth in the world after countries in the Middle East. It is also the SOA/WHINSEC's biggest client, with over 10,000 graduates. Not surprisingly, it also holds the worst human rights record and is the most violent country in the region, with an estimated 15 deaths per day in military-related violence.
- Read more about this breaking news!
June 2007
Chilean SOA Graduate Fails to Report to Prison
Retired General Raul Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann failed to report to fulfill his 5 year sentence in a Chilean prison on June 12, 2007. He is now considered a fugitive and an arrest warrant has been issued on his behalf. Initially, his family members claimed to not know his whereabouts but he later issued a videotaped statement declaring that he would not go to prison nor would he turn himself in to the authorities over a “human rights” case.
This was the first sentence for “Don Elias” as he was known within the “Brigada Puren”. The former Chief of the Exterior Department of the DINA (Chilean military intelligence agency) was sentenced for his involvement in the disappearance of 21-year old left wing militant Luis Dagoberto San Martin. On June 23, 1995, a court in Rome condemned Raúl Eduardo Iturriaga Neumann “in absentia” to 20 years' imprisonment for coordinating the assassination attempt against Christian Democrat politician and former Vice-President Bernardo Leighton. He and his wife, Ana Fresno, were shot and seriously wounded on September 1975 in Rome. He is also a suspect in plotting the assassination of General Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia Cuthbert in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
General Iturriaga Neumann attended the School of the Americas in Panama in 1965 for a Basic Airborne Course before participating in the 1973 military coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. He then become one of the founding members of the notorious DINA (Direccion Nacional de Inteligencia), General Pinochet's military inteligence unit which carried out the assassinations, kidnappings and disappearances of key political dissidents of the military regime.
As Chief of Exterior for the DINA, Iturriaga Neumann played a significant role in Operation Condor together with other high profile SOA graduates from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. In his book, "The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents" (The New Press, 2004), investigative reporter John Dinges claims that the School of the Americas, then located in Panama, provided material and logistical support to facilitate communications between the military intelligence agencies involved in the operations to target political dissidents abroad.
General Iturriaga was scheduled to enter the Cordillera Penitentiary on June 12, 2007 where other former military officers who were involved in human rights violations during the military dictatorship (1973-1990) are detained. Among the detainees are Gen. Miguel Contreras, Gen. Miguel Krassnoff, Pedro Espinoza, Col. Maximiliano Ferrer Lima, Col. Marcelo Moren Brito, Carlos López Tapia, and Fernando Lauriani Maturana. General Miguel Krassnoff and Brigadier Fernando Lauriani are also SOA graduates; Krassnoff attended the SOA for an “Urban Counter-Insurgency” course in 1974 and Lauriani attended in 1971 for “Combat Arms Orientation 0-37”.
Update: After 52 days on the run, Iturriaga Neumann was arrested on August 2nd, 2007 in the coastal city of Vina del Mar in Chile. He is currently serving a five year sentence in prison.
March-April 2007
Peruvian SOA Graduates Arrested by ICE
Retired Peruvian military officers Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Florida and Baltimore respectively, in violation of U.S. immigration laws this past week.
Hurtado and Rivera stand accused for the August 14, 1985 massacre of 69 children, women and men in the village of Accomarca, in the southeastern region of Ayacucho, Peru. Both are facing a 2006 extradition order by a Peruvian court for leading the four military brigades which executed the 69 civilians.
Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon attended Arms Orientation courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas from 1981-1982 during the height of military repression. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the political violence in Peru during the 1980's, the armed forces killed and "disappeared" more than 7,250 civilians who were not involved in the conflict.
Read More About this Breaking News...
Read More About Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon
CIA Cites Colombian SOA Instructor Montoya Uribe for Paramilitary Connection
A recent Los Angeles Times article reported that a CIA report linked Colombia's top ranking military officer General Mario Montoya to Colombia's right wing paramilitaries.
Colombia's paramilitaries, considered terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, are financed by drug trafficking and have long been suspected of collaboration with the Colombian military and key government leaders and politicians.
General Mario Montoya attended the School of the Americas as student in 1983 and as an instructor in 1993. The CIA report states that Montoya and a paramilitary group jointly planned and conducted a military operation in 2002 to eliminate Marxist guerrillas from poor areas around Medellin where at least 14 people were killed and dozens more disappeared.
Read the Complete Los Angeles Times article
Read More About General Montoya
Read a Compelling Article on Plan Colombia by Linda Panetta
November 2006 
11/26
Ex-Chilean military officer Enrique Sandoval has confessed to the murder of the first underage victim of the military dictatorship in Chile, fourteen year old Carlos Fari?a Oyarce. The confession comes as part of a trial led by Judge Zepeda. Enrique Sandoval and Com. Lopez Almarza have been convicted for kidnapping and murder and could face prison sentences.
Carlos Fari?a Oyarce was kidnapped from his home in La Pincoya on October 13, 1973 and was killed execution style by three bullets to the head; his body was then burned and buried in an undisclosed location becoming one of Chile?s many disappeared and one of the 79 underage children who fell victim to the brutal regime led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. His body was found during an excavation in the West end of Santiago on July 30th, 2000.
A few months prior to the murder and the military coup of September 11, 1973, Enrique Sandoval had attended the Schools of the Americas, then located in Panama.
His reputation landed him a post at Villa Grimaldi, one of the dictatorships most notorious detention and torture centers, where he commandeered the Agrupacion Condor of the Brigada Caupolican whose duties included search and seize missions. In 1977, he became part of the CNI (Central Nacional de Inteligencia), Pinochet?s secret police whose mission was to ?neutralize? opposition leaders and political dissidents. In August 1981, Sandoval shot and killed Lisandro Sandoval Torres, a member of MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionario).
Enrique Erasmo Sandoval Arancibia (aka ?Pete el Negro?): attended the School of the Americas in Panama for ?Combat Arms Orientation 0-37? from January 8th to February 9th, 1973.)
11/07
A Guatemalan court ordered the capture of four military officials wanted by Spain for alleged involvement in the disappearance of Spanish priests in Guatemala and a fire at the Spanish Embassy that killed 36 people during the country's civil war, a judge said Tuesday.
Judge Morelia Rios, who issued the arrest warrants, said the soldiers are wanted on charges of homicide, terrorism and kidnapping.
The case stems from 1999 charges levied in Spanish courts by Guatemalan Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchu against five ex-military officials and three ex-government officials. Menchu's father died in the embassy fire, which also killed three Spanish citizens.
The Spanish government is expected to send a formal extradition request in the next several days. Guatemalan authorities issued the arrest order out of concern that the military officials would try to flee.
Warrants were issued for then-Defense Minister Angel Anibal Guevara; for German Chupina, head of the feared National Police from 1978-1982; for former dictator and army Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia; and for Pedro Garcia Arredondo, former leader of an elite unit known as Commando 6.
Guevara turned himself in hours after being informed of the warrants, and was then transferred to a prison. His lawyers said they would appeal.
Angel Anibal Guevara: Attended the SOA throughout 1950-51 and took courses in Basic Weapons, Infantry Tacticts, Communications, Heavy Weapons, Automotive and Engineer Basic.
Germ?n Chupina Barahona: Attended the SOA in 1960 (July 18 ? Sept. 23) for a General Supply Officer?s course.
Read more about this case.
October 2006
10/26
Former Salvadoran army officer Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, convicted for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper and her 14-year-old daughter, was arrested by federal agents on October 18 in Los Angeles, California.
Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos, a sub-lieutenant in the notorious Atlacatl Battalion, took part in the November 16, 1989 massacre at the Central American University (UCA) in San Salvador. Less than a year before the brutal killings, Guevara Cerritos received military training at the U.S. Army School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia.
In 1991, a jury in El Salvador convicted Guevara Cerritos for instigation and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism. The convicted terrorist escaped with minor consequences, being released in 1993 after less than two years of house arrest.
According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, Guevara Cerritos entered the country illegally in January 2005.
Read more about this case.
10/07
Telmo Hurtado is facing an extradition request from Peru?s Supreme Court for his responsibility in the Aug. 14, 1985 massacre of 74 children, women and men in the Andean highlands village of Accomarca, in the southeastern region of Ayacucho.
Military court records that contain Hurtado?s testimony prove his involvement in the massacre beyond a reasonable doubt:
The officer brought the children (ranging in age from 1 to 8 years) together with a group of women and old men in one of the houses in the village. "I ordered the assault group under my charge to open fire, while I threw a hand grenade inside (the house) with the intention of eliminating anyone who might be merely injured. I took the decision to eliminate the injured because there were too many of them," said Hurtado.
"Yes, I set the house on fire and we stayed there until the fire consumed everything, and made sure that only ashes and blackened bones were left. Then we picked up the shell casings and any other evidence showing that we had been there," reads the document.
According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the political violence, the armed forces killed and "disappeared" more than 7,250 civilians who were not involved in the conflict, many of whom were indigenous people.
Hurtado escaped Peru on Dec. 28, 2002, fleeing first to Colombia and then to the United States, just when authorities in Peru decided to reopen the investigation into the massacre.
In 2006, Interpol (the international police agency) located Hurtado in the state of Florida, where he lives with his family, and the court handling the case initiated extradition proceedings.
Telmo Hurtado : Attended the ?Weapons Orientation? course at the School of the Americas from October 6th to November 5th, 1982.
10/01
Juan Veliz Herrera, Bolivia?s former Military Chief of Staff, is currently facing charges of torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for his responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the ?Gas Wars? of September-October 2003.
General Juan Veliz Herrera: Attended the SOA in 1970 for the ?Small Unit Warfare? course.
Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado, Bolivia?s former Commander in Chief, is currently facing charges of torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for his responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the ?Gas Wars? of September-October 2003.
General Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado: Attended the SOA in 1969 for the ?Small Unit Warfare? course.
August 2006
08/27
Vladimiro Motesinos, Peru?s former Chief of Intelligence, was sentended to six years for using government money to fund former President Alberto Fujimori's 2000 re-election campaign. The sentence will be served concurrently with Montesinos' 15-year prison sentence for various corruption convictions.
Vladimiro Montesinos attended the ?Cadet Orientation? course at the SOA in 1965.
08/10
Former military captain Luis Alfredo Maurente faces an extradition request from Uruguay?s Justice Department for his involvement in the clandestine ?Automotores Orletti? detention center, which operated in Buenos Aires, Argetina during the 1970?s. Maurente was part of the Defense Intelligence Services and, together with three other ex-military officers, faces charges for the disappearances of close to 100 Uruguayan and Argentinean citizens, kidnapping and illicit association.
Captain Luis Alfredo Maurente: Attended the School of the Americas (SOA) in 1969 and 1976 to attend the ?C-1? and ?Military Intelligence 0-11? courses respectively.
Read more about this case.
08/08
Those responsible for the detention, torture and death of chilean folk singer and activist Victor Jara benefited from impunity during the remaining 17 years of dictatorship and from the Amnesty Law decreed by the Military Junta before Chile?s return to Democracy. In December 2004, Chilean judge Juan Carlos Urrutia prosecuted the then retired Lieutenant-Colonel, Mario Manriquez Bravo for the murder of Victor Jara. Lt. Bravo was the highest commanding officer in charge at the National Stadium during 1973, but the identity of the Jara's actual killer remained unknown.
In recent months, and after various testimonies from ex-prisoners, Victor Jara?s alleged killer was identified as Edwin Dimter Bianchi. A Chilean military officer with a bad reputation (he was also known as ?El Loco Dimter?) who in 1970 attended the School of the Americas (SOA), then located in Panama, and completed a one month course in ?Combat Arms Orientation?. Shortly after his stint at the SOA, Dimter participated in the failed coup attempt against Salvador Allende in June of 1973 known as the ?Tanquetazo? led by a rouge military brigade. Dimter and his fellow conspirators were arrested and then set free shortly after the successful coup of September 11, 1973. Upon his release, he was assigned to serve in the Estadio Chile.
Survivors of the detention center have testified that on his arrival at the stadium he was full of spite and vengeful due to his recent imprisonment under the Unidad Popular and quickly gained a reputation as a sadist. Due to his good looks and arrogant swagger he received the nickname ?The Prince?. An ex-prisoner, Chilean attorney Boris Navia, described ?the Prince?s? modus operandi: ?He would make rounds through the different levels of the Stadium screaming insults and intimidating prisoners. He would show up unexpectedly in a section of the Stadium and the prisoners had to remain silent in his presence. He behaved like a frustrated stage actor. He always carried a leather club and when he walked through the rows of prisoners who were waiting to be brought into the stadium and had been on their knees for hours and hours with their hands on their heads he would hit and insult them?. In another episode described by ex prisoners, ?The Prince?, ordered another soldier to kill a prisoner by beating him with his rifle after he tripped and stumbled over his legs. According to testimonies such as these, Dimter was directly involved in the beating and death of Victor Jara.
Read more about this case.
2005
UPDATE 3/25/05: SOA Graduate Commands Brigade Accused of Massacre of Civilians in Colombia
On February 21-22, 2005, eight members of the San Jos? de Apartad? Peace Community in Urab?, Colombia?including three young children?were brutally massacred. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army?s 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders. General H?ctor Jaime Fandi?o Rinc?n is the commander of the 17th Brigade of the Colombian army. Fandi?o Rinc?n is a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas.
Take action! Click here for more information about the massacre and the SOA connection -- and find out what actions you can take today to demand accountability.
10/27/04
From Honduras
Former Honduran military intelligence chief Col. Juan Lopez Grijalba, is facing trial in US federal court early in 2005. Six plaintiffs, five of whom
reside in the United States, allege that Lopez Grijalba is responsible for the torture, disappearance, and extrajudicial killing of Honduran civilians during the 1980s. After heading the Direccion Nacional de Inteligencia(DNI), the primary operations division of the military-controlled national police force, Lopez Grijalba then became the armed forces chief of intelligence in 1982. Lopez Grijalba was an SOA student on four separate occasions between 1963 and 1975. After the existence of the murderous Battalion 3-16 became public and Lopez Grijalba was implicated in its activities, he was still invited to speak at the School of the Americas in 1991 and 1992. Lopez Grijalba moved to the Miami area in 1998 where he lived until immigration officials arrested him in 2002.
From Mexico
An October 22, 2003 article in The Brownsville Herald (TX) reported that the
notorious Gulf Drug Cartel has hired 31 ex-Mexican soldiers to be part of
its hired assassin force, The Zetas. According to the Mexican secretary of
defense, at least 1/3 of these deserters were trained at the SOA as part of
the elite Special Air Mobile Force Group. Their highly specialized and
dangerous weapons, training, and intelligence capabilities are now being
used to increase the availability of the drugs and terrorize the region. The
Mexican attorney general’s office implicates them in dozens of shootouts,
kidnappings and executions of police officers.
From Venezuela
In April 2002 two SOA graduates, Army Commander in Chief Efrain Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda, helped lead a failed coup in Venezuela. Additionally, Otto Reich, who was named to the "new" school’s Board of Visitors, met with the generals in the months preceding the coup. During the coup Reich advised business leader Pedro Carmona, who subsequently seized the presidency.
From El Salvador
In 1983, Colonel Francisco del Cid Diaz (then a 2nd Lieutenant) commanded a unit that forcibly removed 16 residents from the Los Hojas cooperative of the Asociaci?n Nacional de Ind?genas, bound and beat them, shot all 16 at point-blank range and threw their bodies in the Cuyuapa River. This is a very well known, very high profile and notorious massacre, and cited in the annual State Department Human Rights Country Reports throughout the 1980s. The case was also investigated by, and included in the final report of, the El Salvador Truth Commission established under the Salvadoran Peace Accords.
The El Salvador Supreme Court granted amnesty to all defendants, but in 1992 the OAS Inter-American Commission on Human Rights stated that there was substantial evidence that Col. del Cid Diaz and the other ranking officer present gave the orders to execute, and recommended that the Salvadoran government bring them to justice. Instead of facing justice, we find that Col. del Cid Diaz was at the WHINSEC in 2003, and was also enrolled in SOA in 1988 and 1991.
From Bolivia
In 1997 Captain Filmann Urzagaste Rodriguez was one of those responsible for the kidnapping and torture of Waldo Albarracin, then the director of the Popular Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia and now the Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman). In 1999 the Bolivian Chamber of Deputies Commission in charge of investigating the case passed it, together with all the evidence, to the ordinary courts for investigation and prosecution. The case was also the subject of a well-known petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (that has not yet been acted upon). In 2002, Urzagaste Rodriguez, now a Major, took a 49-week officer training course at the WHINSEC.
From Colombia
Three Colombian police officers under investigation for personal use of counter-narcotics funds took courses at the WHINSEC at nearly the same time as the investigation. In June 2002 the Colombian Attorney General's office, at the request of the U.S. Government, opened a "disciplinary" investigation into alleged activities of corruption by members of the Colombian National Police, including Captain Dario Sierro Chapeta, Lt. Col. Francisco Patino Fonseca, and Captain Luis Benavides Guancha. The first two attended the WHINSEC in 2002, and Benavides Guancha was there for 18 weeks in 2003. (It is yet to be determined if the charges against the 3 were brought before, during, or after acceptance at the WHINSEC.)
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Human rights abuses and problems with civil-military relations are not a thing of the past in Latin America, and many are well documented. The fact that students with known human rights violations and problems of corruption are attending an institution that that boasts about the "meticulous screening process" that all students pass to ensure they are "law-abiding citizens"[6] undermines the claim that the WHINSEC "teaches" respect for human rights, or that it is serious about claiming to train "only personnel of unquestionable character." To the contrary, these cases can be interpreted as the WHINSEC’s --or more seriously the U.S. military-- rewarding of human rights violators with the honor of studying in the United States.
SOA/WHINSEC Grads in the News 2002-2004 (pdf)
For more information see the updated
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