soa photos on Flickr

Special Olympics athletes from Trinidad and Tobago perform their warm-up exercises in front of a crowd at Arcadia High School on July 22, 2015. Arcadia joins a list of 100 communities selected as host cities for athletes ahead of the games on July 25. Photo credit: Trevor Stamp

soa_1959 by Peter Hessel

soa_1506 by Peter Hessel

SOAS Main Entrance by Robert Blake

Had to stop here. Getting evil looks from security guards.

_DSC1317 by Chrissy

The School of the Americas (SOA), in 2001 renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Initially established in Panama in 1946, it was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA, frequently dubbed the “School of Assassins,” has left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned.

Over its 59 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

(soaw.org)

soa_1495 by Peter Hessel