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Otto Reich Named to Board for US Army's School of the Americas
Otto Reich has been named to the Board of Visitors
at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
(WHISC), formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA).
The WHISC's charter requires a Board of Visitors to monitor
the school, to ensure that the curriculum emphasize "human
rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the
military, and the role of the military in a democratic society".
Reich has a history of aiding coups and known terrorists.
In December 2000 Congress authorized
the WHISC to replace the SOA. The SOA/WHISC is a combat training
school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently
involved in documented human rights abuses and atrocities. In
1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used
at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
The renaming of the school was widely
viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate
the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the
underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and
political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing
Latin American militaries, remains the same.
"It's a new name, but the same shame," said
Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, "They prove this
point by putting Otto Reich on this rubber stamp board."
Reich first gained notoriety throughout
Latin America and among US human rights groups for his role
as head of the Office of Public Diplomacy during the Reagan
administration. This office launched an anti-Sandinista propaganda
campaign, illegally designed to influence the American public
to embrace the administration?s agenda for Central America.
Later, as US ambassador to Venezuela, Reich used his office
to help Orlando Bosch, a known terrorist, get into the US.
Bosch was convicted of firing a bazooka at a freighter in Miami,
and accused of bombing a Cuban jet, killing 73 people. Despite
this record the current Bush administration nominated Reich
for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
In this capacity Reich admittedly advised Pedro Carmona (the
businessman who seized the presidency) during the failed coup
in Venezuela last month. Also he met with generals who planned
the coup in the months leading up to the coup (some of whom
were trained at the SOA).
"This only renews our conviction
that this school of coups, torturers and assassins must be closed
down for good," said Bourgeois. |
