School of the Americas or school for human rights violators?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51378/eca.v69i739.3223Keywords:
State terrorism, Militarism, Hegemony, Foreign policy, Dictatorship, Ideology, International anarchy, Structural realism, Geopolitics, National security, International human rightsAbstract
The School of the Americas (SOA) was established by the United States in 1946 at one of its military bases in Panama. According to its founders, the SOA’s primary objective was to professionalize the armed forces of Latin American countries. However, Washington’s true purpose was to secure its dominance over the subcontinent through the anti-communist indoctrination of these armed forces, supplemented by training in military brutality. The SOA was created as yet another tool of Washington’s geopolitical strategy to maintain its hemispheric hegemony. Control of these armed forces allowed the White House to minimize the deployment of its own troops to crush social unrest in its self-proclaimed “backyard.” This article will focus on the impact of the SOA in El Salvador, particularly during the period from 1980 to 1992.
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