Fighting the enemy within: Terrorism, the school of the Americas, and the military in Latin America

Abstract

For years, scholars and policy makers alike have argued whether using the armed forces of Latin America to combat internal threats poses a threat to democracy. Bitter experience with repression and military rule led many observers to conclude that encouraging the armed forces to target enemies within their borders was a dangerous policy, as civilians would find it difficult to control the military's activities. Others have argued that soldiers should not be viewed simply as potential human rights abusers and therefore can play a productive role in protecting the country from its enemies. These arguments, of course, extend to U.S. policy. Should the United States train Latin American officers strategies, tactics, and doctrine that are focused on internal threats? In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 this debate has become even more important, as the United States has begun identifying an increasingly wide variety of internal terrorist threats. This article will argue that training Latin American militaries to fight those perceived threats mirrors the expansion of U.S. military training during the Cold War, and as such represents an obstacle to the process of democratization in the region. To address the debate, this article will examine the role of one of the key military training facilities in the United States, namely the School of the Americas (SOA), which was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001. The analysis is based upon author interviews with permanent instructors, guest instructors (both military and civilian), and senior staff at the school in addition to documents from the school's archives, most notably descriptions of all courses that have been offered (as the school went through a variety of name changes) from 1948, then 1958-2002. ~ In the context of the debate over the military and internal enemies, the analysis will focus upon the activities and skills that the United States teaches Latin American soldiers in order to combat domestic enemies. The historical perspective is essential for understanding the current evolution of teaching at the school, as the negative implications of the school's past course emphases cannot be divorced from the potential implications of current shifts. No detailed analysis of course evolution has yet been done. After the Cold War ended, efforts were made by the SOA to stress human rights