Research Catalog

Title

The School of the Americas : military training and political violence in the Americas / Lesley Gill.

Author

Gill, Lesley

Publication

Durham : Duke University Press, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xviii, 281 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

• An examination of the controversial School of the Americas looks at its training program and argues that it has institutionalized state-sponsored violence that has wrought havoc in Latin America.
• "Located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, the School of the Americas (soa) is a U.S. Army center that has trained more than sixty thousand soldiers and police, mostly from Latin America, in counterinsurgency and combat-related skills since it was founded in 1946. So widely documented is the participation of the School’s graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Lesley Gill goes behind the façade and presents a comprehensive portrait of the School of the Americas. Talking to a retired Colombian general accused by international human rights organizations of terrible crimes, sitting in on classes, accompanying soa students and their families to an upscale local mall, listening to coca farmers in Colombia and Bolivia, conversing with anti-soa activists in the cramped office of the School of the Americas Watch—Gill exposes the School’s institutionalization of state-sponsored violence, the havoc it has wrought in Latin America, and the strategies used by activists seeking to curtail it. Based on her unprecedented level of access to the School of the Americas, Gill describes the School’s mission and training methods and reveals how its students, alumni, and officers perceive themselves in relation to the dirty wars that have raged across Latin America. Assessing the School’s role in U.S. empire-building, she shows how Latin America’s brightest and most ambitious military officers are indoctrinated into a stark good-versus-evil worldview, seduced by consumer society and the “American dream,” and enlisted as proxies in Washington’s war against drugs and 'subversion.'" -- Provided by publisher

Series Statement

American encounters/global interactions

Uniform Title

American encounters/global interactions

Subject

• U.S. Army School of the Americas
• Imperialism
• United States > Military relations > Latin America
• Latin America > Military relations > United States

Genre/Form

Electronic books.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Prologue: The teflon assassin -- The military, political violence and impunity -- Georgia not on their minds -- De-mining humanitarianism -- Foot soldiers of the U.S. empire -- Pathways to power -- Strategic alliances -- Human wrongs and rights -- Disordering the Andes -- Targeting the "school of assassins."

ISBN

• 0822333821 (cloth : alk. paper)
• 0822333929 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2003027511

OCLC

• 53972193
• SCSB-9976534

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library