School of the Americas Watch Educational Fund

SOA Watch is an independent organization that works to close the School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy in Latin America through nonviolent protest, grassroots education, and legislative work.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently cited for human rights atrocities and coups, including the El Mozote civilian massacre and last year's failed coup in Venezuela. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. In a 2002 report Amnesty International calls for a suspension of training at the SOA/WHINSEC, and an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the school.