Could this be the year the SOA is shut down?

[struggle4progress]

Written by Dan Bacher
Tuesday, 20 February 2007

... The SOA in 2001 changed its name to WHINSEC, the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," in response to international criticism of the school that trained hundreds of army officers and death squad leaders responsible for genocide, assassinations, torture, disappearances and other human rights violations throughout Latin America. However, only the name changed and the school continued its deadly mission of training Latin American soldiers in "counter-insurgency" techniques.

Venezuela, the first country to pull its troops out of the SOA in 2005, was followed by Argentina and Uruguay last year. Fr. Roy Bourgeois, the founder of SOA Watch, recently returned to Bolivia, where he was kicked out when working with the poor as a Maryknoll Missionary. Bourgeois and a SOA Watch delegation met with Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, a coca grower, union leader and leftist ...

Bolivia's military will be pulling out of SOA/WHINSEC on a gradual basis, according to Bourgeois. In spite of the election of leftist president Evo Morales, the military is still powerful, but nonetheless, even to entertain the idea of pulling out of the SOA would have been impossible until recently ...

Congressman Jim McGovern has introduced a new bill to shut down the SOA, HR 1217, that the Congress will vote on in April ...

http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/983/1/