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The Broad Impact of the School of the Americas

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U.S. Foreign Involvement and Latin America Politics: The Broad Impact of the School of the Americas

By Helen Dunne

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The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, more well-known as the School of the Americas, has been fraught with controversy since the 1980s. Following their education at the school, a number of its graduates went on to commit acts of violence and human rights abuses as members of national Latin American militaries. A deeper analysis of the history of the School of the Americas, its training practices, and US involvement in Latin America in the form of a case study of the El Mozote Massacre of the Salvadoran Civil War, reveals a strong link between the United States and military oppression in Latin America.