Icon Re: What is the S_O_A?
R
rosskolnikov (view)

Not a direct reply, but are you aware of Newton's Third Law of Motion? As long as there are Leftist Fascists in Latin America (and make no mistake, that's exactly what the FARC in Colombia and the Sandanistas in Nicaragua are) there will be Right Wing squads mobilized against them. What was worse, the killings done by El Salvadoran death squads or those carried out in the name of freedom-killing Communism by Che Guevara in Cuba and Bolivia? What about Salvador Allende's outright land thefts? Those led directly to Pinochet, and he would not have existed without the injustice of the Allende regime (which itself thought it was righting past injustices).

I lived in Latin America, and one problem I noticed was an inability of both sides of extremists to coexist in a simple conversation, much less a majority/minority government. (And yes, there's people just like that here, but there's a slightly larger group in the middle acting as a buffer).

So the question is, beyond the hype, what is the purpose of the school? If people are being explicitly trained to work as assassins in foreign countries, then that's not a good thing. If people are getting advanced military training and then mis-applying it, that's another thing. And I don't see enough facts in the attached video or URL link to tell me the answer.

The biggest procedural mistake I see in Latin America is a constant strengthening of executive government in an effort to make headway against problems. On either the right or the left, this just leaves the success of matters in the competence or lack thereof of the leaders. For example, Venezuela does not need 18 months of rule-by-fiat powers for Hugo Chavez to combat flooding or economic malaise. It needs a stronger judiciary and an independent legislature, both of which have been gutted by Chavez's regime. Colombia is the opposite case. Uribe did a good job as president (both by popular testimony and by the facts of declining crime and an expanding economy) but he did so by concentrating power in his own hands. If the new president proves less competent, they'll be right back where they were.

So to get back to your original question, I think schools for death squads will wither and die when radical fascist groups like the FARC stop trying to seize power by force. Chicken or egg?
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.:RS:.
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