From CNS, Staff and other sources
Nicaragua can now be added to the list of countries that no longer send soldiers for training to a U.S. Army school in Georgia. School of the Americas Watch reports that Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega, right, decided on Sept. 6 to end his country’s participation in the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The institute was formerly called the School of the Americas, and many S.O.A. graduates had been associated with human rights abuses in Latin America. A delegation of S.O.A. Watch activists, including its founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, met with Ortega in September to push for the withdrawal. “We’re very encouraged. This has energized our movement,” Father Bourgeois said. “To have Daniel Ortega...say that Nicaragua will not participate in the future is a big deal.” Nicaragua joins Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela in withdrawing from the school.