Editing School of the Americas (section)

==Connection to Operation Condor==
[[Operation Condor]] (1975–1983) was a U.S.-backed campaign of political repression by Southern Cone dictatorships (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, later Peru and Ecuador) to eliminate leftists, resulting in 60,000–80,000 deaths and 400,000 political prisoners. The SOA’s connection is significant, as it trained many Condor operatives and fostered ideological and operational alignment.

Training of Condor Operatives: Numerous Condor participants were SOA graduates, particularly from Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. A 2019 Italian court sentenced five SOA alumni—former Bolivian, Chilean, Peruvian, and Uruguayan officials—to life for kidnapping and murdering 23 Italian nationals during Condor, as reported by Common Dreams. Examples include:

Roberto D’Aubuisson (El Salvador, SOA 1972): Led death squads and was accused of orchestrating Archbishop Oscar Romero’s 1980 assassination.

Juan Rafael Bustillo (El Salvador, SOA): Planned the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, a housekeeper, and her daughter.

Julio Roberto Alpírez (Guatemala, SOA 1970, 1990): Linked to the 1990 murder of American innkeeper Michael Devine and guerrilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez while on the CIA payroll.

These graduates applied SOA-taught counterinsurgency and interrogation techniques, including torture, in Condor operations, as noted by historian J. Patrice McSherry.

Ideological Alignment: The SOA’s curriculum, rooted in the U.S. National Security Doctrine, emphasized communism as a hemispheric threat, mirroring Condor’s anti-communist ideology. McSherry cites 1960s–1970s CIA documents showing SOA and [[Conference of American Armies (CAA)]] officials planning coordinated actions against dissidents, precursors to Condor’s 1974 Buenos Aires meeting. The SOA’s focus on “ideological frontiers” over territorial defense, per NACLA, supported Condor’s transnational repression.

Operational Support: The SOA’s training manuals, influenced by the CIA’s Phoenix Program, included methods like surveillance, infiltration, and torture, which Condor regimes applied. Paraguayan “Terror Archives” (1992) reveal U.S. Army manuals from the SOA’s predecessor, the U.S. Army Caribbean School, teaching similar tactics, used in Condor’s intelligence operations.

While the SOA trained Condor operatives, it was not a direct Condor command center. Its role was preparatory, shaping officers’ anti-communist mindset and skills, as confirmed by declassified CIA cables (e.g., June 1976).