Costa Rica needs your help re: School of the Americas

Please take a minute of your time to keep this peaceful country from adopting Bush torture tactics.


Letter-writing campaign
to ask Arias to dump school

Dear A.M. Costa Rica:

The recent suggestion by President Arias that he might resume the training of Costa Rican police officers at the controversial Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, has prompted School of the Americas Watch (www.soaw.org) to initiate a letter-writing campaign to the president urging him to reconsider.

Last May, President Arias vowed to stop sending Costa Ricans to the institute because of its long, well-documented history of human rights abuses, joining several other Latin American national leaders who also have cut ties to the school. Now, School of the Americas Watch fears that pressure by the Pentagon to reverse those decisions may be succeeding in Costa Rica. They cite news reports that the U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica very recently flew with Costa Rica's Public Security Minister Fernando Berrocal to the United States where they met at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. When Mr. Berrocal returned to Costa Rica, he recommended to the President that up to 150 Costa Rican police officers should attend the institute. Apparently President Arias was in agreement with his security minister's proposal.

For those unfamiliar with the issue, www.soaw.org is an excellent source of information. More importantly, those who do know about the School of the Americas can submit a form letter to President Arias asking him, in the name of human rights, not to commit Costa Rican police officers to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation training. Those interested can:

1. E-mail/fax the letter to President Arias through an already created action campaign HERE!

2. E-mail the letter to him directly at presidente@casapres.go.cr

3. Fax it to him at 506-253-9078.

The letter for faxing or direct e-mailing can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word document HERE!

Steve Roman
San Antonio de Belén
Heredia

...probably from decades of peacefulness here. petty theft was probably always a problem but violent crime is relatively new in costa rica. so, arias would be smart to spend a little money on educating and equipping our police in this country.

that said, sending them to the school of the americas for training would be absolutely unforgivable. there are plenty of good law enforcement and peace keeping models in the world. school of the americas should be the last choice!

we also need to have better education and enforcement of traffic laws. driving and crossing streets is challenging and can be dangerous. a tico friend of mine here calls driving in costa rica an extreme sport. arias would be wise to look at the US for driver education models and investing a little money in traffic law enforcement would be a good idea. we have far too many traffic related deaths here every year.

I will be visiting for the first time next week and have been trying to learn everything I can including Spanish for about a year. I'm sooooo excited and would just hate to see SOA type behavior there or anywhere for that matter.

you'll have a great time....what are you planning to do on your visit?