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An estimated $10 million dollars a year is taken from taxpayers, to train soldiers from other countries how to kill. A single school is responsible for this, and the school has been around since 1946, when it was located in Panama. El Salvador, Guatemala, Columbia, Chile, Bolivia, and Honduras are a few of the schools clients, Chile being the biggest. Protests are constantly organized to close the school, but the government in response to these protests takes few actions. The school I'm referring to is "The School of The Americas". In operation since 1946 in Panama, it was relocated to Ft. Benning, Georgia in 1984. The name "School of Assassins" was given to the school, ironically enough, by some of its' own students. Thousands of people are against the school, including well-known names such as Charlie Sheen. "We honor our Army, we respect their mission, but this is not part of that mission. This is an embarrassment to the Army," Sheen said when asked why he opposed the school. Demonstrators say that Latin American graduates use the skills they learn in the school to violate human rights in their homelands, while Army officers say the school helps advance democracy in Latin America and that the curriculum was reformed to stress human rights. Protesters who march against the school carry white crosses, and black coffins to represent victims who died at the hands of the schools' graduates. On November 16, 1989 six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter were all killed in what is now called the Jesuit Massacre. There were 26 officers implicated in the Massacre, and 19 of them were graduates of the "School of Assassins". In 1997, 2000 demonstrators were arrested when they entered the military base on the 8- year anniversary of the Massacre. A year later, in 1998 thousands of demonstrators, along with Charlie Sheen, showed up in the largest-ever protest against the U.S. Army's School of The Americas. Organizers estimated the crowd at 7000, but Columbus police spokesman Lt. M.C. Todd put the figure at fewer than 2,500. Graduates of the school have been known to do such horrendous things as rape and dismember women's bodies, execute hundreds of people, and terrorize whole communities, providing the US with stories of murders and atrocities for years. The U.S. however seemingly never has seen a link between these crimes and their school, which is supposedly only running to help advance democracy.
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