The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, is the Defense Department's principal Spanish-language training facility for Latin American military and law-enforcement personnel (though some civilians attend as well). It is the successor to the School of the Americas (SOA), a facility established in 1946 and legally closed in 2001. The WHINSEC is located in the same building, and offers many of the same courses, as the school it replaces. Along with the U.S. Air Force's Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA), WHINSEC attracts the largest number of Latin American military students.

The Army’s operations and maintenance account pays the institute’s fixed costs. Student tuition costs are covered mainly by grants through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) and International Narcotics Control (INC) programs, or purchases of training through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.

In 2003, the WHINSEC began adding English-language courses to its curriculum, beginning with its Non-Commissioned Officer Development and Instructor Training courses. As a result, the school began to host a contingent of students from the English-speaking Caribbean.

The School of the Americas had been questioned for years, as it trained many military personnel before and during the years of the "national security doctrine" -- the dirty war years in the Southern Cone and the civil war years in Central America -- in which Latin American militaries ruled or had disproportionate government influence and committed serious human rights violations. Training manuals used at the SOA and elsewhere from the early 1980s through 1991 promoted techniques that violated human rights and democratic standards. SOA graduates continue to surface in news reports regarding both current human rights cases and new reports on past cases.

Defenders of the SOA and its successor, however, argue that they do not teach abuse, and that today the curriculum includes human rights as a component of every class. They also argue that no school should be held accountable for the actions of only some of its graduates.

Section 911 of the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5408) added a new section 2166 to Title 10, U.S. Code (the part of U.S. law that governs the military). The new section repealed the legal authorization for the old School of the Americas and made the following changes.

• The Fort Benning facility was renamed the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation."
  

• The renamed institute's official purpose is now "to provide professional education and training to eligible personnel of nations of the Western Hemisphere within the context of the democratic principles set forth in the Charter of the Organization of American States ... while fostering mutual knowledge, transparency, confidence, and cooperation among the participating nations and promoting democratic values, respect for human rights, and knowledge and understanding of United States customs and traditions."
  

• Codifying an existing SOA policy, the new law requires that each student receive at least eight hours of instruction in "human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society."
  

• The new law allowed Western Hemisphere civilians and police personnel to attend, and requires that the Secretary of State be consulted in the selection of students.
  

• Courses must focus on leadership development, counter-drug operations, peace support operations, disaster relief, or "any other matter the Secretary [of Defense] deems appropriate."

• The new law codified the old SOA's decade-old practice of inviting a "Board of Visitors" to review and evaluate "curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, and academic methods." A federal committee, the board must include the chairmen and ranking minority members of both houses' Armed Services Committees (or surrogates), the senior Army officer responsible for training (or a surrogate), one person chosen by the Secretary of State, the head of the U.S. Southern command (or a surrogate), and six people chosen by the Secretary of Defense ("including, to the extent practicable, persons from academia and the religious and human rights communities"). The board reviews the institute's curriculum to determine whether it complies with U.S. laws and doctrine, and whether it is consistent with U.S. policy goals toward Latin America and the Caribbean. Within sixty days of its annual meeting, the Board must submit a report to the Secretary of Defense describing its activities and its recommendations.
  

• The law requires a detailed annual report on the institute's activities, which the Secretary of Defense, after consulting with the Secretary of State, must submit to Congress by March 15 of each year. No report was produced in 2001; the Defense Department claimed that the newly created institue had no activities to report. As of July 2002, the 2002 report had not yet been produced.

Section 4415 of Title 10, which formerly authorized the School of the Americas, was repealed by section 911 of the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5408).

The changes the new law makes to the school are enumerated in the bulleted list to the left.

• H.R. 5408, the 2001 National Defense Authorization Act (link to the "Thomas" website of the Library of Congress). The changes to the School of the Americas can be found in section 911.

• Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, Command Information Briefing, PowerPoint presentation, July 2005
• WHINSEC Board of Visitors report to Congress for 2004 (PDF format)
• Minutes of December 1-2, 2004 Board of Visitors' Meeting (MS Word [.doc] format)
• Minutes of December 11-12, 2003 Board of Visitors' Meeting (MS Word [.doc] format)
• Minutes of June 3-4, 2003 Board of Visitors' Meeting (MS Word [.doc] format)
• Minutes of December 12, 2002 Board of Visitors' Meeting (MS Word [.doc] format)
• Curriculum review by the Curriculum Subcommittee,
  WHINSEC Board of Visitors, September 10, 2002 (MS Word [.doc] format)
• Minutes of June 3-4, 2002 Board of Visitors' Meeting (MS Word [.doc] format)
  

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