Bolivia opens school to train soldiers in fight against 'Imperialist' powers.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
With the creation of what the Evo Morales administration has dubbed the Anti-Imperialistic Military School (Escuela Militar Antiimperialista, EMA), Bolivia has made good on one of the stated goals of the Union of South American Nations (Union de Naciones Suramericanas, UNASUR), which it helped found in 2008 (NotiSur, May 30, 2008, and Jan. 23, 2009). Bolivia intends for the school to spark a debate on the proper role of the armed forces in South American democracies.
The academic courses, in which military personnel from the 12 UNASUR countries have been invited to enroll, will be obligatory for Bolivian officers who aspire to advance to the rank of Army captain or its equivalent in other military branches. EMA will begin regular operations in March with 200 students. However, as of its Aug. 17 inauguration, it housed 100 officers. For now, all instructors are Bolivian, but beginning next year, they will be joined by Ecuadorans, Venezuelans, and Cubans. In order to obtain an "integral formation of military cadres," it plans to foster closer relations with civil intellectuals from Argentina and Uruguay.
"This school is a political and ethical commitment with the country, the region, and the world, not only because it is fair, but because it is morally necessary to live in conditions of equality, dignity, fraternity, and complementarity," President Morales said at the academy's inauguration ceremonies. "Our struggle requires forging an anti-establishment discourse and creating a great motherland for the construction of a strong Latin American state."
Contrasted to the School of the Americas
Although he emphasized that EMA is not an answer to "other celebrated military institutions"--an obvious reference to the School of the America, which operated on Panamanian soil between 1946 and 1964 and was directed by the US Department of Defense--the comparison arose immediately among those attending the event (NotiSur, May 26, 2006, and NotiCen, May 31, 2007). And at the end of his speech, Morales spoke directly: "Historically, the empire indoctrinated our military personnel, stripping them of their nationalistic spirit," he said, referring to the US. "While the empire teaches world domination, at our school, we will learn to free ourselves from oppression, it will be a school for the defense of the people."
In describing the project's philosophy, the government said EMA would be an "ideological center to revise the continent's history," and would...
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