Editor:

The weekend of Nov. 21-23, we will again join thousands in Columbus, Ga., to call for the closure of the controversial School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC).

Graduates of this U.S. taxpayer financed institution, a combat training school for Latin American security personnel, continue to be implicated in civilian targeted killings throughout Latin America.

This combat training facility, located at Fort Benning, Ga., made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion, and execution.

Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.

For hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, this school is a symbol of torture and failed U.S. foreign policy. It is out of line with the values of everyday Americans, and closing it for good would send a strong human rights record to Latin America and to the world.

An ever growing movement of human rights groups, religious clergy, lay people, students, veterans, and many others will converge in Georgia next week-end, including a contingent from Wyoming. We will again demand that this training camp be shut down.

The path to lasting peace and security can only be found if we implement foreign policy that reflects our ideals of justice and democracy.

To learn more about the SOA/WHINSEC and efforts to close it, visit www.SOAW.org or call (202)231-3440.

ROX MONTERSTELLI and

JOAN ANDERSON, Casper