Burke Stansbury talks about the CISPES attendance at the Social Forum of the Americas in Guatemala recently, where representatives from Latin American countries discussed the meltdown of the US financial system. The recent gains of social organisations and movements could well be a buffer for those who will be most affected by recession, but historically such gains have brought on a backlash by entrenched interests. The establishment by the US of an International Law Enforcement Academy in El Salvador has seen a corresponding increase in the number of disappearances and extra-judicial murders and assassinations of individuals involved in social movements and the opposition party FMLN, and there is a strange reluctance to allow outsiders to see the curriculum or the teaching methods. ILEAs have been set up in a number of key Latin American countries, and are seen as a replacement for the notorious US based School of the Americas, which was closed down in the 90s due to its association with the training of some of Latin America's worst military dictatorships, and the teaching of 'death squad' methods.
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