If you want to see how the use of torture has undermined U.S. influence and power, look at Latin America. From San Salvador to Santiago, the continent’s citizens are all too familiar with the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation techniques. Some still have the mental and physical scars to prove it.
This week, for instance, Brazil’s National Truth Commission released its long-awaited report on the human rights abuses committed during Brazil’s military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. Some of the torture methods used were imported by the 300 Brazilian military personnel who attended the infamous School of the Americas in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone. Among their direct and indirect victims was President Dilma Rousseff, who was arrested and tortured during those years. Accepting the commission’s report, she wept as she recounted her experiences.
During the latter stages of the Cold War, Central America was a veritable laboratory for U.S. torture techniques. In 1988, a Honduran Army death squad member recounted to the New York Times his training in Texas by the U.S. Army and CIA: “They taught us psychological methods — to study the fears and weaknesses of a prisoner. Make him stand up, don’t let him sleep, keep him naked and isolation, put rats and cockroaches in his cell, give him bad food, serve him dead animals, throw cold water on him, change the temperature.”
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