US Outraged by Foreign Torture, Except When It's Our Idea
The Guardian reports on Venezuelans deported under Trump suffering torture in El Salvador, a supposedly 'shocking' development. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal cite inhumane conditions at El Salvador’s “terrorist continent center” (Cecot), comparing it to Abu Ghraib. This outrage is selective; the US has a rich history of supporting and training regimes that perfected such 'inhumane'
tactics across Latin America, from School of the Americas graduates to funding 'counter-insurgency' operations. Forget the headlines; the military-industrial complex thrives on maintaining these brutal systems, often with tacit US approval, regardless of who's in the White House. How many 'human rights reports' will it take for the US to acknowledge its role in creating the very conditions it now
decries? (Or is it only a problem when Trump does it, rather than a bipartisan tradition?)