Since 1993 he has led a fasting vigil at the school's gates each year between November 11 and 16. The first day marks Veterans' Day, and the last marks the day in 1989 when six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her young daughter were murdered in El Salvador. In 1984, under provisions of the Panama Canal Treaty, it was expelled to its present home at Fort Benning. The school trains officers and men from Latin America and the Caribbean in counterinsurgency operations and guerrilla warfare, commando tactics, military intelligence and psychological warfare.
Students also receive some human rights instruction.
It may not be positive. Most teaching is done by U.S. and Latin American instructors, but only U.S. officers may give the human rights courses. Apparently the school does not trust its Latin American instructors to teach human rights. Since 1946, the school has graduated approximately 57,000 soldiers. Most are from Colombia which has the dubious privilege of being the Latin American country most cited for human rights abuses.