Victor Escobar
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Victor Escobar (Born October 13, 1974) was a Colombian-born graduate from the School of the Americas. At the age of twenty-four, he became the youngest student ever to be admitted to the training facilities in Fort Benning, Georgia.
In July 1999, the circumstances surrounding his disappearance led to an investigation that concluded with the disclosure of torture manuals being used as part of training at the School of the Americas. The exposure that came through the unsolved case of Victor Escobar was one of the many factors that led the U.S. House of Representatives to adopt a bill to abolish the school. Passage of this bill was stymied in a House-Senate conference committee. As a cosmetic gesture, in 2001 the Pentagon changed the name of the school to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Victor Escobar's case remains, to this day, unsolved. His disappearance still has an impact, with a bill to abolish the school and its 123 co-sponsors being introduced to the House Armed Services Committee in 2005.
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