ALBA Defense School will Also Accept Indigenous, Farmers

ALBA Defense School will Also Accept Indigenous, FarmersLa Paz, Jun 6. -The School of Defense and Sovereignty of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) will also train indigenous people and farmers, said Defense Minister Maria Cecilia Chacon.

Quoted in local news reports, Chacon said in addition to providing higher eduation, the center would provide farmers and indigenous people with comprehensive training.

In contrast to the U.S. School of the Americas, a military institution that promotes divisions, the ALBA school seeks to foster peace and strengthen the independence of the peoples, she said.

During the opening of the school on Tuesday, President Evo Morales said the people's defense was a matter of life or death in facing imperialist threats.

Student at the new ALBA school will include soldiers from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Honduras, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The decision to create this educational institution was made at an ALBA summit on October 17, 2009 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. (Prensa Latina)