CIA Taught Torture Used in Central America

WASHINGTON — A newly declassified CIA training manual details torture methods used against suspected subversives in Central America during the 1980s, casting doubt on agency claims that no such methods were taught there.

“Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual--1983” was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The CIA also declassified a Vietnam-era training manual that also taught torture and is believed to have been a basis for the 1983 manual.

Torture methods taught in the 1983 manual include stripping suspects naked and keeping them blindfolded. Interrogation rooms should be dark and soundproof, with no toilet, the manual says.

Honduran Judge Roy Medina, who is overseeing his country’s human rights investigation, said: “These manuals confirm a truth we in Honduras have known for a long time: that the United States was involved in encouraging the abuses of the Honduran military.”