A pair of congressmen get snookered by an Argentine school of scandal

Insight on the News, Dec 31, 2001 by Hans S. Nichols, Brandon Spun

Cries of anti-Semitism and human-rights abuse sprang from Congress last February when a yoga school was shut down by the Argentine government. Its defenders claimed it was being closed because 50 percent of those involved were of the Jewish faith. U.S. Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) were quick to express concern, accusing the Argentine government of grossly abrogating due process.

In a toothless "Sense of Congress" resolution Towns drafted last February (H.Res.51) he airily called for an end to discrimination against yoga enthusiasts by the Argentine government. In the resolution he linked the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires six years ago to a long pattern of Argentine anti-Semitism. Towns called on the Argentine government to lay off the Buenos Aires school, whose court case has been pending for more than a year.

But, according to new information obtained by INSIGHT, the congressmen may have been snookered by those accusations of anti-Semitism. Their lofty resolution failed to mention some of the other "practices" of the Escuela de Yoga. According to reports, the learning center, run by a certain Juan Percowicz, teaches lessons that are "sui generis," in that they involve practices that most people would call "sexual freedom." There even have been some allegations of child exploitation, which local police were compelled to investigate.

Since its founding in the 1980s, the school has been raided by the police more than 300 times. Other charges brought against it include assault and petty larceny.

But in Towns' resolution he insists that Escuela de Yoga is a "philosophical entity dedicated to investigating, teaching and spreading philosophical ideas of humanity for the benefit of humanity." He claims it was shut down through judicial corruption and without due process.

Capitol Hill sources were shocked that U.S. congressmen could have been so easily manipulated. Aides say that it is unlikely that either congressman, both supporters of numerous child-protection acts, were aware of the lascivious acts allegedly committed at the school in the name of yoga. They chalk it up to ignorance or political grandstanding.

Towns and Lantos don't seem too eager to clarify their positions. Neither returned telephone calls to ask about the school's other alleged practices. Nor have these lawmakers withdrawn their congressional resolution. It still lingers in the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Perhaps the staff there will get to the bottom of this "sui generis" and find new meaning in yoga.

HANS S. NICHOLS AND BRANDON SPUN ARE REPORTERS FOR Insight.