Annual nonviolent assault planned on the 'School of Americas'

Salt shakers
November 2002

Annual nonviolent assault planned on the 'School of Americas'
Just saying no to war in Iraq

Annual nonviolent assault planned on the 'School of Americas'

It's become something of an annual event for thousands of Americans concerned with social-justice and peace issues. This year, as in years past, thousands are expected in a "massive convergence" at Ft. Benning, Georgia on November 15 through 17 in the ongoing effort to close the "School of the Americas."

This year organizers note an irony: As President Bush expands the "war on terrorism," they plan a nonviolent direct action to close what they call a terrorist training camp on U.S. soil—the School of the Americas, or as it is currently known, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC).

On November 15-17 thousands will gather at the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia, site of the school, to expose a double standard, according to organizers, who charge that SOA graduates continue to be implicated in egregious acts designed to terrorize and coerce civilian populations throughout Latin America.

"Bush said that we must uproot every known terrorist training camp," said an anti-SOA activist, Abi Miller. "We’d like to point out one that's operating with impunity in our backyard."

Miller is among 26 human rights activists now serving three to six-month sentences in federal prison for their part in last November's peaceful procession.

The weekend's program will feature live music and speakers from Latin and North America, including The Indigo Girls and Green Party 2000 Vice Presidential Candidate Winona LaDuke. The gathering will culminate on Sunday, November 17 with a solemn "funeral" procession to the gates of Ft. Benning. Many will negotiate a barbed-wire fence to enter the military base in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Human rights advocates have voiced growing concern over turmoil in Latin America this past year. In April SOA grads led a failed coup in Venezuela after meetings with Otto Reich—President Bush’s controversial appointee for Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs—who sits on the SOA/WHISC’s monitoring board.

In Colombia the human rights situation further deteriorated as peace talks came to a halt while military aid was given a boost by a Bush administration’s spending request. Colombia has the worst human rights record, has the most SOA graduates, and receives the most U.S. military aid in the Western Hemisphere.

Opponents of the school point out that there have been no wars between nations in the Western Hemisphere in decades. SOA grads return to their countries to utilize their training domestically and are consistently cited for atrocities against their own people. Critics say that President Bush is using this same argument against Saddam Hussein to leverage an invasion of Iraq, while ignoring U.S. culpability in gross human rights violations throughout Latin America.

"The SOA is part of a corporate-hijacked foreign policy that's making us a lot of enemies," said Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch. "If we want lasting peace and security we need a foreign policy that reflects our values of justice, democracy and dignity."

For more information:
SOA Watch

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