| COLUMBUS, GA. - November 21 - Thousands will take nonviolent direct action this weekend to close what they call a terrorist training camp on U.S. soil -- the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC), a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. On November 22-23 thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia -- home of the notorious school. SOA grads continue to be implicated in egregious acts designed to terrorize and coerce civilian populations throughout Latin America. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared", massacred, and forced into refuge by SOA graduates. The gathering will culminate on Sunday, November 23 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. Since protests against SOA/WHISC began over ten years ago, 170 people have served or are now serving prison sentences for civil disobedience. "As long as Latin Americans are still being killed as a result of SOA training, we'll take direct action to close the school," said Rebecca Johnson, 24, who was just released Tuesday from federal prison after serving a six-month sentence for locking herself to the gate last year. "Prison sentences won't deter us." The weekend's program will feature music and speakers from Latin and North America, including Pete Seeger; Llajtasuyo; Francisco Herrera; Jon Fromer; Sister Helen Prejean; Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness; and Bob King, VP of the United Auto Workers International. The Columbus convergence concludes a week of resistance to empire and corporate globalization. Thousands gathered in Miami to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and over 100,000 gathered in London-during Bush's visit-to protest the invasion and occupation of Iraq. SOA Watch organizers have been coordinating with organizers in Miami, and working in solidarity with organizers in England. Yesterday the three mobilizations released a joint statement of solidarity highlighting connections between their struggles. ### |
