November, 21 2008, 01:28pm EDT
Thousands Gather This Weekend at Fort Benning, Georgia to Say: Yes We Can Stop Torture and Close the School of Assassins
Advocates for Justice in the Americas Look Forward With Hope
COLUMBUS, Ga.
Thousands will gather this weekend, November 21-23,
at the gates of Fort Benning, GA for what organizers hope may be the
last mass protest to close the controversial School of the Americas,
renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
(SOA/WHINSEC). With 35 Representatives who voted to continue funding
the SOA/WHINSEC losing their seats in Congress
on November 4th, human rights advocates have their sights set on
pressuring the new Congress to permanently shut down the school in
2009. The last vote to defund the SOA/WHINSEC, in 2007, lost by a margin of only six votes.
Every November, the annual 'Vigil to Close the SOA/WHINSEC' draws
thousands of people to the gates of Ft. Benning, the army base which
houses the facility. Organizers hope to make the most out of the
changing political climate that was revealed during this year's
elections. "We feel qualified optimism," said SOA Watch founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois. "The
American people have rejected the Bush Administration's policies of
aggression, war-mongering and torture. By closing this notorious school
of assassins now, Obama and the new Congress can show the world that we
genuinely honor human rights." Hundreds of thousands of Latin
Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared,"
massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the SOA/WHINSEC.
On Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama repeated on 60 Minutes
his promise to close Guantanamo and to ensure that U.S. forces not use
torture. However, he has yet to offer a clear position on the
SOA/WHINSEC, despite the school's long association with torture and
human rights abuses. SOA Watch is circulating a petition to the
president-elect, urging him to issue an executive order to close the
SOA/WHINSEC. Five Latin American countries have already announced their
withdrawal from the training facility, citing its history of human
rights abuses. SOA Watch believes that closing the SOA/WHINSEC is a
pivotal opportunity for the U.S. to improve its relationships in the
Western Hemisphere, and to fulfill Obama's stated goal of "regain[ing]
America's moral stature in the world."
The vigil will culminate on Sunday, November 23 with a funeral
procession to the gates of Ft. Benning. Activists will enter the base
in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. The vigil commemorates the
November 16, 1989 massacre in El Salvador of Julia Elba Ramos, her
14-year-old daughter Celina, and six Jesuit priests. They were brutally
murdered by a Salvadoran army unit that was led by military officers
trained at the SOA. Jon Sobrino, SJ, the Jesuit priest who survived the
massacre, will attend this year's vigil.
The School of the Americas made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals
used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. The
involvement of SOA/WHINSEC graduates in human rights abuses continues.
This October, Colombian Army commander General Mario Montoya
resigned in the wake of a scandal over army killings of civilians that
a UN official called "systematic and widespread." General Montoya not
only received training at the SOA, but also taught soldiers as an
instructor there. He has been replaced by General Oscar Gonzalez, also an SOA/WHINSEC graduate.
After research revealed that the SOA/WHINSEC continues to train known
human rights abusers, and that instructors have been involved in
numerous crimes, the Pentagon reacted by classifying the names of all
officers, soldiers, and instructors.
SOA Watch is an independent organization that seeks to close the US Army School of the Americas, under whatever name it is called, through vigils and fasts, demonstrations and nonviolent protest, as well as media and legislative work.
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