It was a remarkable scene: a group of protestors standing in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., holding up a sign urging the closing of the notorious School of the Americas, chatting with youths who ask “What’s the SOA,” and “Are you a protester?”
Such was the afternoon of April 7, the fourth day in a weeklong celebration of joint activities meant to bring pressure upon President Barack Obama to shut down the military institution that over the course of more than 30 years has trained army officers and enlisted men in the ways of torture, hunt and kill techniques, and destruction.
Roy Bourgeois, the former Maryknoll priest and founder of School of the Americas Watch, told a crowd of about 80 people at George Washington University later that day that the cornerstone of the efforts made by SOAW and Latin America Solidarity, which was a co-sponsor of the educational and legislative conference in Washington, was to find a good stride and “not get burned out.”
“The media in Washington has told us that they’ve covered the story” about the SOA Watch protests, underscoring the importance of the gatherings at the school’s home base, Ft. Benning, Ga., where 20,000 protesters make a mark, unlike the streets of the nation’s capital. Bourgeois also noted that there is hope for a younger generation of engaged leaders who already asking questions about the United States’ role in the roiling political and military era of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The School of the Americas has been an important component of El Salvador’s checkered history in recent years. More than 200 officers and noncommissioned officers have graduated from the program, which originally was located in Panama prior to moving to its current home at Ft. Benning. Now known as WHINSEC (the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the institution continues to train military ranks in the not-so-subtle ways of warfare, with the real aim of developing relationships with officers as they move up in the ranks over the years.
CRISPAZ has always maintained a keen interest in shutting down the school, especially in light of the hundreds – if not thousands – of friends who were affected by the bloody encounters with SOA-trained personnel.
About a dozen of the protesters at this year’s Washington event volunteered to take part in a weeklong fast, limiting their intake to water and fruit juices, to show a commitment to the movement and to help raise awareness of the issue by hearkening back to the early days of the SOA Watch, when fasts would last up to a month, Bourgeois said.
Events for Friday, April 8, include a gathering at the Embassy of Honduras to protest a coup in 2010; and an open house at the Embassy of Venezuela. In the evening, the first plenary session of the gathering will be held at American University, featuring Chuck Kaufman, the national co-coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice; Perla de la Rosa, an activist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; and Gerardo Torres, who represents the National Front of Popular Resistance of Honduras.
Such was the afternoon of April 7, the fourth day in a weeklong celebration of joint activities meant to bring pressure upon President Barack Obama to shut down the military institution that over the course of more than 30 years has trained army officers and enlisted men in the ways of torture, hunt and kill techniques, and destruction.
Roy Bourgeois, the former Maryknoll priest and founder of School of the Americas Watch, told a crowd of about 80 people at George Washington University later that day that the cornerstone of the efforts made by SOAW and Latin America Solidarity, which was a co-sponsor of the educational and legislative conference in Washington, was to find a good stride and “not get burned out.”
“The media in Washington has told us that they’ve covered the story” about the SOA Watch protests, underscoring the importance of the gatherings at the school’s home base, Ft. Benning, Ga., where 20,000 protesters make a mark, unlike the streets of the nation’s capital. Bourgeois also noted that there is hope for a younger generation of engaged leaders who already asking questions about the United States’ role in the roiling political and military era of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The School of the Americas has been an important component of El Salvador’s checkered history in recent years. More than 200 officers and noncommissioned officers have graduated from the program, which originally was located in Panama prior to moving to its current home at Ft. Benning. Now known as WHINSEC (the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the institution continues to train military ranks in the not-so-subtle ways of warfare, with the real aim of developing relationships with officers as they move up in the ranks over the years.
CRISPAZ has always maintained a keen interest in shutting down the school, especially in light of the hundreds – if not thousands – of friends who were affected by the bloody encounters with SOA-trained personnel.
About a dozen of the protesters at this year’s Washington event volunteered to take part in a weeklong fast, limiting their intake to water and fruit juices, to show a commitment to the movement and to help raise awareness of the issue by hearkening back to the early days of the SOA Watch, when fasts would last up to a month, Bourgeois said.
Events for Friday, April 8, include a gathering at the Embassy of Honduras to protest a coup in 2010; and an open house at the Embassy of Venezuela. In the evening, the first plenary session of the gathering will be held at American University, featuring Chuck Kaufman, the national co-coordinator of the Alliance for Global Justice; Perla de la Rosa, an activist in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; and Gerardo Torres, who represents the National Front of Popular Resistance of Honduras.
(CRISPAZ Executive Director Dennis O’Connor is attending the SOA Watch/Latin American Solidarity Days of Action in Washington, D.C., and he will be reporting on each day’s activities in The CRISPAZ Blog.)
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