PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

School of America's Protest
by Radio Collective Wednesday, Dec. 01, 2004 at 12:23 AM

More than 16,000 protestors stood vigil outside Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia last week to protest the School of the Americas.

More than 16,000 protestors stood vigil outside Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia last week to protest the School of the Americas. The event was part of a three day protest of the school, since re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC, and marks the 14th such protest since 1990.

According to the organization SOA watch, (quote) "hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by graduates of the SOA" (end quote), including the brutal 1989 murder of 6 Jesuit priests in El Salvador which sparked the first mass vigil the following November.

Established in 1946 in Panama, the SOA was kicked out in 1984 under terms of the Panama Canal Treaty, only to be moved to its present location, 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Each year, the SOA trains between 700 to 2000 soldiers from Latin America and the Caribbean, in war tactics such as counterinsurgency operations, psychological operations, sniper fire and military intelligence. The SOA does not screen its applicants, allowing known human rights abusers to attend.

In a statement read aloud to the crowd, Senora Dianna Ortiz recalled that this month is the 15th year anniversary of her own abduction and torture in Guatemala by a SOA graduate. One of the offenders was found guilty of her torture but was honored by the SOA, she said.

At least 20 people were arrested during the protests in acts of non-violent civil disobedience. Since 1990 more than 170 protestors have willingly faced arrest to oppose the policies of the school and its violent graduates, some arrestees facing prison terms of up to 2 years for symbolically crossing the fence that demarcates the borders of the fort.

Protestors drew links between the past and present history of SOA graduates and the torture conducted by the US government around the world today, including the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Pittsburgh's chapter of School of America Watch bussed in 66 people from the region. This year marks the sixth visit for local organizer Edith Wilson, who attended the SOA protest with her two daughters.

Edith said of the annual SOA protests that it's unlike any demonstration I've been to because of its spiritual component. The SOA is powerful symbol of our violent foreign policy."

Edith also noted that this year's protest featured a colorful puppet pagentry headed by the world's largest puppet designed to represent a mother in mourning. The puppet was left behind for the authorities to ponder.

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