School of Americas military training center draws fire from students
EvaClaire Albion-Wright
Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: News
In late November, a group of students will load up in a van and travel 18 hours to be part of the annual vigil and memorial at the School of the Americas (SOA) in Ft. Benning, Ga.
The participants, part of Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change (SSJIC), are acting on the belief that the school needs to close.
"The SOA represents some of the worst of U.S. foreign policy," organizer Kristen Rosa '12 said. The trip will take place Nov. 20 to 22 and the students will be there for the protest's main events, the memorial for those killed by SOA graduates and the rally at the gates. The vigil begins the week before and will include activities such as puppet-making for the protest and classes on related topics.
Rosa and the SSJIC are organizing the trip. According to their blog, www.smithssjic.blogspot.com, the SSJIC "is an umbrella organization dealing with a wide range of social justice issues."
The trip is in the early stages of planning and students are looking for ways to find funding. To save money the students plan to drive there and camp.
According the School of Americas Watch Web site, the SOA, nicknamed the "School of the Assassins," was started in 1946 under the Panama Canal Treaty and has trained over 60,000 Latin Americans.
Panama's former President Jorge Llueca called it the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America." It was not long before Panama expelled the military training facility from the country.
SOA graduates are notorious throughout Latin America for heinous crimes ranging from assassinations and bombings to rape and torture.
In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered at Central American University in El Salvador in an event that became known as "The Jesuit Massacre," the SOA watcj Web site reports. Those killed included the rector and vice rector of the school. The Jesuit priests were part of a socialist political party called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, and the murders were in an attempt to de-stabilize the party. A United Nations truth commission held after the event found that two-thirds of those responsible were graduates of SOA.
The SOA protest began in response to this incident. It started as a religiously affiliated event calling for the school's closure. The protest now attracts thousands annually. "It's the only place I've ever seen radical Catholics and anarchists protesting together," said Anna Watanabe '12, who went on the trip last year.
In 2001, after much negative press coverage, the SOA renamed itself the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
"We still call it SOA as a rejection of its attempt to 're-brand' itself as a way from the negative press the SOA receives," Rosa said. The only difference after the name change was the trainees received eight more hours of human rights training.
The trip is in the early stages of planning and there is room for more students to come. For more information about the SOA protest, e-mail organizer Kristen Rosa.
More information about the SOA and the Ft. Benning vigil can be found at www.soaw.org.
The participants, part of Students for Social Justice and Institutional Change (SSJIC), are acting on the belief that the school needs to close.
"The SOA represents some of the worst of U.S. foreign policy," organizer Kristen Rosa '12 said. The trip will take place Nov. 20 to 22 and the students will be there for the protest's main events, the memorial for those killed by SOA graduates and the rally at the gates. The vigil begins the week before and will include activities such as puppet-making for the protest and classes on related topics.
Rosa and the SSJIC are organizing the trip. According to their blog, www.smithssjic.blogspot.com, the SSJIC "is an umbrella organization dealing with a wide range of social justice issues."
The trip is in the early stages of planning and students are looking for ways to find funding. To save money the students plan to drive there and camp.
According the School of Americas Watch Web site, the SOA, nicknamed the "School of the Assassins," was started in 1946 under the Panama Canal Treaty and has trained over 60,000 Latin Americans.
Panama's former President Jorge Llueca called it the "biggest base for destabilization in Latin America." It was not long before Panama expelled the military training facility from the country.
SOA graduates are notorious throughout Latin America for heinous crimes ranging from assassinations and bombings to rape and torture.
In 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter were murdered at Central American University in El Salvador in an event that became known as "The Jesuit Massacre," the SOA watcj Web site reports. Those killed included the rector and vice rector of the school. The Jesuit priests were part of a socialist political party called the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, and the murders were in an attempt to de-stabilize the party. A United Nations truth commission held after the event found that two-thirds of those responsible were graduates of SOA.
The SOA protest began in response to this incident. It started as a religiously affiliated event calling for the school's closure. The protest now attracts thousands annually. "It's the only place I've ever seen radical Catholics and anarchists protesting together," said Anna Watanabe '12, who went on the trip last year.
In 2001, after much negative press coverage, the SOA renamed itself the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
"We still call it SOA as a rejection of its attempt to 're-brand' itself as a way from the negative press the SOA receives," Rosa said. The only difference after the name change was the trainees received eight more hours of human rights training.
The trip is in the early stages of planning and there is room for more students to come. For more information about the SOA protest, e-mail organizer Kristen Rosa.
More information about the SOA and the Ft. Benning vigil can be found at www.soaw.org.
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