School of the Americas protest and vigil 11/22-23

[GreenInNC]

Hello all - I would like to invite everyone down to Columbus Georgia for the annual School of the Americas vigil and protest in November. This is one of the most moving events that I take part in and if you have never been you owe it to yourself to attend.

What is the School of the Americas?

The Fort Benning based School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” has been pumping out assassins, dictators and death squad leaders for the dirty work in Latin America since 1946. This notorious training facility has left a trail of blood and pain in every country where its graduates have returned.

The SOA/ WHINSEC has trained over 64,000 L atin American soldiers in courses such as counterinsurgency, psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. Graduates of the school have been consistently linked to human rights violations and to the suppression of popular movements in the Americas. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared”, massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Assassins.

The purpose of the School of the Americas is, and has always been, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries. Countries with the worst human rights records have consistently sent the most soldiers to be trained at the SOA: Bolivia during the reign of terror; Nicaragua during the Somoza dictatorship; El Salvador during the bloodiest repression; and currently Colombia.

Gray Newman
Board Member
School of the Americas Watch
North Carolina

[norepubsin08]

1. If I had the money, I would be there in a heart beat

I wound up running for US Congress in 1990 against Norm Dicks democrat 6th District WA. The year before I ran a city initiative in Tacoma, Washington (at that time a heavily military town) asking for an advisory vote to reduce military spending by 10% and put that savings to deficit reduction and social services. We won that vote by 64% Ten days after the election, the Jesuits were assassinated by SOA trainees. When Dicks came to Bellarmine High School (a Jesuit community) for the memorial he basically said tough luck on the Jesuits and that he would still vote to fund the SOA. That is when a group of people asked me to run against him. In the election, I received the most votes in a primary against him since 1976. (I ran as a Democrat from the left against) soon after the election in which he had to spend 4 times as much as normal (I ran on 58K) he changed his vote and voted not to fund the SOA.

So this subject is very near to my heart and my goal is to one day be at the protest,m help lead and provide music. I have been following this for years, and we often have a corresponding protest in Tacoma. Good luck and God Bless you in your work. In Solidarity-Mike Collier-Former US Congressional Candidate

[GreenInNC]

2. We will count you as Presente!