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Protests demand: 'Close School of Americas'
By
Jaimeson Champion
Published Nov 29, 2007 12:33 AM
Approximately 25,000 people assembled at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus,
Ga., on Nov. 18 as part of an annual protest to demand that the U.S. military
close the notorious School of the Americas (SOA).
The SOA, now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and
Cooperation, is used to train military and security personnel from Latin
American nations. SOA graduates are responsible for the murder and torture of
hundreds of thousands of people in countries across Latin America.
The demonstration began with Gennaro Jacinto Calel, from the International
Mayan League, offering a traditional Mayan blessing.Speakers at the
demonstration recounted atrocities committed by SOA trained murderers, such as
the 1981 El Mozote massacre in El Salvador where more than 900 men, women and
children were brutally killed, and demanded that the U.S. military immediately
shut down the school. Participants in the demonstration included survivors of
torture at the hands of SOA graduates.
Demonstrators placed thousands of white crosses with the names of victims who
were murdered by SOA graduates at the gate of the base. Military police
arrested 11 people who crossed onto the grounds of the base in an act of civil
disobedience.
Simultaneous demonstrations took place in San Francisco; Fort Huachuca, Ariz.;
Monterey, Calif.; Santiago, Chile; and Toronto, Canada.
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