. US: PROTEST AT RENAMED ARMY SCHOOL On Jan. 17, a protest was held at the US military training institution formerly known as School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. As military police patrolled the grounds, students dressed in black robes and hoods marched along the entrance of the base, carrying tiny white crosses and a small coffin. Seven crossed the line and entered military property, where they were immediately arrested and hauled off to jail. As with numerous similar actions over the past decade, the latest protest was organized by School of the Americas Watch, which tracks SOA graduates involved in human rights violations and continues to seek the permanent closure of the school. The SOA, operated by the US Army, formally closed its doors on Dec. 15, and the latest protest was timed to coincide with the reopening of the school by the Pentagon under a new name, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). Other protests against the reopening of the school were held around the US and in other countries including Chile, Honduras, Germany, Canada and Austria. [Chicago Tribune 1/18/01; Tiempo (Honduras) 1/18/01 from EFE; La Tercera (Chile) 12/15/00] The SOA has trained tens of thousands of military officers from around Latin America, including many of those implicated in human rights abuses. Colombia is one of the countries with the largest numbers of officers trained at the SOA. [SOA Watch info from website at http://www.soaw.org] Officials claim the new institution will be geared toward teaching democracy, counterdrug operations and human rights to soldiers as well as civilians from every country in the Western Hemisphere except Cuba and Haiti. Fighting drug trafficking will be one of the school's major focuses, officials said. "When drug traffickers have more resources than the armed forces of the nation in which they are operating, that is a threat to democracy," said Army Secretary Louis Caldera. "It is in our national interest to protect our population from the ills of drugs and the street violence it brings. And it is also in our interest to help Colombia protect its democracy. The same threats that are today facing Colombia will face every other nation in the region if we don't handle it." [Chicago Tribune 1/18/01]
