The Guardian December 6, 2000 US Army detains 1700 at School of Americas by Dianne Mathiowetz Thousands of opponents of the School of the Americas at Ft Benning in Columbus, Ga, defied a steady downpour and frigid temperatures to carry out a massive act of political resistance on November 19. >From El Salvador to Argentina to Colombia, graduates of this US Army training school have been involved in numerous military coups, massacres, political murders, rape and torture of prisoners, "disappearances" of civilians as well as drug-running and other crimes. Washington has supported all the governments and agents carrying out these crimes. Dressed in black shrouds, carrying coffins and crosses inscribed with the names of those killed by SOA-trained troops throughout Latin America, over 3,500 people entered Ft Benning in a solemn procession. After marching nearly a half-mile onto the military camp, protesters lowered the coffins to the ground and poured red paint on the shrouded and masked lead contingent, who then fell to the wet ground, refusing to get up. Military police picked them up and placed them on canvas litters in order to take them to be processed. The hundreds of crosses put into the ground created a symbolic cemetery of the School of the Americas' victims. "No mas, no more," chanted the demonstrators. A second wave of protesters, carrying giant paper mache puppets, crossed onto Ft Benning. These anti-globalisation activists and puppeteers, whose street theatre has enlivened protests from Seattle to the country's capital, created a colourful display of popular resistance. Randy Serraglio, who spent six months in a federal prison for trespassing on Ft Benning in previous years, explained that they would plant corn seeds on the military property. "Corn is life", Serraglio said of that powerful Latin American cultural symbol. "We are talking about hope for the future." Linking military to globalisation The addition of anti-globalisation forces underscored the expanding awareness of the link between US military policy and corporate domination in the world. Katherine Cristiani, a senior at Oberlin College in Ohio, explained why she was participating in the action. She said, "I think the School of the Americas is a symbol of the role of violence and exploitation that the US has played in South America." More than 1,700 people were held by military authorities, who established their identities and handed them letters banning them from the base for five years. The US attorney's office will determine if any of the protesters will be prosecuted on charges of trespassing, resisting arrest or assaulting law- enforcement officers. In 1999, 65 people were cited out of the over 6,000 who crossed onto the base. Post Commander Major General John LeMoye said he decided to cite more demonstrators this year to "give us an opportunity to engage in dialogue about the school". Starting in 1946, with the school located in Panama, the US began training the militaries of Latin America as part of its Cold War strategy of containing popular movements. The 1977 Panama Canal Treaty that turned the waterway over to the Panamanian Government also forced the School of the Americas to relocate to Ft Benning. This took place in 1984. Close to 60,000 members of the militaries of 22 Latin American countries have received advanced training at the SOA in its more than 50 years of existence. For Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOAWatch, which initiated the campaign to close the School of the Americas, it was events in El Salvador that revealed the deadly impact of this "advanced training". SOA-trained soldiers massacred over 900 men, women and children in the village of El Mozote. They carried out the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero as he celebrated mass. The school's graduates also murdered six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her 15-year-old daughter on the grounds of the University of Central America in San Salvador. Torture and murder "optional" Ten years of protest have put a spotlight on the SOA's role in the repression exercised by military and police throughout Latin America. An SOA training manual openly suggested the establishment of bounties and the summary execution of suspected "guerillas". When this manual was discovered, US military officials at the School dismissed this instruction as "optional". While the Pentagon claims that the school offers "human rights" training and strengthens "democracy", the record shows that under the rule of SOA graduate Rios Montt of Guatemala, hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people were murdered, tortured, disappeared and forced into exile. Likewise, in Argentina, when SOA graduate Leopolo Galtieri led the military, more than 30,000 civilians were killed or disappeared in what is known as the "dirty war". In Colombia, where the US has just authorised an additional $1.3 billion in aid, mostly for high-tech weaponry, half of those cited for human-rights violations were trained at the SOA. These and many other examples are fuelling the movement to end Congressional funding to the school. "New name, same shame" The US military is attempting to defuse and confuse the movement by officially closing the SOA on December 15 and re-opening it on January 17, 2001, with a new name, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The "new" school will have an oversight board of civilians and will require mandatory human-rights courses. Signs at the protest saying "New name, same shame" indicate that no one was taken in by this public-relations ploy. The next national action of SOAWatch will take place in Washington from March 29-April 3 to demand that the new Congress and President close the School of the Americas for good. For more information, visit the Web site www.soaw.org. * * * Workers World News Service Back to index page
