Wooster students attend SOA protest in Georgia
Emily Bartelheim
News Editor
On Nov. 18-20, nine Wooster students traveled to Fort Benning, Ga. to participate in the protest against the School of the Americas. The College of Wooster group Peace by Peace organized the 2011 trip. The College has a long history of sending students to the protest. “This was my third year attending the SOA protest,” Catherine Gillette ’13 said.
The School of the Americas (SOA) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers to learn military techniques. The SOA was initially established in Panama in 1946, but was later expelled from the country 38 years later under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty (article iv) and reinforced under the Treaty Concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the Panama Canal (article v).
In 2001, the SOA changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) as a result of a proposal from the Department of Defense after the House of Representatives defeated an amendment to close the school. In a media interview last year, Ga. Senator and SOA supporter, the late Paul Coverdell, characterized the DOD proposal as “cosmetic” changes that would ensure that the SOA could still continue its mission and operation. Critics of the SOA concur; the new military training school is the same continuation of the SOA, merely under a new name.
Former Panamanian President Jorge Illueca stated that the SOA was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America” (soaw.org). When SOA released its teaching manual, it was revealed that the school teaches its students a variety of torture techniques. Since 1946, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in different military and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people, as well as torturing hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans.
The protest is an annual event put on by the SOA watch organization, opposing the large amount of graduates from the SOA that have gone on to commit atrocities in Latin America, including the El Mozote Massacre and the murders of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador (soaw.org). This year, Erin Flannelly ’14, Catherine Gillette ’13, Eliza Cady ’12, Amiel Portillowein ’12, Matthew Kodner ’12, Brian Lupish ’12, Madeline Erickson ’14, Carolyn Hockey ’14 and Donise Lewis ’15 all went to the nonviolent protest held right outside the military base. It took place on the road leading up to the gate of Fort Benning. Saturday featured musical performances, poetry readings and speeches from groups personally affected by SOA graduates. That night, the students attended a conference in which different organizations sponsored discussion about legislative actions to close the SOA.
Sunday’s more solemn protest involved a vigil ceremony and funeral procession during which the names of murdered Latin American citizens were read out loud while individual crosses were put on a fence blocking off the military base. After the names were read, protestors began to chant in front of the gate. “This year, one woman climbed the fence, which resulted in a six month jail sentence,” Flannelly said.
“It concerns me that the U.S. tax dollars are being used to pay for this facility when its graduates have committed such terrible human rights violations in their own countries,” Gillete said. “Throughout Central and South America, the victims of the SOA graduates are educators, union members, students and religious workers. How could I not be bothered by this facility?”
Currently, there is a bill going through congress HR3368 (the Latin American Military Training Review Act) that calls to shut down the SOA until its training material can be further investigated. The government is also refusing to release the names of current graduates as a matter of national secrecy and security, though many believe it is simply so they will not be associated with future crimes.
Another SOA watch will be held in April in Washington DC, when the bill will be in front of congress. Photos and the schedule of events for the protest are all on soaw.org.