School of the Americas
Last weekend I attended my first School of the Americas protest. SOA (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC) is where our military teaches soldiers from Latin American countries how to torture and kill people. Graduates of SOA/WHINSEC have killed tens of thousands of people throughout Latin America. They were involved in the disappearances in Argentina and the genocide in Guatemala in the 1980s. This year was the 30th anniversary of the rape and murder three American nuns and an American lay minister in El Salvador.
Joining the protest was a way to say "not in my name" to the torture and murder.
One torture survivor spoke from the stage during the rally. He said that unlike George Bush's assertions that water boarding is not torture. The man on stage said he had survived water boarding and so he knew for sure that it's torture.
The central and climactic part of the weekend of protest is the reading of the names. All the names of known murder victims are read like a Catholic liturgy and after year name we sing "presente," which is Spanish for "present" to signify that their spirits are here with us in this witness against murder. The names rolled over me like a tidal wave; so many, many of them. I carried a sign with the picture of the church women killed 30 years ago and I put it on the fence of Ft. Benning, which had been turned into a shrine of remembrance.
I don't remember all the names because there were too many but I do remember Christina, age 9 years and Concepcion, age 3 days. I would like to know why my government teaches people to kill children. How can this possibly make the world safer or protect my freedom?
I want the killing to stop.
Joining the protest was a way to say "not in my name" to the torture and murder.
One torture survivor spoke from the stage during the rally. He said that unlike George Bush's assertions that water boarding is not torture. The man on stage said he had survived water boarding and so he knew for sure that it's torture.
The central and climactic part of the weekend of protest is the reading of the names. All the names of known murder victims are read like a Catholic liturgy and after year name we sing "presente," which is Spanish for "present" to signify that their spirits are here with us in this witness against murder. The names rolled over me like a tidal wave; so many, many of them. I carried a sign with the picture of the church women killed 30 years ago and I put it on the fence of Ft. Benning, which had been turned into a shrine of remembrance.
I don't remember all the names because there were too many but I do remember Christina, age 9 years and Concepcion, age 3 days. I would like to know why my government teaches people to kill children. How can this possibly make the world safer or protect my freedom?
I want the killing to stop.