Women Religious: SOA Watch Needs You!

The School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) is looking for someone to represent women religious on their Council.

The Council makes major policy decisions for the SOA Watch organization, with input from the organization's regional groups, working groups, and staff. In addition, the Council provides administrative leadership to the SOA Watch organization, trying to include the voices of all those who have committed themselves to the goals of SOA Watch in its decisions and activities. The council functions somewhat like a board of directors, making policy and financial decisions, and the power to hire and fire.

Each council rep is expected to work on at least one sub-committee (such as finance, agenda, or personnel). The council and the staff make decisions using the Consensus Model.

The Council meets face to face twice a year (usually April and September), and via telephone conference call several times in-between, and also electronically via the council list-serve. Recently it has meant approximately one phone call a month, usually 60 to 90 minutes. Council does not meet formally at the November vigil.

There are regional reps, elected by members of their region and representatives representing special constituency group that have been important to the movement to close the SOA, such as Veterans for Peace, Torture Survivors, Immokalee Workers, and Women Religious. These representatives have full voting and participation rights. There is no specific term of office, but many reps have aimed for a 2 year term minimum. There are currently 14 filled seats, and 5 empty seats.

If you are interested in serving or learning more about the SOAW Council please contact Ken Crowley at Ken@witnessforpeace.org

Notify your Representative: Close the SOA!

The deadline has been extended to August 10 to contact your representative and urge him or her to support human rights by signing on to a letter urging President Obama to issue an Executive Order to close the SOA (now known as WHINSEC). Rep. Jim McGovern has introduced this congressional sign-on letter. Now he needs your help to urge your representative to sign it! Phone calls are best, but e-mails are accepted, too. Click here to go to the SOAW site to take action. The phone number and e-mail contact can be found there. Share this information with as many friends as possible.

As you may know, the School of the Americas (SOA) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, GA. In 2001, it was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). No matter what you call it, the facts remain: since 1946, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in coutnerinsurgency techniques, sniper training, psychological warfare, military intelligence, and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Assassins.

Memoria y Resistencia

From SOAW:

Before we come together for a weekend of celebration and solidarity with workshops, speakers, musicians and more, it is important that we remember why we strategically gather at the gates of Fort Benning.

We gather to resist the growing U.S. militarization of the Americas and to affirm the promotion of a culture of peace. We come to insist that the doors of this School of Assassins close and that doors of peace in the Americas open. As we perceive that the SOA has "jumped the gates" and is multiplying in U.S. military bases, troops, ships and fleets in the Americas, we come to say: NO MAS. We come to build bridges with our compatriots of this UNA SOLA AMERICA.

Take a moment to watch this video:

E-mail subscribers, click here to watch the video if you cannot see it in your e-mail.

Prayers for SOA/WHINSEC Protesters

Please remember in your prayers all those who will witness at Fort Benning this weekend.

From http://www.soaw.org/:
The United States government has been training terrorists at a camp in Georgia for years - and is still at it. The Fort Benning based School of the Americas (SOA), renamed in 2001 the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation” (WHINSEC), has been pumping out assassins, dictators and death squad leaders for the dirty work in Latin America since 1946.

For several years, the Sisters of Christian Charity have participated in the Vigil and Non-Violent Protest to close the SOA. This year will be no exception, as Sisters Janice Boyer, Juliana Miska, Maria Teresa Nguyen and Maria Lan Nguyen will represent us at the gates of Fort Benning. Please pray for them and for all who will attend this event.

Human Rights Advocate Sentenced to Six Months in Federal Prison

From the SOA Watch:

Washington, DC resident Michael Walli was one of four human rights advocates who were arrested during the annual November Vigil to close the School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/ WHINSEC). Michael Walli was sentenced on Monday, June 14, 2010 to six months in federal prison.

During his November arraignment, Michael told judge Malon Faircloth that he would not pay any bail and that he would not voluntarily return for the trial. Michael Walli made good on his promise and Faircloth issued a warrant for Michael's arrest. Federal marshals arrested Michael in March 2010 at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, DC.

Ken Hayes, Father Louis Vitale and Nancy Gwin, the three human rights advocates who were arrested together with Michael Walli, were each sentenced in January 2010 to six months in prison as well - the maximum allowed for the charge of tresspass. The extremely harsh sentences are intended to deter others from following the example of the 'SOAW 4.'

"Those who speak out for justice are facing prison time while SOA-trained torturers and assassins are operating with impunity," said SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois.

The SOA/WHINSEC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights atrocities and coups, including the El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador and last year's military coup in Honduras. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution.

SOA Watch works to stand in solidarity with people of Latin America, to change oppressive US foreign policy, and to close the SOA/WHINSEC. In November 2010, thousands will return to the gates of Fort Benning to call for justice and accountability.

Click here to send a message of solidarity to the prisoners.

Click here to visit the School of the Americas Watch website.

Romero: 30 Years Later

March 24 marks the 30th anniversary of the assassination of San Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero at the hands of graduates of the School of the Americas. Perhaps today we could take some time to renew our commitment to closing SOA/WHINSEC. Go to the web site, http://www.soaw.org/ to learn more.

Maybe we could take some time to watch the film, Romero. Or, here' s a picture montage done by students for a Social Justice class. (E-mail subscribers, click here if you do not see a video link below):




Today, let's remember some of the words of Archbishop Romero:

Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.


Let the people say, "Amen."

Father Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Father Roy Bourgeois, MM, and School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) have been nominated for one of the most prestigious awards in the world - the Nobel Peace Prize - for their sustained faithful nonviolent witness against the disappearances, torture, and murder of hundreds of thousands of civilians (peasants, community and union organizers, clerics, missionaries, educators, and health workers) by foreign military personnel trained by the U.S. military at U.S. taxpayer expense at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The candidacy of Father Roy and SOA Watch for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize has been officially submitted to the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. The official announcement was made by AFSC representative John Meyer on Sunday, November 22 at the gates of Fort Benning (home of the School of the Americas) during the annual November vigil to close the SOA.

"We are deeply honored, and deeply humbled, to be nominated for this prize for peace," commented Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran, Purple Heart recipient and a Catholic priest, who helped found SOA Watch. "This nomination is a recognition of the work of the thousands struggling against militarism across the Americas."

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works through creative protest and resistance, legislative and grassroots media work to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that institutions like the SOA/ WHINSEC represent.

This weekend, SOA Watch is gathering by the thousands at the gates of Ft. Benning to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the killings of 14-year-old Celia Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos, and the six Jesuit priests she worked with at the Central American University in San Salvador in November 1989. Human rights defenders from Colombia and Bertha Oliva, founder of human rights organization COFADEH, Committee of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras, which has been actively resisting the SOA graduate-led coup as part of the resistance front.

Support SOAW

As you know from last week, four SCCs will be converging on Fort Benning to close the SOA -- Sisters Janice, Juliana, Andrea, and Immaculata. We remember them in prayer in a special way. If you're unable to go, but still want to be involved, here's an opportunity (as presented by the LCWR):
LATIN AMERICA MILITARY TRAINING REVIEW ACT HR 2567: As you know, some of our members will be present at the gates of SOA/WHINSEC in Fort Benning, GA next week. If you agree with calling for suspension of activities at the School but cannot be present, here is one more opportunity to ask your Representative in Congress to cosponsor HR 2567,offered by the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center in Spokane, WA: http://capwiz.com/ipjc/issues/alert/?alertid=13427726.

From the SOA/WHINSEC Protest

Thanks to Sister Mary Irene for sharing this photo from the weekend at Fort Benning. Kneeling in front: Sister Elizabeth Kovacs. Standing (L to R): Sister Mary Irene Sorber, Father John Dear, SJ, Sister Juliana Miska, Sister Janice Boyer, Sister Monica Cormier. Note that Sister Mary Irene is holding John Dear's most recent book, A Persistent Peace, which was our blog's feature book for September. Your blogger just finished reading it this weekend and highly recommends it! Check out the SOAW website for more information and news about last weekend's protest.

Sign the Petition to Close the SOA

Go to the SOA Watch web site to sign the petition asking President-Elect Barack Obama to issue an Executive Order to close the SOA. You can sign the petition online or print a form to get others to sign with you. Remember to keep the vigil in your prayers.