Georgia Police Chief Severely Restricts Annual SOA Protest: Social Organizations and US Reps Respond

The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2000, is an enduring propagator of the National Security Doctrine and militarization in Latin America. The training and accompanying political support of repressive security forces throughout the world has contributed to the alarming militarization of the domestic U.S. police force.

The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2000, is an enduring propagator of the National Security Doctrine and militarization in Latin America. The training and accompanying political support of repressive security forces throughout the world has contributed to the alarming militarization of the domestic U.S. police force.

As the military industrial complex and Pentagon constantly utilize self-serving and alarmist arguments to saturate the rest of the world with arms, it is no surprise that they have now also saturated the U.S. with weapons of war through the “1033 program.” The Department of Homeland Security has also spent over $34 billion in grants for weaponry to U.S. police forces since 9/11. In Ferguson we are now seeing the frightening consequences of U.S. police militarization in real time. Although Columbus, GA police have not come close to the level of repression currently occurring in Ferguson, they continue to harass, arbitrarily arrest (e.g. 2010), and attempt to impede the peaceful protests at the November Vigil, often at the behest of Ft. Benning officials.

It has become painfully evident that the lines between the U.S. military and police are no longer clear throughout the U.S. Please join SOA Watch this November to demand a change in racist foreign policy, respect for basic rights, and an end to further militarization in the U.S. and abroad.

– Arturo Viscarra, SOA Watch

 

SOA Watch August 20th Press Release:

SOA Watch Contacts: 
Sister Alison McCrary, CSJ, SOA Watch Legal Collective, 504-484-9710Alison@soaw.org
Hendrik Voss, National Organizer,202-425-5128hvoss@soaw.org
Father Roy Bourgeois, SOA Watch Founder, 706-682-5369

The Columbus police department has received some national and international attention after Columbus police chief Ricky Boren announced unconstitutional restrictions on the annual November Vigil to Close the School of the Americas (SOA, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) at the main gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. According to the police, the annual gathering of thousands should be limited to 200 people. The permit to set up a stage and sound system has been denied.

The suggestion by the Columbus police that SOA Watch should abandon plans for a protest at the main gates of the base, and instead apply for a new permit for a side road near a back entrance, was rejected by organizers, who vow to continue the 24-year tradition of honoring those killed by SOA/WHINSEC graduates at the main gates of the base.

This week, 12 Members of Congress intervened in the conflict. In a letter to the Columbus mayor and police chief, Representatives John Conyers, Jr. (MI), Jim McGovern (MA), John Lewis (GA), Hank Johnson (GA), Sam Farr (CA), Danny K. Davis (IL), Barbara Lee (CA), Michael Capuano (MA), Peter DeFazio (OR), Jan Schakowsky (IL), Maxine Waters (CA), and Luis Gutierrez (IL) asked the local authorities to lift the restrictions and to let the Vigil go forward unimpeded. The lawmakers write “While the demonstration may impede traffic and constitute an inconvenience to Ft. Benning, these types of disruptions are part and parcel of our country’s proud tradition of vigorous free speech.”

Thousands of activists and more than 75 national and international human rights and social justice organizations have signed petitions and written letters to Columbus authorities in support of SOA Watch’s first amendment rights.

Thousands have gathered every November for the nonviolent demonstration since the first anniversary of the 1989 SOA graduate-led massacre of 16-year-old Celina Ramos, her mother Elba Ramos and six Jesuit priests at the University of Central America in El Salvador. SOA Watch calls for the closure of the institute, which exports the militarization of police, perpetuates coups, torture, extrajudicial killings, and human rights abuses in the face of social and political problems. The SOA/WHINSEC made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released SOA training manuals that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among its graduates are at least 11 dictators as well as leaders of infamous Central American death squads. SOA/WHINSEC graduates are currently linked to the Honduran military coup and the repression campaign against social movements there, among other humanitarian crises.

For more information, visit http://www.soaw.org/