Thousands attend vigil to close the School of Assassins

More than 12,000 people gathered at Ft Benning, GA to demand the closure the of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of Americas.

Several Rochesterians were among the thousands who protested the taxpayer funded US Army school that trains Latin American soldiers in combat techniques and psychological warfare.

Since 1946, more than 60,000 graduates have been trained to protect the interests of multinational corporations using manuals that advocate extortion, blackmail, torture, and the targeting of civilian populations. SOA grads are responsible for murders, rapes, disappearances, and massacres that have affected hundreds of thousands of people throughout Latin America.
From the death squads that roam Colombia killing trade unionists to those who operated Argentina's detention centers in the 1970s, SOA graduates are responsible for many of the worst atrocities in Latin American history.

In the US, a Maryknoll priest, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, was among several people who responded to the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her teenage daughter in El Salvador, by starting the SOA Watch. The vigil is held in November each year to mark the anniversary of that tragedy. On the 13th of this month, the Center for Justice and Accountability filed a criminal case in Spain against the former President of El Salvador and 14 soldiers from the Army for their role in those killings.
Also earlier this month, Fr. Bourgeois was threatened with excommunication for supporting the ordination of women in the Catholic church.