Call to Action: Shut Down the School of the Americas!

November 19-21, 2004 at Fort Benning, Georgia

The School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC, is a combat training school for Latin American security personnel located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Initially established in Panama in 1946, the SOA was kicked out of that country in 1984 under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty. Former Panamanian President Jorge Illueca stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA/WHINSEC, funded by US taxpayer money, has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in such courses as counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics.

For over a decade, students, religious, labor, veterans, human rights, and social and global justice groups have been converging every November at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to speak out in solidarity with the people of the Americas and to engage in nonviolent direct action. We will gather again this year on November 20 and 21, 2004 to continue together in the struggle until the School of the Americas is closed and the policies it represents are changed forever!

This “School of Assassins,” in the guise of promoting democracy, has graduated eleven Latin American dictators, including Manuel Noriega of Panama, Efrain Rios Montt of Guatemala, and Hugo Banzar Suárez of Bolivia. Graduates of the school have been consistently linked to human rights violations and to the suppression of popular movements in Central and South America of people demanding access to land, safer working conditions and control of their own natural resources.

For decades, while supporting death squads, propping up dictators and actually overthrowing democratically elected leaders, the US government claimed it was bringing democracy to Latin America. We do not believe that you can bring about positive social change through the use of force. You cannot spread democracy through the barrel of a gun!

What can you do?

# Come to Fort Benning this November! Teach-ins, trainings, and caucuses will begin on Friday, November 19. On Saturday and Sunday thousands will gather at the main gate of Fort Benning for rallies, music, speakers and nonviolent direct action. Check back at www.SOAW.org as plans unfold and various events are announced in more detail.

# Engage in Nonviolent Direct Action on Sunday, November 21st. Every year groups of people decide to take their message onto the base, publicly defying the laws which prevent political speech on military bases and making a bold call for the closure of the “School of Assassins.” This year, we encourage people to come as individuals and affinity groups to take nonviolent direct action to help liberate us all from oppressive US foreign policy in Latin America and to close the SOA/WHINSEC.

# Organize In Your Community: organize nonviolent direct action trainings, talks about the SOA, video showings or other educational events in your community in the next two months. Write to your Members of Congress and ask them to support legislation to close the SOA/WHINSEC. Organize a bus, vans or car-pool to Georgia, publicize the vigil action in your region and invite others to join you. Discern together with family and friends and consider engaging in nonviolent civil resistance in November.

For more information, educational resources, outreach materials such as fliers and videos, logistics and travel info and to get plugged into the November organizing, please call 202-234-3440 and visit www.SOAW.org.

Resistance organizing costs money. Click here to help SOA Watch cover the costs of November organizing.

See you at the gates of Fort Benning!