School of Americas Protesters Sentenced

[G_j]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6380355,00.html

School of Americas Protesters Sentenced

Tuesday January 30, 2007 4:46 AM


COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Sixteen protesters were given prison terms Monday ranging from one to six months for trespassing during an annual demonstration against a military school they blame for human rights abuses in Latin America.

The demonstrators, ages 17 to 71, appeared before U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth to enter pleas to the misdemeanor. They were accused of illegally entering on Nov. 19 the Army's Fort Benning, which houses the institution formerly called the School of the Americas.

The protest, which draws thousands, was organized by the School of Americas Watch 17 years ago. It is timed to commemorate six Jesuit priests who were killed along with their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador on Nov. 19, 1989.

Some of the killers had attended the school, which moved to Fort Benning from Panama in 1984 and was replaced in 2001 by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, under the Defense Department.
..more..

[Judi Lynn]

1. No 80 year old nuns this time, like the 80-some twin nuns they threw in the slammer

in the '90's.

It's hard to believe, but it appears a lot of idiots are perfectly glad as hell to never have to worry their "beautiful minds" about what it is these people are so concerned about that they do this every single year.

Ignorance would look like bliss if we didn't know how wildly hostile the right-wingers are. They want to make sure their access to total control of weaker countries is always unchecked at all possible costs, and screw the citizens who live there.

[John Q. Citizen]

2. Yes, and foreign policy IS domestic policy.

[Say_What]

3. ..."None of the 16 have to report to jail until notified by the federal Bureau of Prisons. "

Well ain't that f*ck'n magnanimous.... :sarcasm:

Video: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1372

[Say_What]

4. The End of the School of the Americas?

<clips>

The annual protests against the School of the Americas—the U.S. Army’s training institute for Latin American military leaders—are unlike any in the United States. Choreographed by Catholic activists, they eschew the militant rhetoric, providing a moving experience for both religious and secular activists.

The protests began in 1990 with some 10 people, and grew to their largest in 2006. Now, with a Democratic Congress and a changing political climate in Latin America, they have an opportunity to close the School of the Americas for good.

On November 19, some 22,000 people took part in the 16th annual protest in front of the gates of Fort Benning in Georgia. On a stage, organizers from School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) read off the names of most revered “saints”—victims of repression in Latin America whose tormenters had been trained by the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation—WHINSEC). First on the list were some of those killed in El Salvador in the ’80s: Archbishop Oscar Romero, the four American religious women, and six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter.

...Organizers and participants believe that the school’s days are numbered. Recently elected leaders like Evo Morales and Michelle Bachelet, both former activists, have intimate knowledge of the repressive tendencies of the U.S.-trained militaries in their countries.

Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOAW, crisscrossed South America last year, asking leaders and human rights groups to urge their governments to stop sending soldiers to the school. “There is no need to explain the atrocities of the SOA, as the people of Uruguay are fully aware of this reality, having experienced first hand the horrors of the tortures, detentions, imprisonments and ‘disappearances’ caused by its graduates,” Azucena Berrutti, the newly appointed Defense Minister of Uruguay and a former human rights lawyer said recently.

So far, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina officials have said that none of their military personnel will be sent to the school. But according to the Center for International Policy Web site, those countries accounted for only 2 percent of the students last year. Countries with continuing human rights abuses and a culture of impunity are the major participants: Colombia (42 percent), Honduras (15 percent) and Peru (11 percent).

http://www.soaw.org/new/newswire_detail.php?id=1316

[Judi Lynn]

5. Good information. It's great learning Argentina and Uruguay have also backed away from them.

and it's also good to learn which ones are most involved!



Alan Garcia
Last paragraph:

On the home front, efforts to close the school through congressional action look brighter. Last June, an amendment sponsored by Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and John Lewis (D-Ga.) that would cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC was defeated by a 15-vote margin. Pat Bowman, legislative coordinator for SOAW, was elated as the November election returns came in. “It’s fantastic,” she wrote in an e-mail. “Thirty-five of our opponents lost their seats in Congress, 23 of which were replaced by Democrats. This is about double the margin of victory we need next year!” McGovern will reintroduce legislation in the 110th Congress.
(snip)

Looks as if Uruguay may be making changes, with any luck. Found this article on their last election:

Witnessing the Victory of the Left in Uruguay

The socialist candidate Tabaré Vásquez (known popularly by his first name), of the Encuentro Progresista–Frente Amplio (Broad Front), won 51% of the vote, making him Uruguay’s first leftist president ever....
(snip)

Some 500,000 people attended the closing of the campaign. In a country of three million people, that equals one in six. It was incomparable to anything I have ever experienced. People of many ethnicities and of all generations were there, many of them with their faces painted blue, red and white – the Frente Amplio’s colors. Thousands of different flags waved in the wind, representing the numerous groups and ideologies that comprise the united front. Che Guevara’s face was everywhere. People sang songs together like, “O lele, o lala, si no está la gente, ¿la gente dónde está?” (If this isn’t the people, where are the people?). It is difficult to imagine such popular enthusiasm for any candidate or political party in the United States.
(snip)

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=941

and as for COLOMBIA, that's a given, isn't it? ~shudder~

[Say_What]

9. Class Stuggle In Colombia--video--Well worth watching for anyone interested in Colombia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzu9qRfR770

[G_j]

8. absolutely

times are changing

[fed-up]

6. List of sentences, my friend "only" got 2 months :(-maybe in San Quentin

http://www.soaw.org/new/

SOA 16 Trial Updates
Monday, January 29th

3:00pm -

The trial of the SOA 16 is now over, sentences of Group 3 are as follows:


Valerie Fillenwarth - 3 months & 10 days in federal prison
Julianne Oldfield - 3 months in federal prison
Sheila Salmon - 3 months & 10 days in federal prison
Mike Vosburg-Casey - 3 months & 10 days in federal prison
Alice Gerard - 6 months in federal prison


1:30pm -

Whitney Ray, a minor, was sentenced to 1 year probation and community service


12:00pm -

Group 2 of the SOA 16 received the following sentences:

Martina Leforce - 2 months in federal prison
Melissa Helman - 2 months in federal prison
Nathan Slater - 2 months in federal prison
Cathy Webster - 2 months in federal prison
Don Coleman - 2 months in federal prison


10:25am -

Group 1 of the SOA 16 received the following sentences:

Graymon Ward - 1 month in federal prison
Tina Busch-Nema - 2 months in federal prison
Margaret Bryant-Gainer - 71 days time served
Philip Gates - 2 months in federal prison
Joshua Harris - 2 months in federal prison

[Pastiche423]

7. Shut. It. Down.

And any presidenial candidate should loudly and clearly state that during their campaign.

[roody]

10. That is what Kucinich said Saturday night

in San Francisco.

[Pastiche423]

12. Wish I could have been there!

Kucinich came to my small town in 2004. The room was standing room only, w/people standing in the halls and parking lot.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Yes, we need to loudly and clearly ask them the question. Then they can

answer to us.

[Pastiche423]

13. One of the candidates is going to have a hard time

w/that question.

[Zorra]

14. Meanwhile, our government is being run by sociopathic fascist war criminals

that roam the planet with impunity despite the fact that they are responsible for the unwarranted murder of over a hundred thousand innocent human beings.

[gratuitous]

15. Heroes, all

Standing for the people and against murderous thugs and their sponsors.

[AndyTiedye]

16. School of the Americas Sounds Like a Racketeer-Controlled Criminal Enterprise to Me

[G_j]

17. good description

and right on