Tucson, AZ – Hundreds of activists from across the country convened in southern Arizona for this year’s School of the Americas Watch: Converge on the U.S./Mexico Border. The event was held on Oct. 7-8 to bring attention to U.S. wars and intervention in Latin America, the continued militarization of the Mexico border, the pressing refugee crisis, and the criminalization and incarceration of undocumented migrants.

Throughout the weekend-long mobilization, vigils, protests and workshops were held by various faith based, immigrant rights, indigenous, student, environmental and social justice organizations.

The opening event took place Oct. 7 at the Eloy Immigrant Detention Center in Eloy, Arizona. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) runs many detention centers as private, for-profit businesses that are notorious for human rights violations. Due to inhumane conditions, these facilities are seeing many bold hunger strikes as poor people behind bars continue to fight for their dignity.

On Oct. 8, activists marched to meet each other at the border wall, kicking off on the U.S. side from the Hotel Americana in Nogales, Arizona and on the Mexico side from Plaza Ochoa in Nogales, Sonora. Speakers and musicians from across the Americas demanded the end to the destructive U.S. economic, military and political interventions in Latin America. People echoed the need to build bridges of solidarity between all oppressed peoples and their struggles for justice and self-determination.

School of the Americas Watch workshops included: Empire prisons: How the U.S. is spreading mass incarceration in Mexico; From Palestine to the U.S./Mexico border: Border militarization practices; Borderland Identity: Expectations and Realities. For those unable to attend the border protest, several workshops were held in the city of Tucson that addressed topics like gender, racism and international solidarity.

“I’m really glad this is being held in the Arizona/Mexico border because our immigrant and indigenous communities have suffered firsthand the effects of the militarization of the border and oppressive laws like SB1070. This event will bring national attention to the humanitarian crisis taking place at the border”, said Eduardo C. Tolentino, a Tucson immigrant rights activist.

The border convergence concluded Oct. 10 with a community celebration of Indigenous People’s Day, including music, dancers and speakers.

#TucsonAZ #SchoolOfTheAmericas #CorrectionsCorporationOfAmerica #EloyImmigrantDetentionCenter

Columbus, GA – A large group of anti-war and international solidarity activists passed out hundreds of flyers at the annual School of the Americas (SOA) protest at Fort Benning, Georgia on Nov. 21. The flyer calls to support the peace process in Colombia, freedom for Simon Trinidad and to close the SOA, where Latin American death squads and dictators are trained. The Colombian military trains regularly at the SOA and has the worst human rights record in the hemisphere.

Trinidad, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, is held in the Florence, Colorado supermax prison as a political prisoner of the U.S. government. The FARC say Simon Trinidad is needed to complete the peace negotiations with the Colombian government in Havana, Cuba. Activists are organizing a Thanksgiving week call-in day to President Obama to “Free Simon Trinidad!”

On Nov. 21, Florida members of Students for a Democratic Society, the Tampa Committee to Stop FBI Repression and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization rallied with hundreds of others to close a for-profit detention center holding undocumented immigrants, including many women and children. On Nov. 22, a memorial procession for the tens of thousands of victims of the SOA marches to the gates of Fort Benning.

The call-in day is on Tuesday, Nov. 24, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Organizers are asking people to call President Obama at 1-202-456-1111 and say, “I want President Obama to support peace for Colombia, and to free Simon Trinidad. Simon Trinidad belongs at the peace negotiating table, not in solitary confinement at the Florence Colorado Supermax prison.”

#ColumbusGA #AntiwarMovement #StudentMovement #Colombia #SchoolOfTheAmericas #SimónTrinidad

Chrisley Carpio with Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) said, “College students from Florida, the South, and other parts of the country are coming together to protest the School of the Americas. This school trains soldiers to slaughter progressive activists, trade unionists, and dissenters in Latin America, especially in Colombia.”

Carpio explained her role, “Students are going to make the best of our time there. We're going to try to gain support for the Colombian peace process. We're going to demand that Simon Trinidad, a notable negotiator for the FARC-EP, be freed from the supermax prison in Colorado, so that he can resume his important work negotiating for peace.”

Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country in Latin America and consistently has the worst human rights record. A Colombian general, who taught classes at the SOA, along with 23 other officers, many who took classes at the SOA, were forced to resign their posts a few years ago. In the ‘False Positives’ scandal, the Colombian military officers murdered over 3300 civilians, dressing them up as FARC fighters to claim victories in battle and to collect money and other rewards.

Thousands of anti-war and international solidarity activists come to the SOA protest every year. This year many are excited to join a Saturday, Nov. 21, morning protest demanding an immigrant detention center be closed, as well as the Sunday morning peace procession to the gates of Fort Benning.

Jessica Schwartz is traveling with a large group of students from University of South Florida in Tampa, and meeting up with students from Florida State University in Tallahassee. She explained, “I'm going to hand out flyers and speak with other anti-war activists, building support for the freedom of Colombian revolutionary Simon Trinidad and the peace process in Colombia. The U.S. has its hands dirty in conflicts all over the world, and Colombia is no exception. In fact, Simon Trinidad is imprisoned on U.S. soil. We must demand his freedom and liberation for Colombia!”

A growing number of countries, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela and Nicaragua, no longer send troops to train at the SOA/WHINSEC.

#TampaFL #AntiwarMovement #Colombia #SDS #SchoolOfTheAmericas #SimónTrinidad

Fort Lauderdale, FL – 20 antiwar and international solidarity activists gathered in Pembroke Pines, Nov. 25, to hear two leaders of the Colombian human-rights movement speak about their country and U.S. intervention. The event was the final stop on a nationwide speaking tour.

The guest speakers are well known in Colombia. Gustavo Gallardo is the International Relations Coordinator of La Marcha Patriotica and July Henriquez is a human rights lawyer. La Marcha is one of the largest and most active social justice movements in Colombia and it continues to face heavy and deadly repression by the Colombian government. In fact, because of their involvement in the leftist movement, Gallardo and Henriquez were forcibly displaced from their home city of Barranquilla to the capital of Bogota.

The two brave activists spoke about the thousands of political dissidents displaced, disappeared and assassinated by American-trained Colombian forces. They also explained the history of Western imperialism in South America and how the U.S. continues attempting to impose its political and economic will on the Colombian people. They also talked about how most of the military officers who direct the Colombian paramilitaries are trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning Georgia. Thousands die at the hands of the Colombian government death squads every year, including as many as 4000 trade unionists over 25 years.

The School of the Americas trains thousands of South American military officers in deadly tactics, including torture and assassination, in order to do the U.S. government’s bidding throughout Latin America. The Colombian leaders both spoke at the annual protest outside of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia two days earlier.

In his speech, Gallardo referred to Colombia as “the Israel of Latin America.” Like Israel, Colombia is a strategic base for the U.S. to launch economic and military warfare against the people and governments in the surrounding countries.

Gallardo expressed how many of the destabilization protests and killings that occurred in neighboring Venezuela over the last year were actually conducted by Colombians trained by the U.S. Gallardo compared this to the destabilization efforts in Syria, where so-called rebels were trained and armed by the U.S. in order to take down a government resisting U.S. domination.

After Gallardo spoke about the U.S. military and economic agenda, July Henriquez focused the discussion on “U.S. prison imperialism.” She explained how the U.S. seeks out new markets for its private prison industry. She said Colombia and several other countries in Latin America are being used to expand this industry. Hundreds of private prisons, run by American-based companies, are emerging throughout Latin American and Africa as places to dispose of political dissidents and social justice activists.

Henriquez argued that these private, for-profit prisons are designed by the U.S. and used in the countries it dominates. In Colombia, where death squads and political repression are severe, private prisons are used to dispose of the poor and the displaced in society. In Colombia the prisoners are being used as cheap labor for private businesses as well.

Members of the audience asked what they could do to express solidarity with activists in Colombia fighting for change. Gallardo and Henriquez responded, “Make sure the right information permeates American society; protest your legislators and demand that they stop creating and funding policies that further U.S. imperialist aims in Colombia.”

A great bond of solidarity was felt between the activists from the two countries. Feelings of hope were expressed as young people of the U.S. and Colombia continue to struggle for peace and justice.

People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) sponsored the talk and the national tour was organized by the Alliance for Global Justice.

#FortLauderdaleFL #Colombia #Americas #SchoolOfTheAmericas #USImperialism #LaMarchaPatriotica

The School of the Americas opened its doors in 1946 with the purpose of training Latin American military personal in anti-communist counter-insurgency training. This amounted to lessons in torture, extra-judicial killings, death squads and in general the skills involved in going to war against the masses of workers and farmers.

Throughout the 1980s the SOA trained hundreds of Latin American personnel including some of the continent’s most notoriously repressive, notably Argentina’s military regime, Colombia’s death squad-linked military and even the founders of the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico. In 2000, SOA was forced change its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. It receives its $14 million budget from the federal government. More recently their trainees have had a hand in the failed coup attempts in Venezuela.

A group of nine activists from Tampa, Florida went to the SOA protest, as representatives of the immigrant rights group, Raices in Tampa. They were among few immigrant rights groups that attended the protest and they made the connection between imperialism and the migration from Central and South American to the U.S.

Having trained police, military, government and narco elements alike in Mexico and Colombia, the SOA is a good target for immigrants rights groups. “It was a great experience for me because I got to meet a lot of dedicated individuals like myself who are willing to go anywhere to defend the oppressed,” said Oscar Hernandez, local organizer with Raices in Tampa.

Individuals were present from all over the world, including the Latin American countries most affected by SOA’s doctrine of state-sponsored instability. Raices in Tampa attended a workshop given by representatives of Colombia’s popular movement Marcha Patriotica. Here connections were made between the U.S. prison system and its plans to export this prison system to Latin America and Africa. The majority of prison personnel trained at SOA are Mexican and Colombian.

“As a Honduran is very hard to see how my country is used by the U.S, how they are training my people to kill each other. I'm hopeful that one day this will stop. I was glad of being part of SOA protest and see so many people that shared my emotions,” said Alicia Gazga, also with Raices in Tampa.

#ColumbusGA #SchoolOfTheAmericas #SOAWatch #FortBenning #RaicesEnTampa

November 21-23 Students for a Democratic Society will be joining thousands of other activists, from across the country, outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, GA to say, “Shut down the School of the Americas!” The School of the Americas (SOA) is training ground for Latin American soldiers who are taught torture, psychological warfare, as well as how to carry out coups and overthrow democratically elected governments across Latin America. SOA graduates are responsible for overthrowing and attempts to overthrow democratically elected governments in places such as Honduras and Venezuela. SOA graduates are responsible for the rape, murder, and “disappearances” of hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, union leaders, clergy, and people who stand on the side of the poor and oppressed throughout the Americas, but especially in Colombia.

Recently, 43 student activists from Ayotzinapa, Mexico were “disappeared” by Mexican police. Mexico is one country that sends its military and security forces to train at the SOA. It is more important than ever to raise the demand to shut down the SOA and fight for justice for the 43 students from Ayotzinapa and for all those murdered by SOA graduates.

SDS’ers often say, “When we dare to fight, we dare to win!” And, we believe that we will win. One example of this is earlier this year when the Columbus, GA Police Department threatened to attempt to stop us from protesting outside the gates of Fort Benning this November. SDS was one of many organizations that vowed to be outside the gates of Fort Benning no matter what. We fought this attack saying, “Shut down the SOA, not free speech!” By our collective effort we were able to force the Columbus Police Department to back down. But we do not back down. We will continue to fight because we have seen time and time again that when we fight, we can win.

SDS will be hosting a student meet up on Saturday night after the concert in the convention center at the Fountain City Coffee shop (located at 1007 Broadway) in downtown Columbus. Anyone who believes that we can win and is interested in building the student movement is invited to join us!

See you in the streets!

#ColumbusGA #AntiwarMovement #SDS #SchoolOfTheAmericas #PoliticalRepression

Ft. Benning, GA – Meredith Aby, an anti-war leader from Minnesota, spoke out against U.S. political repression at the School of the Americas protest. Aby gave a presentation about the FBI raid on her home that happened because of her being an anti-war, Palestine and Colombia solidarity activist. 60 people attended, overflowing the room.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression formed two years ago in response to a systematic FBI attack against anti-war and international solidarity activists. The FBI raided seven homes and the office of the Twin Cites based Anti-War Committee. 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury. All 23, including Meredith Aby, resisted the undemocratic grand jury. “Yes, I have been to Palestine. Yes, I have friends who have donated food to starving Palestinian people. Is that providing material support to terrorists? I don’t think so,” stated Meredith.

Audience members asked questions ranging from her thoughts and feelings toward the FBI raids of her home, to how they personally can resist political repression by the U.S. government. “If it were not for community support,” she stated, “I would probably be sitting in a jail cell right now.”

Aby offered insight on the dirty tricks the government uses to infiltrate peoples movements – in particular a spy who lied about everything and to everyone she came into contact with. Aby noted that the big aim of the FBI is to divide people’s movements by causing fear of interaction with fellow activists. Aby said, “The way to overcome this is solidarity. There is strength in numbers, and the outpouring of solidarity with the Anti-War 23, especially with Palestinian-American activist Hatem Abudayyeh of Chicago, is overwhelming. The U.S. government and the politicians understand this.”

Aby continued, “Activists must stand together and resist the fears the government aims to put in our hearts and minds. We must resist the grand jury, like the radical heroes in the Northwest. We must organize to oppose political repression, to protect our movements and leaders. We must stand with all the Arab and Muslim people wrongly imprisoned in the U.S. by the phony war on terror, like the Holy Land Five, in prison for sending food to hungry people, for educating children and providing health care to families. We can push back the FBI and the political repression.”

For more information on the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, please visit www.stopfbi.net.

#FtBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas #SOA #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression

Fort Benning, GA – Over 4000 people gathered here, Nov. 19, at the [School of Americas Watch](http://www.soaw.org) protest of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Despite the change of name from School of the Americas (SOA) to WHINSEC, the legacy of half a century of training in counterinsurgency techniques, psychological warfare and interrogation tactics continues to this day in places like Colombia and Honduras.

‘Students’ of SOA/WHINSEC’s curriculum have been linked to death squads attributed to the rape, murder and torture of labor organizers, religious leaders, teachers and human rights activists.

Jimena Paz, a leader in the Honduran resistance movement, said, “In my country SOA graduates continue to repress social movements who stand up against a coup led by graduates of this school right here in Fort Benning.”

### Standing up to political repression

The [Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)](http://www.stopfbi.net) had organizers from across the country mobilize for the demonstration. CSFR organizers passed out flyers explaining the connections between the repression abroad and the FBI attacks on activists at home and received hundreds of petition signatures to defend [Carlos Montes](http://www.stopfbi.net/profile/carlos-montes), a target of FBI repression. Thousands of flyers were also distributed promoting the upcoming [NATO/G8 protests in Chicago](http://cang8.wordpress.com/) and the [RNC 2012 protest in Tampa Florida](http://marchonthernc.com/), with a common emphasis on defending the right to protest and speak out against injustice at these events.

The CSFR hosted a workshop on Saturday night, attended by over 100 people, to raise awareness of attacks on activists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI has been used as an apparatus to infiltrate and repress peace, solidarity and civil rights movements, past and present. These attacks are relevant to the SOA/WHINSEC protest and its attendees in many ways.

The activists who have been attacked most recently are all prominent international peace and solidarity activists, indicating that this is a movement which is currently in the cross-hairs of the FBI. The volume of resources spent to harm this movement is alarming and the activist community across the U.S. should be aware of the vast scope of the repression, as well as the unjust methods and tools, which, in flagrant abuse of privacy rights and lacking due process, are at the ready disposal of federal Investigators.

As we continue to witness inaccurate media coverage of the ongoing Occupy actions, we should note the myriad systems of repression, often violent, that have been used in attempts to suppress a movement protesting the richest 1% in society. According to [the Gothamist](http://gothamist.com/2011/11/16/anatomy_of_a_raid_nypd_planned_ows.php), the New York Police Department’s raids on Zucotti Park were advised by the Department of Homeland Security, in a coordinated effort of aggression to preserve the status quo. However, the similarities in repressive methods against free speech and activist movements have been met with resistance.

“Just as people have linked arms and successfully defended Occupy encampments from police repression,” said Kosta Harlan of the CSFR, “in the same way our movements for justice, peace and equality are uniting to defend the Anti-War 24 and Carlos Montes,” targets of government raids and subpoenas to appear before federal grand juries.

CSFR activists stressed the necessity of taking up the fight against repression of activist movements, setting a precedent for resistance. Workshop facilitators encouraged attendees to write or phone President Obama, Attorney General Holder and local representatives to demand that they call off attacks on free speech in the U.S.

“We came to Fort Benning this weekend to challenge the killers of the SOA,” stated Daniel Ginsberg of Peace Action. “We’ll be heading home to our Occupations to continue defending activists from government repression.”

#FtBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #WesternHemisphereInstituteForSecurityCooperationWHINSEC #Occupy

Milwaukee, WI – Colombia Action Network organizer Tom Burke came here Oct. 28 to speak about U.S. intervention in Colombia. Burke, who was served a Grand Jury subpoena in the FBI activist raids in late September, made strong observations on people’s movements both in the U.S. and Colombia.

“The U.S. government is targeting us for speaking out against war and oppression. In the U.S., for anti-war activists, repression comes in the form of FBI raids and grand jury investigations,” said Burke, “In Colombia, it comes in the form of prison, torture and death squads. We understand that the U.S. government is intent on putting some of us in prison, just as they target and set up hundreds of young Arab and Muslim men. The U.S. government imprisons young African-American, Chicano, Latino and other people in ever increasing numbers to control them and rob them of their dignity.”

Burke travelled on a fact-finding trip to Colombia hosted by the Oil Workers’ Union (USO) in 2003. At the time Burke was an executive board member of SEIU Local 73, a 23,000-member public sector union in the Chicago area. Burke was in Colombia at a time when death squads murdered three trade unionists every week. Colombia continues to be the most dangerous place in the world for union activists, with one murdered every week. Often implicated in these tragedies are U.S. corporations such as Coca-Cola, Drummond Coal and Chiquita Banana. Farm, labor, women and student activists in Colombia are regularly kidnapped, imprisoned, tortured and murdered simply for organizing for social change.

“For activists in the U.S. interested in supporting the people of Colombia, shutting down the School of the Americas is a major step,” said Burke, referring to the U.S. government-led training site in Fort Benning, Georgia for foreign paramilitaries, many of whom are implicated in human rights abuses.

Large national protests against the School of the Americas will be held Nov. 19-21 at Fort Benning. Buses are being organized around the country to attend. Look to www.soaw.org for more information.

#MilwaukeeWI #InJusticeSystem #Colombia #ColombiaActionNetwork #FBI #SchoolOfTheAmericas #USO #September24FBIRaids #Americas

For over 60 years, the SOA has trained more than 60,000 Latin American military officers, soldiers and policemen. The SOA is responsible for many human rights violations, including several genocides and military-led overthrows of democratically elected governments.

According to the independent human rights organization, School of the Americas Watch, the military graduates of this institute are responsible for thousands of deaths. This includes the infamous massacre of nearly 1000 peasant farmers, clergy and community members in El Mazote, El Salvador, on Dec. 11, 1981. Then in 1988, nine Colombian SOA graduates were implicated for a massacre in the village of Segovia. On that day 43 Colombian villagers, children and peasant farmers were killed by hand-grenades and rifle fire from three truckloads of paramilitary death squads aided and abetted by the Colombian military.

As the Colombia Action Network states, “Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country in Latin America. Colombia also has the highest number of human rights abuses. The Pentagon directs the Colombian military and their training at SOA, and gives the nod to their death squads. Colombia’s former top general, Mario Montoya trained and instructed others at the SOA. Montoya, along with two other Colombian generals and 24 military officers were forced to resign in 2008 due to the ‘false positives’ scandal – they ‘hired’ unemployed men in the cities, shot them dead in rural areas and then dressed them in FARC uniforms to claim success against the revolutionaries. We say, ‘Close the SOA!’”

The SOA protest brought participants from all over America, including people from Alaska, Minnesota and many other states. Amongst them were students, clergy, veterans, farm-workers, steel workers and other types of workers. One student participant from the University of Florida, the president of UF Amnesty International, Emily Flynn, said that she had driven all the way to Georgia because, “I was really upset that my tax dollars are funding dictatorships in Latin America and a lot of people don’t know that this is happening. I just found out two years ago, and I wish we had more mainstream [media] attention.”

The week of action ended on Sunday, Nov. 22 with a river of thousands of people marching to the gates of this deadly training school. The protesters carried crosses with names of those murdered by graduates of this institute. Some of the crosses commemorated Maria Isabel Salinas, a victim from Argentina, the beloved Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero as well the four U.S. churchwomen killed in El Salvador in 1980. The victims’ ages range from a baby girl of three to a 63-year-old man.

Four veteran human rights defenders, Nancy Gwin of Syracuse, New York, Ken Hayes of Austin, Texas, Father Louis Vitale of Oakland, California, and Michael Walli of Washington, D.C. crossed into Fort Benning to engage in civil disobedience.

#FtBenningGA #FortBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #Americas #SchoolOfTheAmericas

Fort Benning, GA – 15,000 people from across the U.S. and Latin America protested this weekend at Fort Benning, Georgia to say, “Shut down the School of Assassins.” The School of the Americas (SOA) trains military officers to run death squads in Latin America. In Colombia, these U.S.-trained military leaders conduct the dirty war against union workers. They shoot farmers and those trying to build a better life for themselves and their children.

Sarah Buchner from University of North Carolina-Asheville Students for a Democratic Society said, “I traveled to Colombia this summer to see for myself what those trained in Georgia at the SOA do. It was terrible. We heard story after story of the horrible disappearances and executions done by graduates of the School of Americas. These people are murderers. We must shut down the School of Americas!”

#FtBenningGA #FortBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas

Fight Back! Forum at the SOA: No to U.S. Intervention in Colombia!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Howard Johnson Presidential Room

1101 Veterans Pkwy, Columbus, GA

No To US Bases In Colombia!

Close the School of the Americas!

Free Lily Obando!

The US is expanding its dirty war in Colombia. Training death squads at the School of the Americas is a big part of that, but there is more. The Pentagon will soon occupy seven bases in Colombia, adding to the $7 billion spent on a war against the Colombian people over ten years. US troops will increase to 1400, with 600 US mercenaries fighting in the counter-insurgency war. The US will pour $46 million into the Palenquero base alone for “refurbishing”. This is bad news for the Colombian people who live under a corrupt and criminal government led by President Uribe. It is also bad news here at home too, as we face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—as well as a health care crisis, a housing crisis, and two ongoing US occupations. Why is the White House escalating the war in Colombia instead of seeking peace? Our HOPE is for peace with our neighbors, not more US bases! We want CHANGE, not more US intervention!

The fact is that the US Empire is in decline and is losing its grip on Latin America. Throughout the region, people’s movements are sweeping into power, with democratic, reform minded, and socialist leaders. Militarizing Colombia is central to US plans to stop this progressive wave and reverse it. However, Plan Colombia, the current US war plan, is failing. Plan Colombia is aimed against the most powerful revolutionary group in Latin America—the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The FARC organizes poor peasants and the disenfranchised to defend themselves against the rich Colombian elite and to take back their country from US corporations. Inside Colombia, the revolution, both armed and unarmed, is deepening and spreading, even reaching the cities. In the face of this, the White House and Congress are siding with the wealthy land owners and big corporations by funding and supporting Colombia’s corrupt government—nearly tripling the Colombian Military in ten years. The new US bases will clearly threaten Colombia's neighbors too.

Colombian Death Squads – “Made In America”

Colombia sends more soldiers to the School of the Americas than any other country in Latin America. Colombia also has the highest number of human rights abuses. The Pentagon directs the Colombian Military and their training at SOA, and gives the nod to their death squads. Colombia's former top general, Mario Montoya trained and instructed others at the SOA. Montoya along with two other Colombian generals and 24 Military officers were forced to resign last year due to the “false positives” scandal – they “hired” unemployed men in the cities, shot them dead in rural areas, and then dressed them in FARC uniforms to claim success against the revolutionaries. We say, “Close the SOA!”

Free Lily Obando

Liliani “Lily” Obando is a political prisoner of the Colombian government. Unfortunately, Lily's story is all too familiar—she works as union organizer with FENSUAGRO, the largest peasant and farm worker federation. She produces documentary films and writes about the struggles of those who work the land. Here films show that in Colombia, there are more displaced people – around four million, than in Iraq. It is outrageous! Thousands of labor unionists and other activists are routinely assassinated and threatened by death squads. Coca-Cola, Drummond Coal, and Chiquita Banana are all known for funding death squads.

Like many unions and other groups, FENSUAGRO is heavily repressed. The Colombian Army and their death squads killed 1500 members of FENSUAGRO over the past 30 years. Counting 450 murdered since President Uribe took over in 2002. Lily Obando was about to release her study of these assassinations when Uribe ordered her arrest in August 2008. Besides assassinating popular leaders, arrest and detention is the new tactic of the reactionary government. Liliani Obando is charged with “rebellion” and “managing resources related to terrorist activities”. Despite the danger, Lily is willing to challenge the injustices that are imposed by the US supported war in Colombia. Now Lily is fighting for the rights of women prisoners. Since her imprisonment, Lily’s two young children and her elderly mother barely scrape by. We demand “Free Lily Obando!”

Speakers Include:

• James Jordan from the Campaign for Labor Rights
• Angela Denio from the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera
• Sarah Buchner from Students for a Democratic Society
• Jeremy Miller from the Colombia Action Network
• Kosta Harlan from Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#ColombusGA #ColumbusGA #Colombia #NationalCommitteeToFreeRicardoPalmera #ColombiaActionNetwork #SchoolOfTheAmericas #LilianyObando #Americas

Confronted with a powerful message of equality, justice and liberation, the authorities struck back. The Los Angeles Police Department launched an attack on demonstrators who had come together at the Ozamotli/Rage Against The Machine Concert. The police, on horseback and motorcycles, used nightsticks, tear gas, and plastic bullets.

Organizers did their homework and were prepared to counteract the new repression that has accompanied every large demonstration since the Battle of Seattle. Months of planning, organizing legal support, and trainings on police tactics paid off.

That being said, the rules the LAPD played by were their own rules – they aimed to injure as many people as possible, employing the flimsiest of pretexts to trample on the right to protest.

A few weeks earlier in Philadelphia, more than 400 people were jailed at the Republican Convention. Those arrested showed incredible courage and conviction as they resisted outrageous treatment by jailers, off-the-chart bails (up to 1 million dollars), and ridiculous charges. This is America's future.

Last year's Battle of Seattle was a turning point. It was front-page news in every country. U.S. union workers joined forces with young activists and struggling people around the world to oppose the World Trade Organization (WTO). The rich and the powerful received a kick in the head as their dreams of furthering corporate globalization, where they can step up their exploitation of workers abroad and at home, dissolved in the clouds of tear gas.

After Seattle, the U.S. ruling class launched a plan to meet demonstrations with greater police and FBI repression. In the Third World, where the anti-globalization protests began more than ten years ago, police and armies working for U.S. imperialism have dished out worse treatment.

As conservatives within the Democratic Party tighten their grip on power, providing no alternative to the Republican Party, the spirit of Seattle was carried by the people's movement onto the streets of Los Angeles and Philadelphia, to protest both corporate political parties.

People marching in Los Angeles follow in the steps of those who protested the World Trade Organization in Seattle, WA; the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C.; the Organization of American States meeting in Windsor, Canada/Detroit, MI; and the Republican Convention in Philadelphia, PA. In the U.S., this new movement – with its local, national, and international dimensions – has been great in its creativity, determination, and anti-capitalist orientation.

Like any movement that involves real people, it has strengths and weaknesses, which result in debates on how to move forward. For example, at the International Monetary Fund protest in Washington D.C., a number of top leaders of union movement engaged in China-bashing – which pits the interests of American workers against our fellow workers in China. This was wrong, but it's a mistake to confuse the missteps of the few with the forward march of the many.

“SHUT DOWN THE SOA!”

On Nov. 17-19 the “Shut Down the School of the Americas!” protest at Fort Benning, GA is the place to be. Fort Benning is where the U.S. trains Latin American soldiers to kill and maim their own people in the interest of U.S. corporations and domination.

The focus of this year's protest will be on the $1.3 billion that the Clinton/Gore White House has given to Colombia's government and military. Over 10,000 Colombian military personnel have trained at the SOA. The Colombian armed forces, along with the death squads that it organizes and assists, have the worst human rights record in Latin America.

35,000 Colombians have died in the past five years in the war between the Colombian government and the people's democratic movement for national liberation. The U.S. Plan Colombia has already had an enormous impact, unleashing the death squads to kill dozens of peasants every week since Clinton sent the money. Six schoolchildren were ambushed by Colombia's military just prior to Clinton's billion-dollar check hand-over. That is the reality of Plan Colombia – the hard edge of globalization as the U.S. tries to expand its empire of the dollar.

Shut Down the SOA!

U.S. Out of Colombia!

No More El Salvadors!

No more Viet Nams!

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An Iraq Moratorium protest is put on monthly in Milwaukee by SDS. Organizer Kas Schwerdfeger states, “SDS organizes all over the country to protest U.S. imperialism. The occupation of Iraq and the School of Americas are clear examples of U.S. imperialism. Students in Milwaukee are ready to help bring this message to our elected officials.”

The protest called for the immediate closure of the SOA and withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and all foreign countries under U.S. occupation. The crowd of university students, veterans and community members marched and gathered for a speak-out across from the city hall. Army veteran Aaron Lloyd and Iraq war veteran Ryan Nofsinger gave testimony on their first-hand experiences. Spoken-word artist Rachel Mateson exposed the responsibility of people on all sides of this imperialist crisis.

In response to the events on Friday, first time protester and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee freshman Christina Jirjis, said, “This was a great, unifying experience and I was encouraged by all the support for this cause that we received out there. I will definitely continue to be active towards this endeavor.”

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Columbus, GA - Over 20,000 people from across the country flooded Fort Benning on the Nov. 22-23 weekend, calling for the School of the Americas (SOA), a U.S. military training institute that trains Latin American soldiers in ‘counter-insurgency’ techniques, to be shut down. During the vigil to honor the memory of the thousands of men, women and children that have been tortured, kidnapped and murdered by SOA graduates, six people, in an act of civil disobedience, crossed onto the military base and were arrested. They face up to six months in federal prison for taking action to close down the SOA – the ‘School of Assassins.’

Throughout the weekend, groups that organize in solidarity with Colombia emphasized the need for people in the U.S. to take action to stop the U.S. government’s support for war and repression in Colombia.

Colombia is particularly affected by both the SOA and U.S. foreign policy. Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country. Under aid packages such as Plan Colombia, Colombia receives billions of dollars from the United States. It is no coincidence that Colombia has one of the worst human rights records in the hemisphere, with over 40 Colombian trade unionists killed this year alone.

Charla Schlueter, a member of the University of North Carolina at Asheville chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), spoke at Saturday’s rally, highlighting the ways her chapter has stood in solidarity with Colombia, such as participating in the campaign to free the Colombian political prisoner Ricardo Palmera. “SDS helped exposed Palmera’s trials to be the farce that they were,” said Schlueter. “We oppose the extradition of Colombians like Palmera to the U.S. to be put on trial. We recognize that this is a neo-colonial practice that undermines the sovereignty of Colombia and that is used as a weapon to blackmail those fighting for justice.”

Chapin Gray from Colombia Action Network spoke during Sunday’s program, urging people to join the campaign to free Lily Obando, another political prisoner from Colombia. Obando is an organizer for FENSUARGRO, the peasant workers’ union who was arrested last August by the Colombian National Police under vague charges of “rebellion.”

“Whatever chains and gags they intend to put on us, the justice of our struggle requires that we continue resisting wherever we may be,” said Gray, quoting from a letter Obando sent to U.S. activists from her jail cell in Bogata. “The bars of the jail do not matter if you, wherever you may be, help us so that our voices may move beyond the walls and not be stopped.”

Over 150 people crowded the room to attend the event called “Eye Witness Reports from the People’s Struggle in Colombia,” hosted by Fight Back! newspaper. The forum featured Meredith Aby of the Colombia Action Network speaking on behalf of Lily Obando’s release, Angela Denio of National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera and Doug Michel of SDS on his experiences meeting with Patriotic Union member Imelda Daza Cotes, who is living in exile, and his experiences meeting with the student movement in Colombia.

Each speaker emphasized the importance of giving support and solidarity to all progressive forces fighting for change in Colombia. “It is important for people to understand the FARC as an integral part of the Colombian people’s resistance to U.S. intervention in their country,” said Kosta Harlan from Freedom Road Socialist Organization, who moderated the forum. “It’s our obligation as Colombia solidarity activists to educate people here on why Colombians have taken up arms. It is a response to the murderous assaults on social movements and trade unions by Bush, U.S. corporations and the Colombian elite. The U.S. corporations seek nothing but continued exploitation of millions of workers and campesinos – and their kidnappings, disappearances and murders of social activists need to be denounced.”

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Help us shut down the School of the Americas (SOA) this November! The SOA is a U.S. tax payer funded combat training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. Frequently called the “School of Assassins,” its graduates have left a trail of terror and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. Over its 61 years, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, psychological warfare, and interrogation tactics. SOA graduates have consistently used their skills to wage war against social movements and progressive communities in their own countries. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are trade unionists, human rights workers, teachers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. SOA training manuals made public in 1996 revealed that torture, extortion, and kidnapping are part of the curriculum. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and displaced by those trained at the SOA.

Colombia has sent more troops to train at the SOA than any other Latin American country. The 1993 human rights report “State Terrorism in Colombia” issued by Pax Chirsti cites 247 Colombian officers for human rights violations. One half of those cited were SOA graduates. Some were even featured as guest speakers or instructors or included in the “Hall of Fame” after their involvement in massacres. For example, Gen. Farouk Yanine Diaz was a guest speaker at the school in 1990 and 1991 after his involvement in the 1988 Uraba massacre of 20 banana workers, the assassination of the mayor of Sabana de Torres, and the massacre of 19 businessmen. SOA graduates have been linked to some of Colombia's most heinous massacres, including in Segovia (1988) in which 43 people were killed, the Trujillo chainsaw massacres (1988-91), and Riofrio massacre (1993). The Colombian legislature even agrees that a military officer was sent to the SOA to avoid having to answer questions about the Fusagauga massacre of a campesino family.

Every November, thousands gather at Fort Benning to demand two things: the immediate closure of the School of the Americas and a drastic change in the oppressive U.S. foreign policy that the SOA represents. This year's demonstration will be held Nov 22-23. Events on Friday and Saturday include street theater, concerts, speakers, film showings, and networking opportunities. Sunday's program includes a solemn procession to the gates of Ft. Benning and a reading of names of those victimized by SOA graduates.

Join activists from the Colombia Action Network as we participate in the movement to close the SOA! We would love to see you there! More information about the SOA and the demonstration can be found at soaw.org.

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These vigils have been happening for 18 years and are a time for all those concerned with social and economic justice in Latin America to come together. On the third day of the vigil, Sunday, Nov. 18, the atmosphere was somber when the names of those people who have been killed by graduates of the institute were read.

Jeremy Miller, a member of the University of North Carolina at Asheville Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was moved during the Sunday event, saying, “All this murder and injustice that the U.S. is perpetrating in Latin America, it makes me sick, and I think specifically of the billions spent on Plan Colombia. I think it’s our duty as American people to speak out against it, like the people here are doing, and we have to show solidarity with the people of Latin America and their fight to be free from U.S. imperialism.”

Chapin Gray from the Tuscaloosa chapter of SDS, who spoke to the crowd on Sunday, later said, “SDS comes to the SOA Watch vigil see the SOA terrorist training camp shut down, but beyond that to take a stand against the U.S. government and what the multinational corporations are doing in Latin America. In our individual chapters we try to do actions in solidarity with Latin America, like our protesting Drummond coal corporation for its murders of trade unionists in Colombia. SOA, Drummond, Iraq they are all intertwined in the broader picture of U.S. imperialism. That’s what we are trying to fight against.”

This year eleven protesters aged 25 to 76 bravely crossed the barriers into Fort Benning to demand the school’s closure. Many who have done so in the past have received months-long sentences for trespassing. The police also arrested four individuals who were carrying white crosses, each having a name written on it of one of the victims of SOA graduates. The police said the crosses were beyond certain allowed dimensions and that they could have been used as ‘deadly weapons.’ They were charged with obstructing a police officer.

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Columbus, GA - Nearly 22,000 activists from around the country, gathered Nov. 17 through 20 to protest the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. The School of the America’s special U.S. military program has trained military personnel to use methods of torture and killing throughout Latin America for over 59 years. SOA Watch, an organization dedicated to shutting down this program of terrorism, hosted the demonstration.

The School of the Assassins, as it is frequently called, has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics, according to the SOA Watch. These troops are then sent back to their country to target union members, educators and social justice organizers. The School of the Americas was ‘closed’ in 2001 only to be renamed – but the school continues to be open and has not changed its tactics of violence and oppression.

Many Latin American solidarity organizations attended this year’s demonstration, such as the Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. Committee members and supporters held a large banner in the middle of the street and passed out fliers condemning the U.S. justice system for kidnapping Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera – an act that defies Colombian sovereignty.

This was my third time participating in the protest and, after spending two weeks in Colombia this summer, the experience was especially powerful,” says Katrina Plotz, from the Colombia Action Network. “Colombia has sent more soldiers to the SOA than any other country, and the U.S. is currently sponsoring a war against the Colombian people,” Plotz said. “I left with a renewed sense of hope that the SOA will be shut down, and a renewed commitment to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America.”

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was also present in the large turnout of young people attending the protest. On Saturday, over 90 student organizers from 20 different campuses nationwide met for a discussion of what SDS is about, building a student movement, and how to coordinate a nationwide action.

“This was a landmark event in the history of the newly reformed SDS,” says Chapin Gray, a student organizer from SDS in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “We decided it would be a great opportunity to network with each other. We came to a unanimous decision to have March 20, the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War, as a day for students to have national coordinated anti-war demonstrations under Students for a Democratic Society. It’s a very important step in unifying SDS across the nation.”

One of the keynote speakers after the vigil was Kati Ketz, from the UNC-Asheville Socialist Unity League of SDS.

“It’s so important to build a strong, coordinated student movement in this age of imperialism,” says Ketz. She went on to explain how Colombia’s President Uribe has violently repressed student activists, yet they continue to fight back against an unjust government. “We students should take inspiration from our Colombian brothers and sisters and take all this energy we have brought here back to our campuses and get organized!”

Recently, countries such as Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina have stated that they will no longer accept graduates from the SOA. Father Roy Bourgeois, SOA Watch’s founder, sees this as a great accomplishment and hopes that this year’s U.S. Congress will finally shut down the School of the Americas.

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A statement from student organizers noted: “For over 20 years, death squads and dictators trained at the School of the Americas (SOA) have tortured and massacred hundreds of thousands of people throughout Latin America. Rich landowners and dictators have often used the support of SOA-trained death squads to hold on tight to their power, their money, and their land by torturing and/or killing those who fight them. From the death squad leader in El Salvador, Roberto D’Aubuisson, who was responsible for the murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero, to Colonel Julio Alpirez of Guatemala, responsible for the torture and death of U.S. citizen Michael DeVine. The 'graduates' of the School of the Americas have made a place in history with some of the worst human rights violations ever.”

Today, the SOA, also known as the School of the Assassins, is still operating. In December of 1997, over 20 people were massacred by death squads in Chiapas, Mexico. Kelly Vaughan of DePaul University stated that, “Training for the military of Chiapas has greatly increased since fighting between the government and the Zapatistas began in 1994.” It is easy to see the implications this will have in the future for the people of Chiapas, given the history of SOA graduates.

Similarly, Colombia has its own graduates of the SOA. “Death squads in Colombia have been responsible for the murders of more trade unionists, who were mostly teachers, than any other country in the 90s. This is including the country of South Africa while it was under the system of apartheid,” stated Chicago trade union activist Tom Burke.

“With the history of the SOA graduates in Latin America it is clear that this school must be shut down! They have tortured and killed union members, teachers, religious leaders, and anyone who has spoken out for human rights and justice. Join us in Fort Benning or support someone who is going. The SOA must be stopped from continuing to support the rich by killing off the poor. We hope you’ll join us in this fight,” concluded the student statement.

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