Founder of “School of the Americas Watch” speaks in Olympia

author : Olympia Civil Liberties Resource topic : Father Roy Bourgeois | School of the Americas Watch | SOA Watch

They tell us they’re teaching democracy. We say, “How do you teach democracy through the barrel of a gun?”

—Father Roy Bourgeois

Father Bourgeois is the driving force behind the movement to close the School of the Americas. Veterans for Peace 109 Rachel Corrie Chapter is sponsoring four opportunities to hear Father Roy Bourgeois speak on April 10:

noon: South Puget Sound Community College

2 pm: The Evergreen State College

5 pm: Pizza dinner at Apollo’s (2010 Harrison Ave NW)

7 pm: Presentation at Traditions Cafe

(300 5th Ave SW)

For the day’s schedule, go to www.doodle.ch/i6wnz7chuwfhfe3g

About the School of the Americas (from the School of the Americas Watch website, www.soaw.org)

The US Army School of the Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA’s nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians.

In an attempt to deflect public criticism and disassociate the school from its dubious reputation, the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (whinsec) in 2001. The name change was a result of a Department of Defense proprosal included in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal 2001, at a time when SOA opponents were poised to win a congressional vote on legislation that would have dismantled the school. The name-change measure passed when the House of Representatives defeated a bi-partisan amendment to close the SOA and conduct a congressional investigation by a narrow ten-vote margin.

About Father Roy Bourgeois

Fr. Roy Bourgeois was born in Lutcher, Louisiana in 1938. He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a Bachelor of Science degree in geology.

After college Fr. Roy served as a Naval Officer for four years—two years at sea, one year at a NATO station in Europe, and one year of shore duty in Vietnam. He received the Purple Heart.

After military service, Fr. Roy entered the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972, and he went on to work with the poor of Bolivia for five years before being arrested and forced to leave the country, then under the repressive rule of dictator General Hugo Banzer.

In 1980 Fr. Roy became involved in issues surrounding US policy in El Salvador after four US churchwomen—two of them his friends—were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Fr. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America. Since then, he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at the SOA in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

In 1990, Roy founded the School of the Americas Watch, which does research on the US Army School of the Americas, now whinsec, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Each year the school trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills—all paid for by US taxpayers.

The School of the Americas Watch, located just outside the main entrance of Fort Benning and in Washington, DC, informs the general public, Congress and the media about the implications of this training on the people of Latin America. Each November, tens of thousands of people converge on Fort Benning to demand closure of the school.

Fr. Roy has worked on and helped produce several documentary films, including 1983’s Gods of Metal, about the nuclear arms race, and 1995’s School of Assassins. Both films received Academy Award nominations.

Fr. Roy was the recipient of the 1997 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace Award.