10,000 Protest U.S. School For Human Rights Abuse

Fort Benning, Georgia - Thousands gathered here last weekend calling for the closure of a military school that protestors believe trains Latin American soldiers to torture and murder their own people.

For many years the U.S. has provided military training for soldiers from Latin American countries at the school, known as the School of the Americas (S.O.A.). Documentation has been released indicating that certain graduates of the school have committed horrible human rights abuses, including the rape, torture and murder of human rights workers after returning to their homelands. Many protestors call the school a "terrorist" training camp run by the U.S.

Among other atrocities, S.O.A. graduates are accused of assassinating Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and slaughtering 900 men, women and children in a village in El Salvador, according to S.O.A. Watch, the organization Fr. Roy founded to protest the school.

For more than 10 years, protestors have gathered annually at the front gates of the Fort Benning military base, where the S.O.A. is located, to mourn the people killed by the school's graduates and to call for its closure. This year about 10,000 people, including thousands of college students, attended the three-day protest.

For a detailed story about the protest and more information about how you can help close the SOA go to soaw.org .

Catholic Connections

Suffice it to say that when one's own death is not the sole product of biological limitations or of the simple exhaustion of the energy necessary to maintain life, but is the product of surrender for love of others, especially helpless, poor, and defenseless others, when one's death is the product of injustice...then and only then one also shares in the hope of the resurrection. - Fr. Jon Sobrino, S.J.,

(Six priests who lived with Fr. Sobrino in El Salvador, along with their housekeeper and her daughter, were murdered by SOA graduates 14 years ago, according to S.O.A. Watch. Fr. Sobrino was away on the night of the assassinations.)

Reflection Questions

What is your reaction to the charges against the SOA featured on the soaw.org website?

Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!