Loyola students are taking a trip to the School of the Americas in Columbus, Ga., to protest the manufacturing of soliders trained to use torture techniques.
On Wednesday Nov. 12 Law Clinic Director Bill Quigley informed students on what SOA is all about and the upcoming national protest against it.
The school, which is now called the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, was started in Panama in 1946 by the U.S. Army and has trained more than 60,000 Latin American troops. In 1984 the school was kicked out of Panama and relocated to Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga.
Quigley became a fighter against SOA when he came to Loyola, heard the Rev. Roy Bourgeois talk and became familiar with the peace group Pax Christi.
“I’ve been six or seven times (to the protest) with Loyola students,” Quigley said.
Quigley is part of the Legal Collective, which helps counsel protesters that are arrested at the rally.
“We as a legal collective help advise people in advance of what the consequences are, and the consequences usually are three to six months in prison,” Quigley said.
Graduates’ allegations of massacres and human rights violations have brought the school under scrutiny.
Feelings of disgust for SOA hit closer to home for Jesuits due to the slaying of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador on Nov. 17, 1989. Of the 26 soldiers involved in the massacre 19 of them were SOA graduates who committed the slaying because they believed the Jesuits to be subversives of the lay people.
Louisiana native the Rev. Roy Bougouries founded SOA Watch, which is located across the street from Fort Benning and aims to educate the public and Congress of the injustices for SOA. SOA Watch holds an annual protest at the gate of Fort Benning on the anniversary of the El Salvador Massacre that has drawn up to 20,000 people in years past.
Loyola is doing its own part by getting involved in the protest by declaring the third week of November Martyr Week. The week includes many events such as a vigil on Nov. 20 at 5:30 p.m. in the Peace Quad and a trip to the national protest the following day.
SOA has groomed many dictators and soldiers for other countries, including Leopold Galteri, who was the leader of the military junta in Argentina that killed over 30,000 people and Brazilian soldiers, who were SOA graduates, that were convicted of torture.
In 2002 Amnesty International called for the school to be closed down but no action has taken affect.
The injustices also hit home with Jonathan Cortez, sociology freshman, who first heard about SOA in a high school community service club.
“My stepdad is from El Salvador, and he moved here when he was 15 so he witnessed these tragedies,” Cortez said.
Students who are interested in attending the protest at Fort Benning from Nov. 21 to Nov. 23 can contact Jamie Broussard in the Loyola University Community Action Program office.
John Adams can be reached at [email protected].
