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Click here to download petition forms - Click here to sign the petition online
Winter 2009 Issue of ¡Presente! Out in January Distribute the Newspaper of the Movement to Close the SOA, in your community
Spread the word about the School of the Americas and about the reality of U.S. policies towards Latin America! Join the ¡Presente! Activist Distributor Network to receive a box with 150 copies of the Winter 2009 newspaper delivered from the printer to your home. The cost is $24 per box to cover printing and shipping costs. For ordering, please send Rebecca and email at rebecca@soaw.org and send a $24 check or money order before December 15, 2008 by mail to
SOA Watch, Presente
PO BOX 4566
Washington, D.C. 20017
or use this PayPal link: www.SOAW.org/orderpresente.
For more information, visit the ¡Presente! webpage: www.SOAW.org/presente
For past issues of ¡Presente!, visit the archives: www.SOAW.org/archive
 February 15-17: Lobby Days and SOA Watch Encuentro in Washington, DC
Save the dates and make travel plans to come to DC! Join human rights activists from across the country in Washington, DC and lobby your Member of Congress to get on board for the closing of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC).
With 35 Representatives who voted to continue funding the SOA/WHINSEC losing their seats in Congress on November 4th, we are in a great position to pressure the new Congress to permanently shut down the school in 2009. The last vote to defund the SOA/WHINSEC, in 2007, lost by a margin of only six votes.
The time is now!
Photos from Saturday:
Photos from Sunday:
People Power in Action! Sunday Vigil Update:
2pm: The Puppetistas took a new turn following the procession this year. Several hundred activists with puppets, flags, stilts and high energy continued to march down the road and out of the protest area in front of the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia after the puppet pageant. They celebrated people power and resistance by taking the protests into the streets of Columbus, Georgia.
 11am: A solemn funeral procession, commemorating those who suffered and were martyred by the graduates of the School of the Americas, made its way towards the gates of Fort Benning. The names of the martyrs are being sung out from the stage to bring their spirits and witness before us as and 20,000 voices respond: "¡Presente!" You are here with us, you are not forgotten, and we continue the struggle in your name. ¡Presente! literally means "here" or "present" in Spanish. There is a long tradition in Latin American movements for justice of invoking the memory of those who have lost their lives in the struggle.
(Photo: Charles Steele, president of the SCLC and Francisco Herrera on the stage at the gates of Fort Benning. Photo by Linda Panetta)
9am: Earlier this morning, six human rights activists crossed through the I-85 Highway entrance onto the military base in an attempt to process towards the SOA/WHINSEC building. The group was stopped by military police after half a mile and was arrested. The six are facing up to six month in federal prison for carrying the protest onto the base. They will appear in federal court in January 2009 and will use the courtroom to speak truth to power and to put the School of the Americas itself on trial.
They are:
Sr. Diane Pinchot, OSU, 63, from Cleveland, Ohio
Father Luis Barrios, 56, from North Bergen, New Jersey
Louis Wolf, 68, from Washington, DC
Theresa Cusimano, 40 Denver, Colorado
Al Simmons, 64, from Richmond, Virginia
Kristen Holm, from Chicago, Illinois
They were bailed out of jail by the SOA Watch legal team on Sunday afternoon. Their federal trial in Columbus, Georgia will begin on January 26, 2009.
Thousands are Gathered at Fort Benning, Georgia, saying:
Yes We Can Close the School of Assassins!
 We know that the United States government won't shut down the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) on its own. It will take people power and grassroots organizing to create a climate and culture that will make the existence of institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC impossible.
This weekend, as thousands are gathered at the gates of Fort Benning, we are changing the climate and we are creating a culture of justice, peace and understanding. We have the power to hold the Obama administration to its promises of a new direction in U.S.-Latin America relations and we are calling for the closing of the SOA/WHINSEC as a first step in the right direction.
Saturday: Around the world, in Los Angeles, California and Santiago, Chile, torture survivors, labor leaders and human rights organizers came together in solidarity protests to call for the closure of the notorious factory of terror and torture.
 On Saturday, 12,000 activists lined Fort Benning Rd. to share information and resources from solidarity, anti-imperialism and pro-peace groups around the Americas.
The day opened with a welcome from Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of the SOA Watch movement, and was filled with the voices of musicians and activists on the front lines of the struggle for justice.
Puppetistas gathered at the rear of the road and came to life in a dancing battle to bring down the massive puppet of U.S. imperialism.
Saturday ended with workshops, teach-ins and an amazing SOA Watch concert at the Columbus Convention Center. As in previous years, a group of activists danced in a drum circle in front of the Convention Center and afterward took to the streets of Columbus. This year, the police responded much more harshly. Police officers arrested one participant and dispersed the group while a helicopter was hovering above, shining a spotlight on the scene.
Today, the vigil will culminate with a solemn symbolic funeral procession to the gates of Ft. Benning, commemorating all the victims of SOA/WHINSEC violence and oppressive U.S. foreign policy.
Click here to download petition forms - Click here to sign the petition online
About the School of the Americas / Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
 The US Army School of 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. (See Grads in the News).
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 proposal 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. (See Talking Points, Critique of New School, Vote Roll Call.)
In a media interview, Georgia Senator and SOA supporter the late Paul Coverdell characterized the DOD proposal as a "cosmetic" change that would ensure that the SOA could continue its mission and operation. Critics of the SOA concur.
SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works through creative protest and resistance, legislative and media work to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to change oppressive U.S. foreign policy that institutions like the SOA represent. We are grateful to our sisters and brothers throughout Latin America and the the Caribbean for their inspiration and the invitation to join them in their struggle for economic and social justice.
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