The coup in Honduras has a connection to the School of the Americas, now called WHINSEC. This school is well known in Latin America as a school of coups, a school of dictators, a school of torture. There is a direct connection, which we expected.
The two main players in this coup in Honduras that ousted President Zelaya are two generals, well-known graduates of the school: General Romero Vasquez, who’s the commander-in-chief, the head of the military, not only a graduate, a two-time graduate; and, of course, also General Luis Suazo, a graduate of the school in 1996, who’s the head of the air force.
This school is well known in Latin America, again, as a school of coups. Whenever there is a massacre, cases of torture, human rights abuses, we have been able to document a direct connection to this school. This school has trained over 60,000 soldiers from fifteen countries in Latin America in combat skills, all paid for, by the US taxpayers.
So many are outraged by this coup. This is a scandal. We’re encouraged by the response, of course, from the international community and the tens of thousands in the SOA Watch movement, who are really walking in solidarity with the people of Honduras at this time and the poor throughout Latin America.
This is very much of what happened years ago in Haiti, where you had basically a military coup against a legally elected president, Aristide, What happened in Haiti were trained not at the School of the Americas, but at Fort Benning at that time, who were very involved in ousting President Aristide.
This school has a long history for this region. Many of us are very familiar with what happened in El Salvador and many other countries. The high-profile cases, Archbishop Oscar Romero, the six Jesuits, the four US church women who were raped and killed—all of these cases, along with the thousands of others, they have been graduates of the US Army School of the Americas, now called WHINSEC.
Last week, the House approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which would force the Pentagon to release the names of the graduates, including their rank, the courses taken, and the country of origin. For the last five years, they have refused to give us these names, all in the name of, national security. While they talk about transparency and democracy, this school is an obstacle to democracy and the sea change that’s taken place in Latin America.
Very important also, an upcoming bill, HR 2567 in Congress. This bill will suspend all operations at the school, and there will be a full investigation about the school and its hundreds of graduates who have been involved in these atrocities and coups. Eleven dictators have gone through this school. Whenever there’s been a coup, like this one in Honduras, over the past decades, there has been a direct connection to this school.
US President has the power to shut down this school of assassins, this school of coups, this school with so much blood on its hands. People of US write to President Obama and tell him, as he talks about a new relationship with countries, let us also involve these countries of Latin America. Let us have President Obama close the school.
“a small group of us came to the main gate of Fort Benning at the beginning of 1990. It was right after the massacre of six Jesuits in El Salvador, well-known Catholic priest walking with the poor there and their struggle, along with their two women coworkers. We were pumping a lot of money into El Salvador, about a million dollars a day at this time into their military. A US congressional task force went to investigate the massacre of the two women and the six Jesuits, came back reporting that those responsible were trained at the US Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning. That’s when I went down, set up camp. I continued to live, since 1990, in a small apartment right outside of the main gate of Fort Benning, was joined by some friends, Charlie Liteky, Kathy Kelly and so many—and a few others, and that began our movement.”
“We started to do research, and it didn’t take long for us to discover that in our backyard there was a school of assassins, a school that trains terrorists, really, in Latin America, all paid for—millions of dollars being pumped into this school today is all being—coming from our tax money, millions of dollars. And we want that money to go into, you know, projects for the poor, for the elderly, for healthcare, right here in our own communities.”
“Our movement has grown from ten in the early days. Every November, we gather at the main gate for our vigil to call for the closing of the school, to express our solidarity with the people of Latin America. I’m happy to report that this last November, about 20,000 gathered—students, veterans, lots of nuns. Parents come with their children. And we welcome people to be with us in November. To get more information, of course, about the issue and our upcoming vigil in November, I ask our viewers to simply go to soaw.org. ”
“One other thing I just want—every morning I get up, I open my blinds, I look right across the street, there’s Fort Benning. Two chain-link fences with these signs—I carry this around with me—that says “No trespassing.” And beyond these signs and that razor wire that reminds me of some of the prisons that we have been sent to, those who protest the school, there is the School of the Americas, called now WHINSEC. They say they’re teaching democracy there. Well, we say you do not teach democracy behind the barrel of a gun. You cannot teach democracy behind a sign that says no trespassing. And this is our problem. This is not a school for democracy. There’s no transparency here. And we’re calling really on President Obama and more and more people now to really look at this school for what it is. It is a school of torture. It is a school for dictators. It is, most of all, a school of coups.”
Father Roy Bourgeois talking.
Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas Watch.
– from democracynow.org