School of Americas protest

"Si se puede! Si se puede! (It can be done! It can be done!)" is what I and approximately 17,999 other people shouted from the top of our lungs this past Nov. 19 and 20 in the School of the Americas (SOA) annual protest. The SOA or Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation/WHISEC as is called now is an institution that trains personnel in military tactics to "help countries prevent the spread of terrorism." At least that is the most recent excuse; before, it was "to prevent the spread of communism." Of course I'm not suggesting that to shout "Si se puede! Si se puede!" is what motivated me to go there.

I wanted to protest this school ever since I learned of its existence and its mission, which contradicts all my Christian values. The SOA/WHINSEC is a school that doesn't respect God's creation, which is life; it doesn't promote peace and justice. Because of this and because of its direct effects in the lives of my fellow country people I protested and I will always protest.

Thousands of Colombians have disappeared, or been massacred or tortured in the hands of the military or under its auspices. Many more have been forced to leave their homelands to join the belts of poverty and misery already existing in the big cities where they arrive carrying only their clothing, and overwhelmed with fear and hopelessness. It has been exposed and documented that those responsible for these human rights abuses are in most cases high-ranking army officials who have received training at the SOA/WHINSEC in Fort Benign, Georgia.

Sadly, Colombia is one of the largest customers of the SOA/WHINSEC with more than 10,000 troops sent to the SOA through its 54 years of history. In 2004 alone Colombia sent an estimated 337 out of a total 811 total, in other words more than 40% of all the trainees for that year. Why, I ask, not send at least 1% of that number to the Summer Peace Building Institute, SPI at EMU to learn how to make peace?

SOA Watch says there were more than 18,000 people at Fort Benning, more than previous years. That's great, and I hope that the Department of Defense gets the message. However the real effect of this non-violent action will take place this summer when the House of Representatives meets again to define its fate, as if there was anything else to be argued about the closing of that school.

I did the easy part. Traveling for many hours, sleeping in a crowded hotel room with traditional college students, and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for two days is nothing; the real challenge, I guess, is to bring the vigil home, to bring the vigil to campus, to the church, to our homes. That's what the real deal is.