Change Foreign Policy, Rally at Ft. Benning , Georgia Nov 20
This Nov 20 SOA Watch brings musicians, activists, students, educators, unionists, and all those from around the world who will not allow the continued torture and killing for greed to rally at the SOA in Ga. Read the SOA history below.
Friday, November 20, stopping briefly in Houston to pick uo more riders, we leave Austin traveling directly to Columbus, Ga. at 6 PM on a standard charter bus (a/c, bathroom, dvd/cd).
Saturday Nov. 21 mid AM we will arrive in Columbus for a rally at the SOA gates.
Sat. PM- Individuals can choose shuttles between hotel (indoor pool 2 Q beds + breakfast) & international events near the fort & at the Columbus Ironworks Convention. Center until late (see www.soaw.org for event schedule).
Sunday AM Nov. 22: Solemn vigil, music, speakers, and peaceful protest at gates of SOA.
Sun. PM we return to Austin leaving Ga. and arriving back in Austin by 7AM Mon Nov 23.
____________________________________________________________________
Trip Cost for an individual = bus seat + his/her portion of a room.
Call (512) 626-6176 to talk about making payment arrangements.
For one rider staying by themselves in a room:
___1 person/1 room = $191.00 or
For two who share a room
___2 people/ 1 room = $141.00 from each of the two,
___3 people/ 1 room = $124.00 from each of the 3,
___4 people/ 1 room = $116. 00 from each of the 4.
Reserve a seat by calling,or emailing. Or mail a check for $30 with name, contact info & who all will be in your room or how many other people you would like to room with and mail it to the address below.
Please send your contact information in with your fee:
Name(s) of persons in room: ______________________________________
Email(s): _______________________ Phone number(s): _________________________
Or make checks in full now and mail with your name, contact information, etc to:
SOAW Austin
P.O. Box 500014
Austin, TX 78750
Please be fully paid up by November 1.
Questions: Call Scott at (512) 626-6176 or email
soaw_austin@yahoo.com See also www.SOAW-Austin.org
The School of the Americas (SOA) has operated since 1946. In 2001 it was renamed the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” It is a military training school for Latin American soldiers and police located at Ft. Benning Ga. Graduates repress democracy and human rights.
Former Panamanian President Jorge Illueca who expelled the SOA from his country in 1984 identified it as the, “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America .”
As in Honduras for CAFTA today, with almost 20 confirmed political murders, SOA trained counter-insurgents use techniques that have been used against poor and working people for over 50 years in Latin America . SOA repression is on behalf of narrow business interests. Training includes, torture, psychological warfare, abduction, sniper training, surveillance, & propaganda (SOAW.org).
School of Assassins graduates have murdered musicians and clergy.
Grads are torturers & killers of artists like Victor Jara and the assassins of Arch Bishop Romero of El Salvador who tried to stop the genocide of his country’s Maya villagers.
Rapists and murderers of US nuns and church workers,dictators: Torrijos of Panama, Galtieri and Viola of Argentina, Alvarado of Peru, Rodriguez of Ecuador and Banzer Suarez of Bolivia, these are SOA grads, as is Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, a present coup leader in Honduras.
In 1981 in a Salvadoran program, designed by SOA grads and known about at that time by the US State Department and the US Army, nearly 1,000 men, women and children, including infants were brutally exterminated in the vicinity of El Mozote, El Salvador. These facts, corroborated by the UN Human Rights Commission and the US State Department, were part of last year’s University of Texas Conference, Image, Memory and the Paradox of Peace: 15 years after the El Salvador Peace Accords. It is the subject of UC Berkley Prof. Mark Danner’s book, The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold War.
Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia & Nicaragua, ended relations with the SOA & soon will be joined by Costa Rica & Guatemala .
Several bills, such as HR 2567 now, for closing the SOA have almost passed in the US Congress. Call your representative to insist on their support.
www.SOAW.org