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S.O.A. vigil Jan 12, 2008

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

The story of the School of the Americas, or School of the Assassins is a disturbing tale of such organized and planned terrorism; one would never believe it was real. Every year in Fort Benning, Georgia the people protest. This year we brought it to LA.

S.O.A. vigil Jan 12,...
soa_sign.jpg, image/jpeg, 427x640

The brutality caused by the School of the Americas is very much real. It is so real that several speakers at the vigil were victims of torture at the hands of SOA graduates. We carried crosses bearing names of those who were lost in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Colombia, among others. Hector Aristizabal, a speaker at the vigil, held a cross bearing the name of his own brother who was brutally tortured and murdered in Colombia. It was so real, it was scary. And this story, though it did take place in Latin America, was completely caused by, funded by, and organized by the US government. We funded these murders, rapes, tortures. We are terrorists.
The passionate efforts to close the School of the Americas (SOA) down included a yearly mass protest in November at its current location in Fort Benning, Georgia. (It was originally in Panama.) The school finally closed in 2001 but reopened one month later in the same location with the same staff teaching the same courses, but was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation (WHISC).
The vigil was a replica of the Fort Benning protest and was held at Los Angeles State Historic Park. It featured speakers Father Roy Bourgeois, Martin Sheen, Cindy Sheehan, Blase Bonpane, Eisha Mason, Fernando Suarez del Solar, Don White, Lucia Munoz, Dr. Jose Quiroga, Patricia Contreras, Josh Harris, Jim Lafferty, Hector Aristizabal, Maria Guardado, Mario Avila & Frankie Flores and music by Cuauhtemoc Azteca Dancers, El Salvador's Hip Hop Marmota Fu, Ross Altman, Maria Armoudian, Will B. & Dennis Davis.
Several speakers told of their experiences as activists fighting to close the school down, others spoke of their experience as torture victims and survivors of murdered family members. Lucia Muñoz spoke about the aftermath of the SOA for women, most notably the femicide in Guatemala. The speakers urged us to teach about the SOA in classrooms, to go to the yearly protests in Georgia and to call our representatives. After the speeches and music we carried our crosses in a procession march while singers on the stage sang the names the crosses bore, and we held them up and sang “presente.”
Once the march ended we placed our crosses down and participated in a “die-in” following a performance depicting “birds of destruction” turning a village into flames. Then puppetistas performed a “return to life celebration” using huge paper mache faces and hands to wake our dead bodies up as an allegory for the uprising that must take place atop the ashes of the brutalized. Then the celebration began and the day’s events were over.

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Martin Sheen

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Martin Sheen...
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Lucia Munoz

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Lucia Munoz...
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Crosses

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Crosses...
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Close Up

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Close Up...
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Listening to the speakers

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Listening to the spe...
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Dancing

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Dancing...
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Liberty

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Liberty...
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Friends for peace

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Friends for peace...
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Iraq

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Iraq...
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Teacher speaks

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Teacher speaks...
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Hector A.

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Hector A....
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Procession 1

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Procession 1...
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Procession 2

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Procession 2...
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Video Procession

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM


video: MPEG at 7.7 mebibytes

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Destruction

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Destruction...
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Bird of Destruction

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Bird of Destruction...
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Die In

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Die In...
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Rufina Amayo

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Rufina Amayo...
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Celebration

by LadyMadonna Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008 at 9:32 PM

Celebration...
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LATEST COMMENTS ABOUT THIS ARTICLE
Listed below are the 10 latest comments of 3 posted about this article.
These comments are anonymously submitted by the website visitors.
TITLE AUTHOR DATE
bump Rockero Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008 at 10:14 PM
Learning About SOA Vinnie Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008 at 11:53 AM
The film Salvador KP Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 at 11:01 AM
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