School of the Americas Watch

Inspired by the case of slain Archbishop Óscar Romero, who said "we who have a voice must speak for the voiceless," former priest Roy Bourgeois, Larry Rosebaugh OMI, and Linda Ventimiglia posed as military officers and crossed into Ft. Benning in 1983. The two men and a woman climbed a tree near the barracks housing Salvadoran troops and read the final homily of Archbishop Oscar Romero through megaphones. Bourgeois and his companions were arrested and Bourgeois was sentenced to 18 months in prison for trespassing onto Federal property.[4]

Bourgeois and his followers began to research the School of the Americas, conduct public education campaigns, lobby Congress, and practice nonviolent resistance at the School of the Americas facilities.

Following the November 1989 murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the Central American University in El Salvador in which graduates of the School of the Americas were involved,[5][6] SOA Watch organized an annual protest to be held on the anniversary of the massacre beginning the next year. The event has been held every year since then.

Mission statement[7]

SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement working to close the SOA / WHINSEC and similar centers that train state actors such as military, law enforcement and border patrol. We strive to expose, denounce, and end US militarization, oppressive US policies and other forms of state violence in the Americas. We act in solidarity with organizations and movements working for justice and peace throughout the Americas.

Protest demonstrations are staged by SOA Watch at the main gate of Fort Moore in November each year, in commemoration of the anniversary of the 1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador. The growing annual protest has remained a major focus for SOA Watch and the grassroots movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC, which likewise has grown throughout the Americas since the first protest in 1990. The original band of ten resisters who marched onto the then-Fort Benning and splashed blood upon the School of Americas to commemorate the first anniversary of the UCA massacre has grown in recent years to a community of 10,000. People come from across the country and around the globe to honor victims of crimes committed by students of the School of the Americas, as well as their survivors, with music, words, puppets and theatre.

Traditionally the legal vigil and memorial service concludes with a mock funeral procession, using the Presente! litany, onto Fort Moore, with all who choose to march onto the post trespassing on federal property and subject to arrest. Subsequent to 9/11 and the erection of a security fence at the main gate of Fort Moore in 2001, protesters who wish to take their mourning onto the post need to go over, under, or around that fence, as opposed to the simple marching of the past.

At the 2002 protest, the city of Columbus began requiring all attending the event to submit to a metal detector search at the designated entrance. After a lengthy legal battle, however, in October 2004 the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the forced search was unconstitutional.

In 2004, the Army added a second fence topped by razor wire, and erected a third fence in 2005.

On November 20, 2005, roughly 20,000 protesters attended the vigil, "remembering those who have been silenced by SOA violence". Forty protesters climbed over or under the fence and were arrested by military police. Columbus police also arrested bystanders, including some who lifted the fence. Since protests against the school began, 183 people have cumulatively served over 81 years in prison for their civil disobedience.

On November 19, 2006, over 22,000 protesters attended the vigil, a record high attendance number. On December 3, 2006, Georgia Public Radio broadcast "The Sounds of Protest at the School of the Americas", an hour-long documentary with audio collected at the 2006 protest. "Sounds of Protest" Audio Documentary

On November 20, 2010, at least 20 people attending the vigil were arrested, including Kaelyn Forde, a journalist from Russia Today, and her cameraman, Jon Conway. They were charged with unlawful assembly, demonstrating without a permit and failing to obey a police order to disperse. Forde and Conway were jailed for 29 hours before they were released the following day on $1,300 bond each. Both workers maintain they were "wrongfully arrested".[8]

Over the years dozens of prominent actors, musicians, and authors have appeared at and participated in SOA Watch demonstrations including musicians Pete Seeger, Amy Ray and David Rovics, Actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon, and poet and author Brett Axel.

In 1994 Richter Productions released a short documentary movie, The School of Assassins, narrated by Susan Sarandon.[9]

In 1999 Zeropanik Press released a poetry anthology, Will Work For Peace, edited by Brett Axel, dedicated to The SOA Watch.[10]

The movement to close the School of the Americas (formerly known as the SOA Watch Update) publishes a newspaper, ¡Presente!, three times a year which is sent to approximately 50,000 subscribers.[11] The purpose of the newspaper is to give updates about the state of the campaign and of events and developments of the movement.

• Army Foreign Intelligence Assistance Program
• Dorothy Hennessey
• Gwen Hennessey

• Hodge, James; Linda Cooper (2004). Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of Americas. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 9781570754340.

• Official website
• Oscar Romero Speech