By Suzanne Herder, CSJ
The St. Joseph Worker Program travels to Fort Benning,
Georgia every November for the yearly demonstration at the
WHINSEC/School of the Americas. Here are some reflections from the
Director, Suzanne Herder, CSJ, after the 2004 trip.
The US Army School of the Americas (SOA, based at Fort Benning in
Columbus, Georgia, trains Latin American soldiers in combat,
counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. Graduates of the SOA are
responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America,
including the assasination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote
Massacre of 900 civilians. Hundreds of Latin Americans have been
tortured, raped, assasinated, "disappeared" massacred, and forced into
refuge by SOA graduates.
In January of 2001 the name of the SOA was changed to teh Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). At the time a
bill was introduced to close the SOA until there could be a full
investigation into the school. Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell said
changing the name was a "cosmetic" change so the SOA could continue its
work under a new name. It is a new name, but the same shame.
For the last fifteen years, peace activists have gone to Fort
Benning each November to peacefully march to demonstrate their desire
to close the SOA and show their solidarity with the people in Latin
America. Fifteen people attended the first demonstration in 1989. In
November, 2004, there were 16,000 in attendance. In the group this
year were four St. Joseph Workers, Nicole, Tristen, Lori, Bridgette,
and their director, Suzanne Herder, CSJ, along with many other Sisters
of St. Joseph. They joined St. Catherines' students, other religious,
and members of Veterans for Peace and took a bus to Georgia for the
demonstration.
At Fort Benning, they met many other students, religious, labor,
human rights and social/global justice groups who were also speaking
out in solidarity with the people of the Americas and engaging in
nonviolent direct action. It was an amazing, lifechanging experience.
Since their return home they continue to discern how to speak out in
solidarity and do nonviolent direct action in their daily lives for
their sisters and brothers in Latin America and around the world.
--Suzanne Herder, CSJ
