Countywide : Vigil, Fast Protest School of Americas

About 20 members of Veterans for Peace Inc. and other Orange County groups began a two-day vigil and fast on the steps of the Santa Ana Federal Building on Monday in opposition to the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, which activists describe as a “school for assassins.”

The local protest coincides with the start of a 40-day fast by an American priest on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

“The reality is, people hunger for peace and justice,” said Jim Gibson, president of the Orange County chapter of Veterans for Peace.

He described the school, used for the training of military personnel from more than 20 Central and South American countries, as a “Cold War device we feel doesn’t have any purpose anymore.” Among the graduates of the school are former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.

Supporters of the school, which has come under increasing pressure from political and religious leaders in recent years, have said the training now places more emphasis on human rights and helps professionalize Latin American military forces.

In addition to handing out flyers to those passing in and out of the Federal Building, the activists staged an “Awards of Infamy” play in which they presented mock awards to costumed actors playing the roles of what they described as the school’s “most murderous alumni.”

The school was established in Panama in 1946 and moved to Ft. Benning, Ga., in 1984 to comply with terms of the Panama Canal Treaty.

Father Roy Bourgeois, the Roman Catholic Maryknoll priest who is staging the Washington fast, started his campaign to close the school in 1990 and has twice been sent to prison for his protests.

Of the school’s estimated 54,000 graduates, the largest number are from Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama, according to activists.