Protesters Recall School of Americas

Thousands of demonstrators marched Sunday outside Ft. Benning to protest a former Army school they blame for alleged human rights violations against Latin American civilians. About 40 people were taken into custody.

During the annual funeral march to the front gate of the post, protesters carried signs reading “Imperialist Assassins” and created a memorial to the alleged victims of graduates of the School of the Americas, which was a training center for Latin American soldiers. Some stuck crosses through the chain-link fence.

“I wanted to bear witness to these deeds by SOA graduates--to take a stand against terrorism wherever it happens to be,” said Ralph Armbruster, a social science teacher from Santa Barbara.

Protesters were taken into custody after they slipped through an opening in a fence and onto base property. Ft. Benning spokesman Rich McDowell said they were given letters barring them from the post for five years and released.

“At least eight are second offenders,” he said. “They could be prosecuted in federal court.”

The crowd, estimated by police at 6,000 to 7,000, included senior citizens and veterans. The annual demonstration at the gates of Ft. Benning commemorates the Nov. 16, 1989, killings in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, to which some of the school’s graduates have been linked.

With the United States at war against terrorists and Americans riding a patriotic wave, organizers said it was more important than ever to protest the former school.

“We are fighting terrorism out there in other parts of the world, but here we are harboring and training terrorists,” the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who founded School of the Americas Watch in 1990, said Saturday.

Military officials strongly deny Bourgeois’ claims.

“Criminals often go on to commit crimes in spite of the best efforts of the institutions they attend,” said Brig. Gen. Paul Eaton. “People are focusing on the past. We are focusing on the future.”

The Army closed its School of the Americas in December after a decade of protests.

A month later, the School of the Americas was replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which is operated by the Department of Defense. The department says the institute’s new mission is to focus on 21st century challenges, not the bloody Latin American insurgencies of the 1980s.

Twenty-six School of the Americas Watch demonstrators were convicted of trespassing for participating in last year’s procession.