School of the Americas Watch - News from Latin America & Other Updates

School of the Americas Watch
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July 25, 2007

In this email, you'll find:

- Four Prisoners of Conscience Released
- Former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Held in Spain
- Paramilitaries Kill Leader of San José de Apartadó Peace Community
- CJA Files Lawsuit Against Peruvian SOA Graduates
- Call for International Solidarity with Oaxaca
- Sister Cities and CISPES Action Alert
- Lisa Sullivan reportback on SOAW Delegation to Mexico and Costa Rica
- Sister Helen Prejean to Sponsor Volunteer Program in Nicaragua
- Cindy Sheehan and Veterans for Peace Protest at Fort Benning
- Save the Date! November 16-18: Vigil to Close the SOA/WHINSEC
- Distribute "Presente!" in your Community

Four Prisoners of Conscience Released

We are happy to announce that four of our friends who were serving 90 and 100-day sentences in federal prisons were released on the 13th and 24th of July, 2007. The four are among the sixteen human rights advocates who were arrested for "trespassing" while protesting the SOA/WHINSEC during the November 17-19,2007 Vigil to Close the SOA at Fort Benning, GA.

Sister Sheila Salmon, Michael Vosburg-Casey and Valerie Fillenwarth were released on Tuesday, July 24 after serving 100 days in federal prison; Julienne Oldfield was released on July 13, 2007 after completing a 90-day sentence in federal prison.

Of the sixteen, Alice Gerard is still in prison while Katherine Whitney Ray is presently serving one year probation. Please continue to show your support to the SOA 16 by writing to the prisoners and supporting the campaign to shut down the SOA/WHINSEC. Continue reading about the SOA 16...

- Actions to take in solidarity with those in prison
- Make a donation to SOA Watch

Former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Held in Spain

On April 23, 2007, former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Peter Gelderloos was arrested during a demonstration organized by the Asamblea de la Okupacion (Squatters Assembly) in Barcelona, Spain. During the protest, someone set off a "petarda", a loud firecracker-like device designed to shoot flyers into the air. Peter, a U.S. citizen, was arrested blocks away from the demonstration and was charged with "illegal demonstration and public disorder". Peter is currently facing between three and six years imprisonment.Continue reading...


Paramilitaries Kill Leader of San José de Apartadó Peace Community

Members of a paramilitary group known as the Aguilas Negras (Black Eagles) killed Dario Torres, a leader of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community, on Friday, July 13. The killing occurred only two minutes from a police checkpoint, where earlier in the day witnesses saw the gunmen sitting and conversing with police. Torres was a passenger on one of the jeeps that serve as the only public transport between the city of Apartadó and San José, when it was intercepted by two paramilitaries - the same men who detained the jeep the previous day and made threats against the Peace Community. Continue Reading and take action...


CJA Files Lawsuit Against Peruvian SOA Graduates

The Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) has filed two human rights lawsuits on behalf of two survivors of the infamous Accomarca Massacre in Peru where 69 innocent civilians were killed by government troops on August 14, 1985. The defendants, Juan Rivera Rondón and Telmo Hurtado Hurtado, are former Peruvian military officers who directly commanded the patrol units responsible for the massacre and eventually fled to the United States.Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon attended Arms Orientation courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas from 1981-1982 during the height of military repression.

- Find out more about Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rondon
- Read more about the CJA lawsuit

Call for International Solidarity with Oaxaca

Oaxaca, Mexico - July 20, 2007 - George Salzman writes: The struggle between the popular movement of rebellion and the government's actions to totally crush it is at a critical point. I believe the situation is extremely dangerous for many oaxaqueños. Four days ago the governments (Oaxaca State, Mexican Federal, and I'm sure, fully backed by the United States) planned and executed a successful provocation followed by a savage attack on civilians. The resulting deaths, ferocious beatings, detentions, torture, etc., are by now well documented. Continue reading...

Sister Cities and CISPES Action Alert

National Call-in Day: Monday, July 30 - Demand the Immediate Release of Political Prisoners in El Salvador!
The protestors who were arrested on July 2 in Suchitoto, El Salvador are now being tried under the new "anti-terrorism" law, a law passed with full praise from the U.S. government. This draconian law defines different forms of public protest as terrorism and sentences offenders to up to 60 years in prison for such crimes as occupying a public building. For the second time this year, the law is now being used against social movements in El Salvador, criminalizing acts that do not in any way constitute terrorism! Five of the prisoners on trial have now been temporarily released; the other 9 remain in "preventative detention" for a term of 3 months while the prosecution builds a terrorism case against all 13. Continue reading...

Lisa Sullivan reportback on SOAW Delegation to Mexico and Costa Rica

The SOA Watch delegation to Mexico and Costa Rica was an important turning point for both the SOA Watch Latin America Project and the movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC. It was on this last trip that the President Oscar Arias announced that Costa Rica would cease to send police to be trained at the SOA/WHINSEC citing its history of human rights abuses and questionable reputation.

"On our last evening in Costa Rica, Roy, Rita, Isabel and I were shown into the office of President Oscar Arias, re-elected last year, 20 years after his first presidency. The Nobel Peace laureate ushered us in with a warm welcome." Continue reading...

Sister Helen Prejean to Sponsor Volunteer Program in Nicaragua

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of "Dead Man Walking" and SOA Watch supporter, has been working with Laura Hopps and Christine Ruppert to start a new volunteer program through the Centro Cultural Batahola Norte in Managua, Nicaragua. Hopps and Ruppert, will spend the next two years in Nicaragua teaching English, working with women's cooperatives, and collaborating on a variety of other projects with community members. Continue reading...


Cindy Sheehan and Veterans for Peace Protest at Fort Benning

Fort Benning, Georgia, one of the biggest military bases in the world has become a focal point of the resistance to the Iraq war. In recent months, caravans from Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Journey for Humanity and Accountability by Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan and the former State Department official Anne Wright have been traveling throughout the country to speak out against the war in Iraq and visit military bases to outreach to active duty troops and listen to their stories.

Three members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were arrested on July 2nd at Fort Benning and charged with criminal trespassing when they attempted to gain access to the base to meet with active duty soldiers there.

- Watch the video and read more
- Read Cindy Sheehan's article about their stop at Fort Benning and the School of the Americas

Save the Date! November 16-18: Vigil to Close the SOA/WHINSEC

On NOVEMBER 16-18 join with human rights advocates, torture survivors, community organizers, families, musicians, artists, and activists from around the world who will gather at the gates of Fort Benning to celebrate the lives and struggle of the victims of SOA/WHINSEC violence! Save the date and start making your travel arrangements for November. On our website you will find logistical, travel and lodging information, "what to expect at Ft. Benning", resources to start organizing in your community and much more. Continue reading...

P.S.- You will be receiving an email with a CALL TO ACTION for the November Vigil later this afternoon. Please stay tuned and forward it to your family and friends!

Distribute "Presente!" in your Community

The Fall 2007 issue of "PRESENTE!" - The Newspaper of the Movement to Close the SOA is scheduled be hot off the presses in September. Our goal is to increase the print-run and to distribute at least 50,000 copies throughout the United States. To reach that goal, we need you to bulk order copies of "PRESENTE!" now and to distribute them in your area. Find out how to become a "PRESENTE!" distributor in your community



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