Prophetic priest to lead 1000s of Occupy Fort Benning human rights defenders

1000s of oppressed represented by 1000s human rights defenders: Occupy Fort Benning led by Fr. Roy Bourgeois to end U.S. training Latin American military to torture, disappear, murder -- and blame 'Mexican criminals' and lax border

U.S.-trained Mexican naval and security forces committing some of the worst abuses in Mexico, similar to U.S.-trained army abuses, torturing and killing captives, according to the Human Rights Watch new report documenting 234 cases in five Mexican states, representing thousands of others throughout Latin America, are why the Prophetic Priest, Rev. Roy Bourgeois will lead thousands of human rights defenders this weekend to Occupy Fort Benning. Together, they will call on President Obama and Congress to end U.S. militarization and close Fort Benning's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly called School of Americas (SOA) but that continues to train military south of the border to commit covert terror against the poor and voiceless.

View slideshow: Fr. Roy, the Prophetic Priest leads human rights

"These are supposedly the best prepared of the Mexican armed forces," Maria Eva Lujan said in a tearful interview last week reported by Tracy Wilkinson of LA Times.

"My son fell at my feet," said Gustavo Sr.

"It was after midnight when Mexican marines burst into the Acosta home and, according to survivors, opened fire. Gustavo Acosta Jr., 30, implored the troops not to shoot; there were children in the home. He then fell dead, a shot to the head," Wilkinson reported.

Cited among the 234 cases in the Human Rights Watch report, is Jose Humberto Marquez, 26, photographed in March 2010 by news cameras as he was detained and taken by marines who loaded him onto a helicopter near the Monterrey suburb, Santa Catarina. The next day, his body, wearing same clothes seen in the news footage, was found on the side of a road, about 1 1/2 miles from the region's main naval base.

The autopsy report, cited by human rights investigators, evidenced Marquez had been tortured to death, including asphyxiation, severe head contusions and "multiple trauma with diverse instruments."

"Many people just don't know who to fear more," Daniel Acosta said, referring to the way both cartel henchmen and troops act in the Monterrey region and elsewhere.

After the military killing of Gustavo Jr., the Acosta family moved in with nearby relatives. Their home on Daisies Street is a bullet-riddled mess, dozens of holes in the facade, through the refrigerator and in the ceiling of the second-floor bedroom.

Such abuse is what many Mexicans are fleeing, crossing the border into the nation training their military to give them reason to risk life and become refugees and to give Rev. Roy Bourgeois even more passion to again lead School of the Americas Watch annual protest against the U.S. military facility training Latin American soldiers who come to Fort Benning to learn to commit terrorist atrocities with American tax dollars.

This year, Rev. Roy Bourgeois, known as Father Roy, and those 1000s of human rights defenders are aligning with Occupy Wall Street.

“We are very connected to the spirit and what’s going on around the country,” said Fr. Roy, founder of SOA Watch and Catholic priest facing dismissal from the Maryknoll order for supporting ordination of women.

Fr. Roy said the nonviolent movement to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning and the Occupy movement have much in common with the annual event scheduled next weekend.

"I invite you to join me a week from today at the gates of Fort Benning to stand with the 99% across the Americas, whose dreams and hopes are being suppressed by the School of the Americas," Fr. Roy wrote Friday in an email to human rights advocates.

"We are inspired by the Resistance of Honduras, by the students of Chile, by union workers in Colombia, by Haitians standing up for sovereignty, by immigrants who fight for their dignity, by all who occupy the neoliberal places that oppress, to replace them with spaces of resistance and hope. The surge of social justice activism is fueling the call for justice and the closure of the SOA/ WHINSEC."

"And last Friday, our allies in Congress introduced HR 3368, the Latin America Military Training Review Act, which is calling for the suspension of the School of the Americas and an investigation into the connection between U.S. military training and human rights abuses in Latin America."

US-trained military committing Mexican atrocities, not criminals or bad apples. 'Look at statistics'

The 220-page report that took Human Rights Watch over a year to produce evidences similar reports Dupré receives from Targeted Individuals in the U.S. and some 130 other countries the U.S. is operating military forces:

"... killing, torture and sexual assault of detainees; "forced disappearances" (i.e., kidnappings where the victim never appears again); efforts by armed forces to hide their crimes by tampering with evidence; intimidation of families of victims if they complain or speak out; and virtually no serious investigations by civilian or military authorities of the allegations." (LA Times)

It is often easier to blame such human rights atrocities on criminals or the "bad apple" while upholding military personnel since "they have been trained in human rights." That's what President Felipe Calderon did when Human Rights Watch met with him, as per the statement released by the rights group:

"After a 2 1/2 -hour meeting with representatives of the human rights group, Calderon's office issued a statement saying the biggest threat to Mexicans is not the government troops, but the criminals. Troops are being trained in human rights and working closely with state human rights officials, the statement said."

Human Rights Watch representatives said Calderon, in the sometimes tense meeting, agreed to examine the cases they presented to him.

"'We made him see the statistics,' Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the organization's Americas section, said at a news conference Wednesday," the Times reported.

North and South American human rights defenders Occupy SOA

On November 18th through the 20th, thousands of social justice activists from across the Americas will Occupy Main Gates of SOA at Fort Benning, Georgia to call for an end to U.S. militarization and for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of Americas.

"The annual three day convergence will include a massive rally, where thousands will occupy the main gates of the Fort Benning military base in order to transform it from a place that trains assassins to a place of initiation into political awareness," organizers said in a written statement last week.

"On Sunday, November 20, the chain-linked barbed wire fence will be transformed with images of the martyrs, crosses, stars and flowers into a memorial for the victims of SOA violence and U.S. intervention."

"Human rights activists will carry their protest onto the grounds of the military base, risking arrest and up to six month in federal prison."

As occurs annually in one of the nation's largest protests, the mobilization will include speakers from a variety of national organizations. This year, rights defenders will hear presentations by NAACP, Sisters of Mercy, Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance (GUYA), torture survivors and human rights activists from Latin America plus participate in plenaries, workshops, concerts, strategy sessions and more.

“The SOA provides the military muscle to protect the greed of the 1% at the expense of the 99% throughout the Americas.” said Father Roy.

“The surge of social justice activism in the U.S. is fueling the call for the closure of this notorious institution,” Fr. Roy said.

SOA made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released the school's training manuals that advocated torture, extortion and execution.

"Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place," SOA Watch organizers said.

SOA Watch highlights US-led atrocities not only in Mexico, but also Columbia, Honduras, and Guatemala:

"SOA violence continues in Mexico, where 1/3 of the original members of Zetas drug cartel were trained at SOA, and where the U.S. is promoting military solutions to the drug problem."
SOA violence continues in Colombia that sent over 10,000 soldiers to train at the SOA, and where SOA graduates are involved with extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations.
SOA violence continues in Honduras, where SOA graduates overthrew the democratically elected government in 2009.
SOA violence continues in Guatemala where SOA graduate Otto Pérez Molina just won the presidential elections, and throughout the Americas."

One priest against mightiest military force in the world

Fr. Roy, internationally known as the “Prophetic Priest,” has led the struggle to close SOA, the American funded school responsible for training torturers, dictators and death squads: terrorists working for the ultimate goal of imperialism.

This American hero is as esteemed as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as documented in a special PBS program.

(Watch the PBS special report on School of the Americas and Fr. Roy on this page in the embedded Youtube video.)

Native of a small Louisiana town, Fr. Roy was a high school football player and then, a Vietnam war soldier with aspirations to profit from oil in Latin America. Vietnam directly exposed Fr. Roy to horrors of war and U.S. propaganda used to perpetuate war.

He says that his off-duty time in Vietnam at orphanages were the only times he "felt whole."

Upon returning to the states, he also returned his purple heart medal of honor, asserting no honor was associated with the Vietnam War.

Fr. Roy soon dedicated his life to the poor south of the border. For five years in Bolivia, he witnessed atrocities including people being tortured. He said he’d never seen anything like what happened in El Salvador.

“It was the slaughter of the innocents."

Fr. Roy then learned that SOA-trained soldiers had committed the El Mozote village massacre of 900 peasants. When he learned that 500 Salvadoran troops had arrived at Fort Benning for SOA training, determined to do something about the injustices, he went there to Fort Benning, alone, and stayed at a Motel 6.

In 1981, Fr. Roy moved into an apartment across the street from Fort Benning’s main gates; founded SOA Watch; and began leading protests and fasts to close the military school. For 18 months, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for one demonstration to close the school, in the name of Bishop Romero. He recounts:

"I was brought down to my knees. Despair started to set in, but something happened…I came to what I consider a spiritual insight.”

Humbly attributing his insightful message to others, Fr. Roy imparts them to people of goodwill everywhere, advice as apropos today as every day and year:

"Don’t worry about being effective. Try to concentrate on being faithful. Faithful to the truth, what’s in your conscience, what’s in your heart. Try to concentrate on being in solidarity with the poor... Do that. Do your best where you are, where your feet are planted."

Fr. Roy says that insight freed him. His freedom then inspired him to continue carrying a cross to close the U.S. terror training school by raising public awareness that such a place exists and is at the heart of South American hardships.

Due to Fr. Roy's commitment to human rights, he sacrificed a total of four years in prison for his peaceful resistance in solidarity with the poor. Each November, ripples from his compassion are seen. But this Friday, it will be seen that those ripples have become waves.

Not only are thousands of human rights defenders readying to converge to Occupy Fort Benning. Fr. Roy's developed wave this year is more forceful. Finally, Time Magazine published in October, “Is It Time to Shutter the Americas' 'Coup Academy'?" The wave of passion also includes the LA Times series reporting the extensive military abuses in Mexico.

LA Times says the Acosta family has filed a formal complaint with federal authorities. The family account is that six family members, including a 14-year-old girl, were home, most sleeping. Gustavo Sr. had recently had an operation, could not climb stairs, and was in the tiny, first-floor living room, with Gustavo Jr., who had returned home to spend a few months helping his recovering dad.

"They heard gunfire, then the marines came pounding on the door demanding to be let in and shouting about having been shot at. As Gustavo Jr. started to unlock the door, explaining that no one inside the house was armed, the marines pushed through and killed him," reported the Times.

"Why? Why?" moaned his father.

Answering the grieving father's question, some say, "Mexican criminals." Others exclaim, "Not enough support to tighten the border!" And others say, "Americans' are failing to keep "them" out.'

Those answers are far easier than looking at and acting on what Fr. Roy courageously exposes: a U.S. led human rights atrocity south of the border resulting from SOA training Mexican military with U.S. tax dollars, to covertly torture and disappear voiceless people in the dark of the night.

Fr. Roy suggests a different solution for Americans to resolve the border crisis and injustices south of the border. The prophetic priest offers the same solution that Father Romera had offered: “We who have a voice, we have to speak for the voiceless.”