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The Annual Vigil to Close the School of Americas to be held Nov. 21-23, 2008
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The Chicago Religious Leadership Network (CRLN) on Latin America rallies protesters to join the Annual Vigil to Close the School of Americas (SOA) located in Fort Benning, Georgia from November 21-24. The SOA, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. This year marks the 19th annual vigil, which amasses thousands of people together in protest of the overwhelming militarization of U.S. policy in Latin America and the atrocities carried out by SOA/WHINESEC graduates.
The majority of events will take place on Saturday, November 22. A rally is held all afternoon at the front gates, as well as workshops and panel discussions. Some of the expected speakers this year are Father Jon Sobrino, the prominent liberation theologian in El Salvador and brother to the six Jesuit priests killed by SOA graduates in 1989. Reverend Milton Mejia and Reverend Adelaida Jimenez, Presbyterian pastors from Colombia in their second year of study at Chicago's McCormick Seminary, are expected to attend.
On Sunday, November 23, a solemn funeral procession to remember the victims killed by SOA/WHINESEC graduates will take place beginning in the morning. Some protesters will engage in non-violent civil disobedience by entering into Fort Benning to carry out symbolic liturgies and actions highlighting the human rights atrocities carried out by SOA/WHINESEC graduates. However, only those entering Fort Benning are subject to arrest, so there is no fear of being arrested unless you plan to be.
The CRLN helps coordinate details for hotels and carpools. They will hold an orientation on November 13 at 6:00 p.m., at Grace Place, a storefront church at 637 S. Dearborn Street in Chicago's South Loop.
Image courtesy of the School of Americas Watch website
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