Photo by Anne Dowling
from SOA Watch
November Vigil Concludes with Solemn Funeral Procession to Fort Benning (home of the School of the Americas) & Two More Civil Disobedience Arrests
Mass Mobilization to Shut Down Latin American Security Forces Training School, For-Profit Immigrant Detention Center; Grassroots Mobilizations Connect Struggles against State Violence and Injustice
Columbus, Georgia – 2,500 human rights activists braved the rainstorms on Sunday, November 23 and converged at Fort Benning to call for an end to militarized state violence in the US and abroad. Featured presenters came from Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Venezuela, and the US.
Following the stage program, a solemn funeral procession commemorated those murdered at the hands of School of the Americas/WHINSEC graduates, including the two women and six Jesuit priests who were massacred in 1989 at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador, as well as activists from Honduras, Mexico and Colombia killed earlier this year.
Eve Tetaz, an 83-year-old author, veteran peace and justice activist and retired public schoolteacher from Washington, DC, crossed the line onto Fort Benning in solitary nonviolent witness at 9 am, carrying with her a poster of one of the 43 students disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Mexico this September, and the prophetic Isaiah verse, “they shall beat their swords into plowshares.”
After the procession concluded, longtime SOA Watch activist Nashua Chantal, a 62-year-old human rights defender from Americus, Georgia, carried a ladder to the fence which military police erected to keep our peaceful message from entering the base. This is the third arrest at Fort Benning for Chantal, who previously served a three-month sentence in 2005 and six months in 2013 for crossing the line.
Five other solidarity activists were arrested yesterday on Saturday, November 22, 2014 at the gates of the Stewart Detention Center. The five carried their nonviolent message of justice and dignity for all onto the property of the Corrections Corporation of America, which warehouses 1,800 men at Stewart for profit in horrific conditions which have led to the death of at least one detainee.
The civil disobedience action followed a procession of about 1,000 human rights activists from Lumpkin, Georgia to the Stewart Detention Center. Activists called for an end to the unjust imprisonment of immigrants and denounced the clear connection between US militarization and forced migration.
SOA/WHINSEC training is among the roots causes which force people to migrate and flee their countries. Many immigrants to the United States are victims of US-sponsored military atrocities in Latin America. In its fight to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, SOA Watch continues to work towards a world that is free of suffering and violence. SOA Watch considers deportation quotas, mandatory detention, for-profit immigration detention centers, the militarization of the border, the drug war and the training of repressive forces at the SOA/WHINSEC, as all parts of the same racist system of violence and domination. A dismantling of these and other policies is needed for there ever to be true “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”
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[Preliminary news about SOA Watch’s 25th anniversary vigil and action at Ft. Benning, Georgia to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (also known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation/WHINSEC) and to “remember the martyrs and denounce continued SOA violence against our brothers and sisters in Latin America”.]
Sunday, November 23, 2014
8:30 am: Ain’t gonna let no rainstorms turn us around! It’s a wet morning but spirits are high at the gates. Veterans for Peace march is about to arrive.
9 am: Longtime peace activist and demonstrator, 83-year-old Eve Tetaz, of Washington, DC, successfully crossed the line onto Fort Benning, carrying with her a poster of one of the 43 students disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Mexico and the verse from Isaiah 2:4, “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” More civil disobedience is expected this morning.
10:40 am: The solemn funeral procession has begun.
11:38 am: Nashua Chantal is crossing over the fence onto Fort Benning (again — third time!), with the vibrant crowd cheering “Close Down the SOA!”
Action Statement from Eve Tetaz
Eve Tetaz — 83, Washington, DC — Eve is an author, peace and justice activist and retired public-school teacher. She was arrested 11 times in 2007 for nonviolent civil resistance during protests against the war and occupation of Iraq, and was arrested more than a dozen further times, including an action as part of the Spring 2011 SOAW 27, when activists including Father Roy Bourgeois were arrested in front of the White House urging President Obama to issue an executive order to close the SOA/WHINSEC. Eve has been very active with several peace and justice groups including Code Pink, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and Witness Against Torture. She says:
This morning I entered the base to petition the authorities to close down the SOA. I exercised my right to do so, protected by the 1st amendment.
As a moral person I can no longer remain silent in regard to the crimes against humanity that are being committed by our elected officials who claim to be speaking in MY NAME. If I did, I would be complicit in their crimes.
We are now facing a clear and present danger for this government is using terrorist tactics in their war against terrorism. Our brothers and sisters are being treated as collateral damage. In following the teachings of Jesus and other religious leaders, we maintain that no human being is collateral damage. We all belong to God’s beloved community, where in the words of prophet Isaiah, every family shall sit in peace under their own fig tree, nations will study war no more and their swords will be turned into plowshares.
Close the SOA, end mass incarcerations and continue to speak truth to power!
Nashua Chantal’s Action
On Sunday, November 23, 62-year-old human rights defender Nashua Chantal of Americus, GA, crossed the line at the School of the Americas for the third time. He has previously served two prison sentences for his civil disobedience, and now faces another six months.
At 11:45 am Sunday, Nashua was arrested by military police after hauling a ladder up to the fence which shut down Fort Benning Rd. and access to the military base where the School of the Americas/WHINSEC is located.
In November 2004 he committed his first act of trespass on the Fort Benning military installation, and returned in 2012 to cross the line again. He served a three-month prison sentence in 2005 and six months in 2013.
Nashua has volunteered with the Heart to Heart program providing housing to the poor, taught ceramics and pottery and worked with international youth groups. He says it is this work that encourages him to be what he is today and that Christ plays an important role in guiding him to work in the pursuit of justice.
Activists Protest one of Largest US Immigrant Prisons, Caravan to Fort Benning, home of the School of the Americas
5 Human Rights Activists Arrested
On Saturday, November 22, hundreds of human rights defenders converged in the remote town of Lumpkin, Georgia, whose largest employer is the Corrections Corporation of America at the Stewart Detention Center. Stewart is one of the largest immigrant prisons in the US, currently warehousing 1,800 men for profit. These detainees’ only “crime” was to flee the economic and political violence in their home countries, violence created by US policies and training like at the SOA/WHINSEC. In the wake of President Obama’s announcement about his executive actions in regards to immigration, the activists marched 1.7 miles from central Lumpkin to the Stewart Detention Center.
At a vigil in front of the prison, the activists demanded the release of the immigrants who are imprisoned at Stewart, an immediate end to mass deportations, and the closure of the Stewart Detention Center. Five activists were arrested for their nonviolent civil disobedience at the gates of Stewart: long-time union activist Maureen Fitzsimmos; Rebecca Kanner, former SOA Watch prisoner of conscience from Michigan; Anton Flores, the vigil organizer from the Alterna community and the Georgia Detention Watch coalition; Jason McGaughey, of Washington, DC; and Kevin Caron of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. Bail was set at $25,000 for Anton Flores, and $1,000 for each of the others, but the SOA Watch Legal Collective negotiated bonds down to $250 each.
“Love crosses borders — fear erects walls,” said organizer and Georgia Detention Watch coalition founder Anton Flores, lifting up his Alterna community slogan. “The depth of a loving society is going to be marked by how quickly we can close these facilities down.”
Following the protest at the detention center, a caravan drove to the main gates of Fort Benning, the military base that is home to the US military training camp known as the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or SOA/WHINSEC). The activists call out the connection between US-sponsored military repression in Latin America and forced migration.
SOA training is among the roots causes of migration, which forces people to flee their countries in Latin America. Many immigrants to the United States are victims of US-sponsored military training and atrocities in Latin America. In its fight to close the School of the Americas, SOA Watch continues to work towards a world that is free of suffering and violence. SOA Watch considers deportation quotas, mandatory detention, for-profit immigration detention centers, the militarization of the border, the “War on Drugs,” and the training of repressive forces at the SOA/WHINSEC, as all parts of the same racist system of violence and domination. A dismantling of these and other policies is needed for there ever to be true “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”
Tomorrow, on Sunday, November 23, thousands will converge again at the gates of Fort Benning, for a solemn funeral procession to commemorate all victims of US militarization and violence. Visit http://SOAW.org/november for updates.
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