SHUT DOWN THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS!
Stop the US Intervention in Columbia!
Over its 56 years, the SOA has trained
over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques,
sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence
and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used
their skills to wage war against their own people.
Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers,
religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the
rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have
been tortured, raped, assassinated, 'disappeared,' massacred, and
forced to flee their homes by those trained at the School of Assassins.
Colombia, with over 10,000 troops trained at the SOA, is the school's
largest customer. Not surprisingly, Colombia currently has the worst
human rights record in all of Latin America,
averaging one massacre per day! 2,000,000 people have been killed
or displaced by civilian-targeted warfare carried out by graduates
of the SOA.
Unprecedented U.S. military aid to Colombia is greatly exacerbating
a brutal civil war that has been raging in Colombia for decades.
Sold to the U.S. public as part of the 'war on drugs', the aid is
actually being used in the same old counterinsurgency warfare SOA
graduates have waged across Latin America.
Human rights reports clearly document the collaboration between
the Colombian military and the right-wing paramilitary forces responsible
for an increasing share of the atrocities committed against civilians.
As usual, SOA graduates head the lists of perpetrators.
Among many others, SOA-trained Gen. Mario Montoya Uribe, identified
by Colombian newspapers as 'the military official responsible for
Plan Colombia' has documented ties to paramilitary atrocities dating
back to the 1970's.
Earlier this month, the Bush administration announced that it is
seeking Congressional approval of a $98 million request that would
pay for helicopters, communications equipment and training for Colombian
troops to guard the Caño Limón pipeline, which transports crude
oil pumped by Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles from the country's
eastern oil fields to a Caribbean port.
State department officials declared Colombia one of the next battlefields
in their 'war on terrorism'. These steps go beyond the rhetoric
of the 'war on drugs' and mark a new escalation in the U.S. fueling
of the terror in Colombia.
It is time to take action and put an end to U.S. support of the
state terrorism in Colombia and throughout Latin America.
Working in coalition with over 60 solidarity, labor, student, environmental
and human rights groups, SOA Watch calls for a National Mobilization
to close the SOA and end U.S. support of the war in Colombia.
Locally, the Rochester Committee on Latin America has endorsed this
event and is providing financial support for the Rochester Mobilization
to D.C.
If you'd like to get involved early let me know, 414.4274. We need
people to lead groups down by driving, help find housing, with credit
cards to rent vans, raise funds, and much, much more. With the success
of our trip to NYC and the WEF this will be another big event for
Rochester. Many students would like to go, so if you can't make
it yourself, consider a donation to help someone go in your place.
Siempre en la lucha, Jesse Lenne