Pace e Bene Workshops at SOA Watch National Gathering

November 20-23, 23009, Pace e Bene joined thousands of people at Fort Benning, Georgia for the 19th annual School of the America’s Watch vigil. As part of the Ignatian Family Teach-In, PeB Trainer Ken Preston facilitated five nonviolence training workshops for more than 200 participants.

During this event, six protestors were arrested after crossing the line at the army base. They are:

• Sr. Diane Pinchot, OSU, 63, Cleveland, Ohio
• Father Luis Barrios, 56, North Bergen, New Jersey
• Louis Wolf, 68, Washington, DC
• Theresa Cusimano, 40, Denver, Colorado
• Al Simmons, 64, Richmond, Virginia
• Kristen Holm, Chicago, Illinois

The protesters were bailed out of jail by the SOA Watch legal team that afternoon. Their federal trial in Columbus, Georgia will begin on January 26, 2009.

The school trains military personnel from all over the western hemisphere, but protestors claim graduates have returned to their home countries and used their training to commit human rights violations. The sound of names filled the air at the gates of the fort, names of human rights victims that have died under human rights violations linked to graduates of the SOA.

The US government won’t shut down the SOA on its own. It will take people power and grassroots organizing to create a climate and culture that will make the existence of institutions like the SOA impossible. This past weekend, as thousands gathered at the gates, they are changing the climate and creating a culture of justice, peace and understanding. We have the power to hold the Obama administration to its promises of a new direction in U.S.-Latin America relations and we are calling for the closing of the SOA as a first step in the right direction.

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