November 1997
Priest Opposes Training Ground for South American Armies
"If you go to prison for the right reasons, it's a sacred place," says Father Roy Bourgeois. The Maryknoll priest and human rights activist spoke to about 30 people Oct. 20 in the Small Science Auditorium.
Bourgeois has been incarcerated several times for his efforts to close the United States Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia. SOA has trained about 60,000 South American soldiers since its establishment in Panama in 1946. Many of its graduates have been implicated for the assassinations, rapes, tortures and murders of thousands of men, women and children throughout South America.
Two well-known SOA graduates are General Manuel Noriega, former Panamanian dictator currently serving 40 years in a U.S. prison for drug dealing, and Robert D'Aubuisson, leader of the infamous death squads in El Salvador.
"With us today is a man whose life exemplifies a moral trajectory," said Paul Atwood, director of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences. Bourgeois discussed his life and the movement to close SOA. He also showed the 18-minute documentary he produced titled "School of the Assassins." That film and "Gods of Metal" were both nominated for Oscars.
Bourgeois volunteered to fight in Vietnam and earned a purple heart for his service. It was in Vietnam where he reached a turning point. "I left Vietnam wanting to give peacemaking a chance," he said.
After his ordination, Bourgeois was assigned to Bolivia, where he was arrested and was later banished from the country for speaking out against injustices. "I was very angry ... but I learned something important &endash; that there was work to do here at home," he said.
Support for the movement has grown steadily. A 1993 United Nations Truth Commission Report on El Salvador found that SOA graduates were responsible for the Nov. 16, 1989, massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter, as well as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Bourgeois said.
Massachusetts lawmakers have lead the nation in the movement against SOA. "Here in Massachusetts, every one of your representatives has voted to cut funding to the School of the Americas," Bourgeois said.
U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, a UMass Boston alumnus, sponsored a bill to close SOA. The most recent vote lost by 217-210 margin. "We're getting close. That vote has pumped new life into the movement," Bourgeois said. Sen. John Kerry has co-sponsored a similar bill in the Senate. Sen. Joseph Moakley has also spoken out against injustices in South America.
Government supporters of SOA say it teaches democracy. "You don't learn democracy through the barrel of a gun," Bourgeois counters.
Bourgeois extended an open invitation to the annual Nov. 16 gathering at the main gate of Fort Benning. He also urges all to write letters their congressmen and President Clinton demanding the closing of SOA.
"My hope comes from the grassroots community," Bourgeois said. "As long as the military is entrenched in Latin America, there will never be a better life for the poor," he said.
For more information or to support Father Roy Bourgeois, write SOA Watch, P.O. Box 3330, Columbus, GA, 31903