[Peace] FW: THIS WEEKEND: SOAW November Vigil in Georgia

[Karen Aram via Peace]

                        Are you ready for the 25th Vigil? 

                        As you know, this November marks the 25th anniversary of our annual Vigil at the gates of Fort Benning. Our annual Vigil that began on the one-year anniversary of the 1989 massacre of Elba Ramos, her 16-year old daughter Celina Ramos and 6 Jesuit priests - Ignacio Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín Baró, Segundo Montes, Amando López, Juan Ramón Moreno and Joaquín López y López - at the University of Central America (UCA) in El Salvador, has become one of the largest antimilitarism convergences. Since 1990, activists from across the Americas have come together to publicly denounce the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA), renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2001, and to call for its definite closing.

                        While our message remains the same, over the years, we have broadened our mission to make connections with many other systems of oppression that fall under the larger context of militarism and empire: the root causes of migration; the criminalization and deportation of migrants; the criminalization and militarization against communities of color in cities across the United States. This year, we will join together for the 25th time to converge at the gates of Fort Benning to continue our witness against gross human rights violations that have occured and continue to occur. For the 8th year, we will also stand in solidarity with migrant families whose loved ones are detained at Stewart Detention Center, the nation's largest, for-profit immigrant detention prison, as we understand that SOA violence in Latin America is among the roots causes of migration. 

                        
                        Direct Action at the Vigil

                        This year at the gates of Fort Benning, there will be a variety of nonviolent direct actions to participate in. Whether it's your first time learning about direct action or if you have participated in direct actions before, consider attending our 2-day training workshop. If you are interested in being part of an action this weekend, the Nonviolent Direct Action Coordinating Team would be excited to explore this possiblity with you. Feel free to contact Chris or Jerica before heading down to Columbus. 

                        We will not be silenced!

                        We are joining once again to remember the UCA massacre martyrs, as well as those who have been murdered at the hands of SOA grads, but we must remember that the SOA violence of the past continues today. We continue to push for U.S. accountability for the countless human rights violations committed in the name of democracy through our tax dollars. We must also remember that the State, through the military and militarized police forces, operates under the false logic of silencing social movements through repression. There are no clearer examples of this than the September 26 disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico and the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri by a white police officer. Together we'll build a clear analysis of the political and social struggles taking place across the hemisphere through workshops, teach-ins and forums, listening and learning from human rights defenders and activists actively standing up to injustice. 
                        
                        
                        

                        Many of our brothers and sisters at the Vigil have recieved death threats for speaking out against the violence in their countries, like Padre Melo from Honduras who has denounced the June 28, 2009 SOA grad-led coup in his country. While we are joined by amazing speakers from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Colombia, there is an important voice that will be missing because of a denied visa - that of a young Guatemalan on the frontlines of the struggles for human rights and self-determination in his country, where SOA graduate and general President Otto Pérez Molina has declared military states of siege in communities defending their land and lives from multinational mining companies, hydroelectric dams and other destruction. The denial of his visa underscores the need to continue speak truth to power, even in the face of efforts by agencies like the U.S. State Department to silence human rights defenders. We will not be silenced! 
                        In parallel to the weekend events in Georgia, allies across Latin America have planned to organize activities in El Salvador, Colombia, Chile and Panama to demand the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC and to ask their governments to stop sending soldiers and police to be trained there. 

                        So make your travel arrangements, pack your bags, bring a friend and join us to speak out! 

                        In solidarity always,

                        Ana, Arturo, Brigitte, Hendrik, Jenne, Karolina, Kat, María Luisa, Pablo and Fr. Roy

                        
                        

                        

                        

                        
                    
                
            
            
        
    


 		 	   		  
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