In the early morning hours of November 15, fifteen years ago today, US trained members of El Salvador’s army assassinated six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her fifteen year old daughter. Indications were that they were tortured prior to being slain.

For years, these priests worked to promote justice in El Salvador and help the poor escape their misery by, among other efforts, challenging the killing of tens of thousand of poor persons, union members, church workers and human rights activists by the US supported Salvadoran government.

THOSE KILLED IN THE ATTACK INCLUDED:

Ignacio Ellacuria, 59, rector of the Central American University, a widely respected intellectual.

Ignacio Martin-Baro, 50, vice-rector of the University, best known as an analyst of national and regional affairs and the founder and director of the Public Opinion Institute, a highly respected polling organization.

Segundo Montes, 56, sociology professor who did extensive work on Salvadoran refugees in the United States.

Arnando Lopez, 53, philosophy professor.

Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, 71, director of a center for humanitarian assistance affiliated with the university.

Juan Ramon Moreno, 56, the director of two university-related programs.

Julia Elba Ramos, 42, a cook.

and Cecilia Ramos, her daughter, 15.

The majority of these assassins were trained at the US army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia. The SOA has trained over 60,000 solders from various Latin American Countries and the Carribean in counter insurgency warfare against their own people. The school came to be called the School of Assassins.

In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocate torture, false imprisonment, extortion and execution. SOA graduates have been cited for some of the most horrific atrocities in Latin America, including the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians in El Salvador, the assassination of six Jesuits, terror campaigns against civilians and indigenous people in Guatemala, and recent massacres in Colombia.

(The writing of this leaflet was interrupted today by a visit from Colombia of two union workers who testified to the horrific violations of human rights being carried out by the Colombian military, some of whom were trained at the SOA, and paramilitary forces.  All of these forces are being supported by the US Plan Colombia with military aid and personnel.)

In response to public pressure, in 2000, Congress authorized a renaming of SOA to the Western Hemisperic Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). The renaming was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its dubious reputation at a time when SOA opponents were poised to win a senate vote on legislation that would have dismantled the school. Even SOA supporters have characterized the reforms as “basically cosmetic”.

Opponents of the school agree, saying “Different name, same shame!”

This coming weekend, over ten thousands persons will converge on the SOA/WHINSEC at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Georgia for the fifteenth consecutive year, to remember all the victims of that terrorist training camp and to stand in solidarity with those who oppose such policies, which daily are being carried out in our name. During these fifteen years, over 175 persons have been imprisoned for 3-6 months for nonviolent civil disobedience against the school, including several from 8th Day Center for Justice.

Their efforts are valuable, not only because they are calling attention to the interrelationship between US economic and military interests, but because they try to act out of a sense of community. As Dorothy Day has said, we are to build a new society out of the shell of the old one.

ACTIONS
1. Visit the School of Americas Watch website: www.soaw.org, especially the legislative update page.
2. Join in prayer with those who will be at Ft. Benning.
3. Join or create a regular peace vigil at a local site, e.g., a government office, military/recruiting facility, military contractor.
4. Take courage, a just world is possible if we continue to work together to make it happen.