Former School of Americas criticized: The Rev. Roy Bourgeois says the Army facility trains terrorists

BY STAFF WRITER GARY McLENDON

The U.S. government has destroyed foreign terrorist training facilities in Afghanistan. The Rev. Roy Bourgeois says it's time to close one at Fort Benning, Ga. Bourgeois, of Columbus, Ga., told about 75 people during a speech at Gates Presbyterian Church on Monday that the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - formerly known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas - is a U.S.-sponsored training ground for Latin American dictators and soldiers. The school operates at Fort Benning.

"Our president keeps saying we have to go after those training camps for terrorists wherever they exist. A very good place to start is in our own back yard," Bourgeois said.

The School of the Americas was founded in 1946 in Panama to promote good relations between the U.S. military and its Central and South American counterparts, and to promote democracy. The school moved to Fort Benning in 1984, and its name was changed in January 2001. In 1989, it revised its curriculum to integrate training on human rights into every subject.

Graduates include former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, who is now in a prison near Miami for drug trafficking, and two top generals involved in a coup that briefly ousted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in April, said Bourgeois.

Large American-based companies benefit from U.S.-trained dictators and soldiers, who maintain an economic system that exploits Latin American workers and provides huge profits, Bourgeois said.

Bourgeois, a Vietnam War veteran and a Maryknoll priest, founded School of the Americas Watch in 1990 to monitor human rights abuses by School of the Americas graduates.

He has served four years in federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the school.
Bourgeois said he came to Rochester to raise public consciousness and urge people to contact their federal representatives and ask them to support a bill to cut off $20 million in annual funding for the school.

"Help us get out the truth," he urged the audience.

Each fall Bourgeois and hundreds of others gather at Fort Benning to protest the school's existence. Last week, 37 people were convicted of trespassing during last fall's protest.

John Honeck of Hamlin said he will be among a contingent of 40 Americans, including Bourgeois, to visit Colombia next month to learn about human rights abuses firsthand.

"This is definitely the right cause to believe in," Honeck said. "There is no need for this school to be open at this time."

Honeck belongs to three Rochester-based activist groups - Rochester Committee on Latin America, Pax Christi Rochester and School of the America Watch Rochester - that sponsored Bourgeois' visit.