[Controlunittalk] FW: [QUIT-L] FW: Evo Morales Announces: No More Bolivian Soldiers to the SOA/WHINSEC!

Thu Oct 11 13:28:43 EDT 2007

fyi

Naima Black

STOPMAX Coordinator

American Friends Service Committee

1501 Cherry Street

Philadelphia, PA 19102

215-241-7137

nblack at afsc.org

From: QUaker Initiative to end Torture [mailto:QUIT-L at MTSAC.EDU] On
Behalf Of John Calvi
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 12:10 PM
To: QUIT-L at MTSAC.EDU
Subject: [QUIT-L] FW: Evo Morales Announces: No More Bolivian Soldiers
to the SOA/WHINSEC!

John Calvi
calvij at sover.net
802/387-4789
PO Box 301 
Putney VT 05346 USA
www.johncalvi.com
www.quit-torture-now.org

------ Forwarded Message
From: School of the Americas Watch <info at soaw.org>
Reply-To: media at soaw.org
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:03:27 -0400 (EDT)
To: calvij at sover.net
Subject: Evo Morales Announces: No More Bolivian Soldiers to the
SOA/WHINSEC!

School of the Americas Watch 

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<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=I9wXNeTK9DjK7slb
1FCduSjklH0P85uj>  October 11, 2007
In this email, you'll find: - Evo Morales Announces Withdrawal from
SOA/WHINSEC
- Argentine Priest Sentenced for Dirty War Killings
- Prisoners of Conscience Update
- "Inside the School of Assassins" Airs on Link TV

________________________________

Evo Morales Announces: "No More Bolivian Soldiers to the SOA/WHINSEC!"
We are very excited to announce that President Evo Morales announced
Tuesday that Bolivia will gradually withdraw its military from the
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC),
formerly known as the School for the Americas (SOA). Bolivia is now the
fifth country after Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela to
formally announce a withdrawal from the school!

"We will gradually withdraw until there are no Bolivian officers
attending the School of the Americas," said Morales. Questioning the
U.S. government's foreign policy he noted that "they are teaching high
ranking officers to confront their own people, to identify social
movements as their enemies." 

This is a great victory for torture survivors, social movement leaders
and human rights activists of Bolivia and the Americas. The SOA/WHINSEC
has played a significant role in Bolivia's recent political history,
Hugo Banzer Suarez, who ruled Bolivia from 1971-1978 under a brutal
military dictatorship attended the school in 1956 and was later inducted
into the school's "hall of fame" in 1988. The SOA has trained tens of
thousands of Bolivian military officers in the past fifty years. In
October of 2006, two former graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC, Generals Juan
Veliz Herrera and Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado were arrested on charges of
torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for their
responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during
the "Gas Wars" of September-October 2003. 

In March 2006 a School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) delegation led by
Lisa Sullivan-Rodriguez, Salvadoran torture survivor Carlos Mauricio,
and SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois met with President Evo
Morales to request that Bolivia cease to send troops for training at the
SOA/WHINSEC. 

* Our work in Latin America has been made possible through your support
and donations, please contribute to our Latin America Project by making
a donation to SOA Watch
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Come celebrate this amazing victory with us at the November 16-18 Vigil
to Close the SOA/WHINSEC!

- Click here
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________________________________

Argentine Priest Sentenced for Dirty War Killings The governments of
Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil and Peru have made significant efforts
in bringing those responsible for human rights abuses to justice. This
is the result of the relentless work of human rights organizations and
social movements in Latin America. We need to follow their example and
hold the U.S. government accountable so that those responsible for the
training of human rights abusers at the SOA/WHINSEC will be brought to
justice as well. We need to close the SOA/WHINSEC and change the
oppressive U.S. policy that this institution represents. 

On Tuesday, October 9th the people of Argentina celebrated a major
victory in the ongoing reconciliation process when an Argentine court
sentenced the Rev. Christian von Wernich, a Roman Catholic priest, to
life in prison for conspiring with the military in murders and
kidnapping during the country's "dirty war". 

The priest, who served as police chaplain during the military
dictatorship, was found guilty of involvement in seven murders, 31 cases
of torture and 42 kidnappings. 

- Continue reading...
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________________________________

Prisoners of Conscience Update On Wednesday, September 19 the last of
the SOA 16
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=99rTIaKSLGrK7slb
1FCduSjklH0P85uj>
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=99rTIaKSLGrK7slb
1FCduSjklH0P85uj>   was released from Danbury Federal Correctional
Center after serving a six month sentence. Alice E. Gerard, 50, was
among the sixteen human rights advocates who were arrested for
"trespassing" while protesting the SOA/WHINSEC during the November 2006
"Vigil to Close the SOA" at Fort Benning, GA. 

"I went to the grounds of Fort Benning to ask for restorative justice
that calls for participants in an act of injustice to acknowledge
responsibility, apologize to victims, and assure the provision of
restitution to victims. I was asking for WHINSEC/SOA to be closed and
for an independent truth and reconciliation commission to be established
to investigate the instruction offered at the school. I came to that
space, looking for the truth and asking that the government, like its
citizens, be held accountable for its actions." 

- Continue reading...
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________________________________

"Inside the School of Assassins" Airs on Link TV Link TV is currently
showing "Father Roy - Inside the School of Assassins" as part of the
"America's Dirty Tricks-Part 2" series. The documentary, a Richter
production, tells the SOA story through the extraordinary life and
daring actions of Father Roy Bourgeois, a Vietnam war hero and leading
activist in the campaign to close the school. 

The film will be showing throughout October and will include an
in-studio interview with SOA Watch activists Charles and Judy Liteky. 

- Continue reading...
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C6Dce%2FzCjklH0P85uj>
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