Campaigns - Close the SOA
[Bikes | SOA/WHINSEC | CAFTA | Cajibío]

On November 19-21, 2004, thousands of people converged upon Fort Benning, GA to demand that this school of assassins be closed for good!

The US Army School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. SOA-trained soldiers have used the skills they were taught at the school to make war against their own people. They have massacred entire villages, made thousands "disappear," and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their countries. SOA graduates have targeted grassroots leaders for assassination, torture, rape and intimidation -- especially religious workers, student leaders, and union organizers. The school's unstated mission is to silence people who organize for the rights of working people and the poor -- opening the door for multinational corporations to exploit the people and natural resources of Latin America.

CUSLAR organized vans down to the vigil. For more information about other SOA-related activities, contact us at cuslar@cornell.edu or (607) 255-7293.

• SOA Watch
• CUSLAR's previous SOA call to action - March 2004