As an ordained Catholic priest, Father Roy Bourgeois witnessed the massacre of priests and nuns in Columbia and Bolivia. Those who killed his brothers and sisters were trained by the U.S. government, he said.
For 20 years, Bourgeois has been involved in grassroots efforts to close down the U.S. Army School of Americas, which he labels the School of Assassins. He spoke Thursday at the Hinckley Institute of Politics.
The school’s goal is to counter narcotics and insurgence, but Bourgeois believes its soldiers “provide the muscle” for the very practices they profess to prevent. Graduates of the school include Panama drug lord Manuel Noriega.
Bourgeois calls the school, “a terrorist camp.” He believes soldiers trained there are responsible for some of the worst violations of human rights in recent history.
Bourgeois is the spokesman for the independent peacekeeping organization, the School of Americas Watch, whose goal is to shut down the school. The organization started with 100 members 20 years ago.
Last November the Watch led a funeral precession into the school, located in Fort Benning, Ga., to protest on behalf of those killed by School of America’s soldiers. More than 10,000 attended the protest, half of which were college students from across the country.
The Watch holds various protests year round. The group is organizing protests to pass U.S. House bill 1810, which would cut off funding to the school. The school’s current budget is estimated at $18.4 million, according to Watch literature.
Bourgeois urges concerned individuals to contact local representatives. “Tell them not to use our money for that school. Use the money for our schools in this state,” Bourgeois said.
Bourgeois’ main objective is to give the poor a better quality of life, “to let those who have a voice speak for the voiceless,” Bourgeois said.
“We see Latin America as our backyard, an extension of the United States, there for us to exploit,” he continued. Bourgeois encourages a re evaluation of U.S. foreign policy.
“If we want to teach democracy to Latin America, [we should] bring soldiers to universities and teach them skills to improve the quality of life,” said Bourgeois. “We don’t need guns in the developing world, we need housing and food.”
The school, under increasing pressure, changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and claims to focus on human rights, democracy and peacekeeping along with its counter narcotics training. According to the Watch, “behind the new packaging, business as usual continues at the [school].”
Despite imprisonment and government pressure, the Watch is “not going away,” Bourgeois said.
Further information on the Watch can be found at www.soaw.org.