People from around the country will gather for a juice-only fast on
the steps of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., from March 19-28 to
call for the closing of the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort
Benning, Ga. Priests, nums, veterans, teachers, students and others
will participate in the fast and lobby Congress to support a bill
introduced by Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-MA) which calls for closing the
School of the Americas and establishing in its place an Academy for
Democracy and Civil-Military Relations.
The School of the Americas, a U.S. Army facility at Fort Benning that
trains hundreds of Latin American soldiers each year in combat and
counter-insurgency skills, has come under increased pressure from
church and veterans groups over the past three years. Graduates of
the school have been involved in a number of massacres and human
rights abuses in their countries, including the assassination of
Archbishop Oscar Romero, the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper and teenage daughter, and the rape and murder of four
U.S. church women in El Salvador.
Newspaper editorials over this past year have appeared in The Atlanta
Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and
The Des Moines Register calling for the closing of this military
school financed by the U.S. taxpayers. Sister Claire O'Mara, 74, an
Ursuline nun from New Rochelle, N.Y., who will particpate in the fast
said, "At a time when budgets for schools for our children are being
cut, it is a disgrace to be spending millions of dollars to train
Latin American soldiers in combat skills."
For more information contact:
Father Roy Bourgeois (202) 726-4252
Tom Ricker (202) 544-0781