Vigil at Fort Benning, Georgia

Every year there is a vigil and protest at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia, where the taxpayers of the USA fund a college for training police and military personnel from Latin America.  Many of the graduates of the School of the Americas have gone on to commit atrocities such as mass murder.

Some Latin American governments have turned against sending people to the college.   

It is not a good way to spend taxpayers' money, or money that the government of the United States has borrowed from somewhere.  Barack Obama can surely think of ways in which the USA could provide education for people from Latin America with a more positive and pacific aim. 

The home page of SOAW currently has news of the latest vigil and protest which was on 20 to 22 November 2009. 

The legal system of the United States has got things all back to front so 286 activists who have protested over the years about the School of the Americas have been given prison or probation sentences of up to two years.

I am always pleased to see music and other creative arts used in campaigns; SOAW have a songsheet and also use puppets.

See Patrick Corrigan's piece on the School of the Americas, in the Belfast and Beyond blog here on the Amnesty website.