Thousands to Protest “School of the Assassins” at Ft. Benning (Democracy Now)

[struggle4progress]

On 20th Anniversary of Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran Forces
Thousands to Protest “School of the Assassins” at Ft. Benning

AMY GOODMAN: ... This year’s protest will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, their housekeeper and her daughter by the US-backed Salvadoran military. The Jesuit priests were killed November 16, 1989, twenty years ago this week, when a military unit entered the Central American University campus and shot them to death—the priests’ housekeeper and her daughter also killed. The Jesuits had been outspoken advocates for the poor and critics of human rights abuses committed by the ARENA government. Many of the soldiers involved in the murders were graduates of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning ...

BLASE BONPANE: Well, it goes on, actually, starting—you can start as early as 1971, when Father Ellacuria got there, and then the bombing of the university began in ’75. In ’77, there were twelve students killed, some from the university and some from the state university, and there were twenty wounded. They just opened fire on them. The bombing continued at the university of Father Ellacuria’s offices, of the library and of the high school. There’s a high school also in the area. So he was constantly under attack because of the charges of liberation theology. And if we read the torture manuals, which School of the Americas Watch uncovered, we see direct reference to theology of liberation as a subversive act, as a subversive organization on behalf of the people of El Salvador.

And then, of course, 1977, Father Rutilio Grande was killed, another Jesuit. And that was the time when Archbishop Romero said, “Me convertí,” “They converted me.” By that, he meant he was on—there on behalf of the poor and that he was no longer part of the oligarchic military connection, which used to be called the Holy Trinity in El Salvador. And, you know, the fact that he identified with the poorest of the poor, he became an object of threats, as well. And, of course, he was killed in 1980 on the 24th of March, and that was followed by the killing of the sisters, the four sisters, on December 2nd of 1980 ...

BLASE BONPANE: Yes. Well, it’s important to continue that, because we’re still involved in intervention. El Salvador has had its people in the streets for over 150 days. I spoke to President Zelaya this week. They are dealing with the junta in the same fashion ...

http://i3.democracynow.org/2009/11/20/blase

[Go2Peace]

1. Question is: Will Obama shut it down in his first 4 years?

[hardtravelin]

2. I was just down there...

Very disappointing turnout this year, crowds are very thin.