A crowd of thousands, including several Emory students, took to the normally quiet streets of Columbus, Ga., this Saturday to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning.

College junior Courtney LaCroix made the trip to Columbus for the second time in as many years to lend her voice to the cause of forcing the closure of WHINSEC, a military training organization often accused of supporting Latin American dictatorial regimes.

“The facility is an outdated holdover from the Cold War largely supported by the military town that houses it, but at this point I’d just like to see it shut down,” LaCroix said.

The attendance at the three-day protest was estimated at 10,000 by local police.
The WHINSEC, formerly known as the School of the Americas, has trained military personnel who’ve subsequently been cited for human rights violations throughout Latin America. Arguments to shut down the school were bolstered when an SOA training manual used in the 1980s was released to the public by the Pentagon in 1996. The manual advocated such tactics as beatings, false imprisonment, execution and bounty payments for enemy dead.

LaCroix said the tension at the event was palpable as counterprotesters simultaneously chanted “God bless the SOA.” The supporters of the facility yelled obscenities at the protesters and told them to go home.

Two cars of Emory students made the trip to Columbus, an increase from last year when only five students attended.

College freshman Mary Vess said the counterprotesters amused her.

“There were beauty pageant winners riding in ‘God Bless Fort Benning’ cars waving at the crowds with their Miss Georgia crowns on,” Vess said.

LaCroix also said the local police, stationed around Fort Benning for security reasons, were decidedly anti-protest. In a local food establishment, an officer approached the Emory group who had stopped in for a quick lunch break and made a snide remark to one of the female students about pulling up her pants, she said.

Saturday’s protest included live performers and speakers and was part of a three day event aimed at shutting down the SOA/WHINSEC, a facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defense. This was the 18th annual protest, held every year in mid-November to commemorate the lives of six Jesuit priests who were killed in El Salvador in November 1989 by several graduates of SOA.

SOA/WHINSEC graduates include former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and late Salvadoran death squad leader Roberto D’Aubuisson.

Among Sunday’s protestors were Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, Indigo Girls member and Emory alumna Emily Saliers (’85C) and U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), all of whom called for the immediate closure of the school.

The streets surrounding Fort Benning were lined with booths staffed by grassroots organizations on both sides of the issue. Among them was Clearwater, an organization that opposes private law enforcement and military agencies.

“I’d just read a book about Blackwater [a private military company], so I thought that was really interesting,” Vess said.

LaCroix said that while she was pleased with the number of Emory students who attended the demonstration as compared to last year’s, she was disappointed with the outlook of many protesters. Rather than hearing “we’ll do it better next year,” LaCroix would have liked to see legislation to eliminate the school’s funding put back on the table.

The McGovern-Lewis amendment to the 2008 Foreign Appropriations bill to cut funding to SOA/WHINSEC was defeated in Congress in June by a narrow margin. The amendment was co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who represents Emory’s district.

SOA/WHINSEC maintains that there is no proven cause and effect relationship between its training program and any indiscretions on the part of its graduates. The organization’s motto is “Libertad, Paz, y Fraternidad” or liberty, peace, and brotherhood.

— Contact Julie Levin.