Speaking Our Peace The Lilliputians
& the Giant
By Paul Olson, NFP President Global Warming Copenhagen: Games People Play
By Professor Bruce E. Johansen Volunteer Nebraska Peace Stratcom
The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth Whiteclay
Updates on Nebraska's tiny reservation border town. Goin' Broke Essay Winners
 Goin' Broke The Cost of War
 NFP Sticker Get Your FREE
NFP Bumper Sticker!
Just send us an Email.

‘Yes We Can’ Close the School of Assassins!

Mark Welsch
NFP Omaha Coordinator

Concepcion Marquez, 75 – Presente!


Julia Claros, 30, Daughter of Concepcion Marquez – Presente!


Alberta Claros, 18, Daughter of Julia Claros – Presente!


Child, 1, Daughter of Alberta Claros – Presente!


Israel Marquez, 80 – Presente!


Francisco William Gómez Monsalve, 10 – Presente!


Marta Lilian Claros, 3, Daughter of Domingo Claros – Presente!


The names of these and hundreds more were sung out from the stage for hours with the crowd of 20,000 calling out "Presente!" and raising our crosses after each name. In Latin America, there is a long tradition of remembering those who have been martyred in the struggle for Peace & Justice by reciting this Spanish word for "here" or "present."

As the names were sung and "Presente!" proclaimed, a funeral procession slowly and solemnly walked past a gate to the U.S. Army school that trained those responsible for the deaths. Flowers, crosses and messages on pieces of paper were left at the gate to remember those who were murdered in an attempt to stop freedom and justice in Latin America.

These people -- babies in mothers' arms, young children, middle-aged and old men and women -- were all killed by graduates of this "School of Assassins" (SOA) at Fort Benning in Columbia, Georgia. As the names were called and we replied "Presente!," I cried.

I cried for each of the people who had been murdered. I cried for and with their families -- some who stood near me. I wept because as a U.S. citizen, I am partly responsible for their deaths. I cry again as I write this while remembering the weekend I spent outside of the gates of this U.S. military base where 60,000 military personnel have been trained, and more are being trained to this day, from Central and South America countries -- too many of which return home to terrorize and murder their fellow citizens. We can and must close this abomination forever.

Thousands of civilians, often poor people in rural villages, have been murdered by people in their own country's military. These murders were brought to international attention 19 years ago when six Jesuit Priests, their housekeeper and her 14-year-old daughter were murdered in their home. They were murdered because the priests ran or taught at a university in El Salvador. Nineteen of the military officers cited for these heinous crimes received training at what was then named the "U.S. Army School of the Americas." Those martyred on November 16, 1989 were:

Ignacio Ellacuria, rector of the University and an outspoken critic of the Army – Presente!


Ignacio Martin Baro, who studied the effects of war on the human psyche – Presente!


Segundo Montes, a strong advocate for refugees and human rights – Presente!


Amano Lopez, a gifted counselor and pastoral worker – Presente!


Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, director of an education program in poor communities – Presente!


Juan Ramon Moreno, a gifted preacher and retreat leader – Presente!


Elba Ramos, the Jesuits’ housekeeper, remembered as sensitive and intuitive – Presente!


Celina Ramos, Elba’s 14-year-old daughter who had worked as a catechist – Presente!


People in the Catholic Jesuit community subsequently started an annual protest at this "School Of Assassins" that trained the murderers.

I am honored that Joyce Glenn, Pastoral Associate at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, allowed me to join her church's group on their yearly bus trip to Fort Benning, Georgia. Another bus from Creighton University also went to the SOA vigil. We joined 20,000 people outside the gates to the base, which -- when almost closed by Congressional action in 2001 -- re-opened a few days later under the euphemism, "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation" (WHINSEC). The same instructors, books and students were at the 'new' school. Only the name was changed -- not its teaching of barbaric military activities of torture, extortion, execution and oppression of native people.

The school claims it trains military personnel in combat, counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics. But its graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996, the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school, which provided instruction in torture, extortion and execution. Some of the SOA's more notorious alumni include dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA/WHINSEC graduates have participated in human rights abuses such as the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians in El Salvador.

The trip also reminded the elders and helped teach the younger travelers about racial problems in America. After a prayer led by Fr. Jack McCaslin and others at Creighton Prep High School, we were on the bus and on the road at 6:00 p.m. the evening of November 13. The next morning we visited the Birmingham Alabama Civil Rights Institute and were able to enter the 16th Street Baptist Church that was bombed by the KKK on September 15, 1963 and four young Black girls were killed:

Denise McNair, 11 years – Presente!

Cynthia Wesley, 14 years– Presente!

Carole Robertson, 14 years– Presente!

Addie Mae Collins, 14 years– Presente!


I remember the bombing from the TV news when I was seven years old.

Maria Teresa Gaston from Omaha was one of the speakers at this year's event, which included mass, workshops, teach-ins and a concert at the Columbus Convention Center. While there, I handed out 500 NFP flyers inviting people to join our very own Peg Gallagher for her 91st birthday at a nonviolent protest next October 6-8 at the "Strategic Space and Defense Conference 2009" in Omaha, hosted by the Military-Industrial Complex to promote StratCom's mission of space dominance. Protesting at this hideous event is essential to halting the arms race in outer space.

To learn more about the SOA/WHINSEC vigil and take action to close the School of Assassins. Go to www.soaw.org to sign the petition to the President to close the SOA. If you would like to go to the SOA vigil in November 2009, please let me know by email at NFPOmaha@ NebraskansForPeace.org or call 402-453-0776.