Priest seeks to close `School of Assassins'

Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois believes that there is a price to be paid for peace in Latin America. He is ready to pay it -- and next month, he will ask Catholics of the Albany Diocese to join his fight for justice.

From Feb. 10-12, Father Bourgeois will speak at several local venues about his quest to close the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA), a training center for Latin American soldiers located in Fort Benning, Georgia. The visit is sponsored by the diocesan Commission on Peace and Justice.

Last September, the Pentagon released a training manual used at the School of the Americas that confirmed what protesters have alleged all along: Students at the school have been taught to torture, blackmail and kill subjects of interrogations. The SOA's infamous graduates include Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and Roberto D'Aubuisson, El Salvadoran death-squad organizer. Graduates have also participated in the deaths of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador; six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter; four American churchwomen; and scores of El Salvadoran civilians.

First-hand knowledge

Father Bourgeois, a missionary, spent five years in Bolivia working with the poor and witnessing the atrocities inflicted upon them by Latin American soldiers, many of whom were trained at the SOA.

After returning to the U.S. in 1977, he began speaking across the country, criticizing U.S. foreign policy in Central America and exposing the "ugly secret" of the School of the Americas.

In 1990, he founded SOA Watch, a simple office outside the gates of the school that researches the SOA and provides the public with information on the implications of the training soldiers receive there -- at the expense of U.S. taxpayers -- on the poor of Latin America.

`Suffering and death'

"This issue is not only about the women and the two Jesuits" killed in El Salvador, the priest declared in a recent interview. "It's about a lot of suffering and death in Latin America."

Americans, he said, do not understand the full extent of the horror experienced by Latin Americans who are tortured by the military, made political prisoners, or watch as their relatives are jailed or killed. Many victims are simply "disappeared," never to be seen again.

The Maryknolls "are in Latin America trying to relieve the suffering of the poor, but the military has very effectively over the years been used to keep the rich rich and the poor poor," he said. "There's no hope at all for the poor of Latin America to improve their situation."

"You look at all that suffering and pain, and you ask, what's the cause of this?" Father Bourgeois said. "There are real causes for this poverty and oppression. That oppression could not have taken place without the military, without guns -- and a lot of that help came from the U.S. The SOA is about keeping the military entrenched, in control, in power."

The road toward justice has been a rocky one. Nonviolent civil disobedience is one of its mainstays, but on November 16, 1995, Father Bourgeois and 12 others were arrested at the gates of Fort Benning for protesting the SOA on the anniversary of the deaths of the Jesuit priests and women in El Salvador. The priest, who received a six-month jail sentence, was released on December 17, 1996.

"I wish I didn't have to go to prison to make people aware of this issue," he said, "but there can be no justice and peace without a price."

Speaking out

Since his release, Father Bourgeois' work at SOA Watch and his speaking schedule have been busier than ever. In contrast to the "better dead than red" mentality of the Reagan administration, he said, which often blocked any efforts at educating the public on peace and justice issues, "the time has never been better to educate for justice, for peace."

These days, Father Bourgeois gets little opposition in his fight. Americans have begun to question why Latin American soldiers are on American soil, being armed and trained. The release of the SOA's grisly training manual sparked a public outcry against the existence of the school, and a spurt of media coverage.

A 1994 documentary on the SOA called "School of Assassins," which Father Bourgeois worked on, was nominated for an Academy Award. In September, Congressional hearings were held on a bill, introduced by Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass), seeking to close the SOA, replacing it with an "Academy for Democracy and Civil-Military Relations."

Training for peace

"When we are making cuts to the budget for our schools for our children, we are pumping millions of dollars into a school that trains Latin American soldiers in combat," Father Bourgeois pointed out. "This is not a Quaker school or a Peace Corps operation. Those soldiers are taught the art of killing. It's illegal; it's immoral."

During his visit to the Albany Diocese, the priest hopes to convince area residents to attend his lectures, become educated on the SOA and the plight of Latin Americans, and write to their elected officials asking that the "School of Assassins" be closed.

Father Bourgeois quoted Archbishop Romero on the subject: "'We who have a voice should speak for the voiceless.' The school will only close if there are more people speaking out. We need more letters [to government officials] to say, `No, not in our name will we allow you to run this school.'"

(Father Bourgeois will speak on Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs; on Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Church, Albany; and on Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Union College, Schenectady. For more information or to borrow the video "School of Assassins," call the diocesan Commission on Peace and Justice at 453-6695.)

(01-30-97)

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