SOA protest in D.C. makes for a significant weekend

Last weekend 30 Oberlin students along with four students from the College of Wooster traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in demonstrations and lobbying to close the School of the Americas.

The School of the Americas is a United States Army training base at Fort Benning, Ga. that trains Latin American military personnel in "counter-insurgency'" tactics. Unfortunately the counter-insurgents are often the indigenous populations, labor organizers, human rights workers, religious leaders and others who challenge the inequality in the current political system. SOA graduates are responsible for numerous human rights abuses including torture, disappearances and assassinations.

On May 1, we joined about 1500 other activists from around the country and Latin America outside the White House. There were speeches and music from people from this country and Latin America. We heard accounts of people's families being killed by military and paramilitary units - parents, siblings, husbands, and children down to the age of three months. The following Sunday, we attended workshops on how to lobby and create effective media coverage, as well as workshops on the effects of the SOA on the people in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala.

The following Monday we got up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the Pentagon by 6:30 a.m. for a vigil and rally. We joined a line of 1500 people walking four by four around the Pentagon led by a huge model of the SOA death machine, puppets, banners presenting evidence against the SOA, drummers, soil bearers, crosses for the countries in Latin America as well as crosses bearing the names of victims.

We handed out leaflets to Pentagon workers about the SOA and what its graduates have done. As we walked we remembered those who have been killed by singing and saying "present" after reading the victims' names. When we reached the Pentagon's parade grounds below the Chief of Staff's office windows we stopped.

Before the heart of war-making on the planet and a line of Defense Protective Services officers we presented the evidence against the SOA. Survivors spoke of their family members that have been killed and evidence bearers presented the findings of UN Human Rights Investigations and Truth Commissions. As the evidence was presented the SOA death machine -a skull- was dismantled.

When it was disassembled it was buried using sacred soil from all over North and South America which participants had brought with them. Some of the soil came from the top of mass graves in Latin America. After it was buried, the dismantled SOA death machine was covered with a black cloth bearing a single red carnation - the sign of hope. The group then tried to deliver the evidence to Defense Secretary William Cohen.

When we were not allowed to climb the steps people began to lie on the sidewalks leading to the Pentagon and others traced their outlines in red paint. The sidewalks were covered with the outlines of bodies in the color of blood. After about five minutes of painting the police began to arrest the painters with an end total of 60 arrests.

Finally the procession continued around the rest of the Pentagon. It was a moving and powerful action. We made our way to the Capital building to a rally on the steps and to lobby our Senators and Representatives to support the current bills to close the SOA. Since Oberlin students are from all over the country we were able to meet with a number of representatives and senators.

We filled the capital steps with signs, banners and crosses and we listened to more speeches and music. We passed out flyers to all the tourists passing by. Oberlin College had more students attending the event then any other college. We had our Oberlin for Peace and Justice banner out and people came up to us all weekend - alumni, parents, former professors - saying how glad they were to see us there.

Overall it was a significant weekend of remembrance for suffering Latin Americans at the hands of U.S. trained soldiers. But also one of hope that working together we can build a movement that can make a real change.