Thousands of citizens and students gathered in Fort Benning, Georgia this past weekend for the annual protest of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). The protest was organized by School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), who accuses the Institute of teaching torture to civilians and militants throughout the western hemisphere.

WHINSEC, formerly called the School of the Americas (SOA), is a congressionally-charted group at Fort Benning, Georgia whose graduates have been involved in military operations all over the modern Western Hemisphere. Protestors hope to stop the expansion of WHINSEC’s influence in world affairs, and quash the use and promotion of torture.

The Peace and Justice League at the University of New Hampshire sent 13 students to Georgia for the protest. Students at Colorado State University working with Fair Advocates for Cultural Truths (FACT) went to Georgia too, as well as students from Notre Dame University in Indiana.

“In general we go because we don’t agree with the fact that our country and our tax dollars are going to … the training of torture tactics and wars,” said Notre Dame Senior Alicia Quiros.

The Huffington Post reports, “Over its 63 years, the SOA/WHINSEC has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency techniques, sniper skills, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics.”

The weekend’s protests commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1989 WHINSEC-graduate-led massacre of Jesuits in San Salvador. It will also draw attention to this summer’s coup in Honduras, led by WHINSEC graduates General Romeo Vásquez Velásquez and General Luis Prince Suazo, and with four other SOA/WHINSEC graduates closely associated.


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