Opposition Grows Against ‘Assassination School’ — At Least 13 Arrested At Georgia Military Base

COLUMBUS, Ohio At least 13 people were arrested and are likely to face six months in federal prison for crossing onto the military base at Fort Benning, Georgia.

The 17th annual protest against the combat-training school for Latin American soldiers known as the “assassination school” gathered a record number of people 22,000 from every corner of the United States.

Over the last 16 years, 211 people spent time in jail some up to two years for participating in civil disobedience there. This year, survivors of torture inflicted by the school’s graduates in Latin America returned during a symbolic funeral procession outside Fort Benning.

The increase in public participation to close the school has been attributed to the resumption of the activities there and the acceptance of pro-torture legislation by the Bush Administration.

Due to pressure on Congress, the “School of the Americas” almost closed earlier this year, but it reopened and had its name changed to the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.” However, 34 representatives who opposed the closure lost their seats in mid-term elections earlier this month.

The school has lost support in Latin America. The governments of Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela have all recently announced that they would stop sending their soldiers to train there. Protests against the school were held simultaneously in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru the weekend of Nov. 18.

The popularity of the 60-year-old school dropped significantly in 1996 when training manuals used at the school were released. The manuals gave instructions on who to torture, extort and execute people. No independent investigation into the complex has been performed.