16,000 Gather at Post, Maintain Peaceful Vigil

School of Americas Watch

Adriana Portillo Bartow has been back to her native Guatemala 15 times since members of her family disappeared more than 20 years ago, never to be heard from again.

"My father and the other adults were tortured and killed," Bartow said. "The bodies were dumped so we would never find them. I hoped my daughters and sister were spared."

Bartow, who now lives in Chicago, was among the record 16,000 protesters who gathered Saturday near the main gate of Fort Benning to protest the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. She said the officers responsible for her family's disappearance were trained at the former School of the Americas.

Columbus police Chief Ricky Boren said the crowd exceeded last year's assembly of 12,400 protesters.While the focus of protesters is on working to close the institute, the 16th annual event drew protesters, vendors and media from many parts of the world, including an Italian making a documentary.

Through it all, the event remained peaceful.

"It's been quiet and orderly," said Boren as the event was winding down late Saturday afternoon. "We've had no problems, no arrests."

Protesters came to hear from leaders about many issues, from protecting Mother Earth to songs about President George W. Bush. They heard speeches about unions working to raise the wages of farm workers and boycotting U.S. corporations — including Coca-Cola — for not treating their workers well.

They heard from Bartow, a Guatemalan rights activist who shared her own Sept. 11 story.

She said the Guatemalan Army first killed her 23-year-old brother in 1981. Two months later, on Sept. 11, personnel from the national police and the army came to her father's home and his place of work in two simultaneous military operations.

"They detained my father, my stepmother, my 18-month-old sister and my two daughters. We never saw them or heard from them again," Bartow said. "They interrogated me. I don't know how long. They denied my father and daughters were at the house. For three years I couldn't do anything because I was terrified my other two daughters would be taken away from me. That was a common thing."

She ended up in the United States seeking help from the U.S. government and said officials later told her they had information but could not share it with her because of national security.

Bartow said she has met with the United Nations Truth Commission and its Committee Against Torture and even filed a lawsuit against the Guatemalan officers she said she knows gave the orders, but the lawsuit was dismissed. She said there is clear evidence the officers were trained at the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning. That's why she has joined the protest and hasn't given up on finding out what happened to them.

Matt Smucker, a volunteer and former staffer of the SOA Watch, said he came to "shed a light on an aspect of U.S. foreign policy that is really out of line with my values and the values of most Americans, the value of justice."

He said it's important to see the secret CIA detention centers that have been in the news, and the abuse at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. "We're here to say zero tolerance for torture. Violation of basic human rights principles have no place in foreign policy."

Speakers included union leaders from the Unites States and Latin countries; the moderator of the Presbyterian Church, USA; a pastor and representative of the Florida Rainbow/PUSH Coalition; sweatshop protesters; a former prisoner who had been jailed for crossing into Fort Benning during previous protests; authors; and many others.

Day of festivity

For many young people there, largely college and high school students bused in from across the country, it was a day of festivity. Many danced and sang as musicians performed onstage close to the high barricade that prevents entry onto the post.

The music was very telling.

"Going to lay down my sword and shield, Down by the riverside;... Ain't going to study war no more," one song rang out.

"Going to close the SOA, Never turning back; Going to send you peace and justice, Never turning back," one singer resounded.

Folk musician Steve Jacobs bellowed, "Who Let the Hogs Out?"

"When I grow up I want to be a war profiteer," he sang, and the audience replied, "Oink, oink, oink."

"They can't find Osama and they can't find the truth; They'll call a man a terrorist, 'cause that's what they do best," Jacobs sang, with the same audience reply. A long line of vendor tables offered books, brochures and fliers, Central American crafts such as hand-made sweaters and painted wood crafts, and foods of many kinds.

Bumper stickers and badges promoting all kinds of issues drew a lot of attention. Slogans included "Support Organic Farming," "Support Palestine," "Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican," "Behind Every Successful Woman Is Herself," and others.

The Puppetistas also made their showing. Protesters bearing locusts, paper maché heads of Latin political figures, flowers, emblems, and carrying flags with automatic weapons displays and other items were used to remind protesters of the deaths of Catholic nuns and others they say were slain by soldiers and officers trained at the former Fort Benning school.

Joe Rowley, 24, of St. Louis, a third-year student at Eden Theological Seminary, attended with the school's Social Justice Committee. "I'm here because at the seminary, we believe that Jesus Christ embodied justice and nonviolent resistance," he said. "We're representing our faith by working for justice."

"I'm here because I've heard about the SOA for a while," said Sara Beth Stoltzfus, 18, a student at Juniata College, Huntington, Pa. "So far, there's wonderful people to talk to. I've heard many not-so-great things about what they're doing at the Fort Benning school. I'm looking to get educated. I think there's great hope of closing it."

Sister Pat Hoffman, 74, of San Francisco, came to her second event. "I'm here to help close the SOA," she said. "We have a martyr in our group. She was killed in the Amazon, trying to help the people of the Amazon region save their houses. She was targeted as a troublemaker — Sister Dorothy Stang. We're absolutely sure soldiers from Brazil who were involved trained here... . There has to be something to it for all these people to come here for years."