Corvallis activist keeps annual vigil at School of the Americas

By Theresa Hogue
Gazette-Times reporter

The protests began 14 years ago with a small group of demonstrators led by a Catholic priest who sat outside the gates of Fort Benning, Ga., in response to the murders of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador. News reports claimed the killers were graduates of the School of the Americas, a U.S. military facility at Fort Benning that has trained Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency, drug interdiction and combat tactics since the 1940s.

Supporters maintain that the school has a strong record of human rights training, while opponents describe a litany of abuses committed by graduates. Protests have become an annual event at the school, and Corvallis activist Aleita Hass-Holcombe has been one of the demonstrators for the past five years.

She was there two weeks ago, when more than 16,000 people gathered in front of the school — now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation — to demand its closure. Catholic nuns mingled with Buddhist monks, priests and celebrities took the stage, and an almost festive atmosphere permeated the weekend-long event, she said.

Hass-Holcombe joined 25 other Oregonians in attendance, all wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan "I will not raise my child to kill your child."

Her work with the group Witness for Peace takes Hass-Holcombe to many Central and South American countries. That connection has given her a unique perspective on the people most affected by what she sees as the repercussions of training provided by the institute.

Because of the Catholic origins of the protest, a Mass is said under a large white tent each year by the Chattahoochee River. More than 4,000 people participated in the Mass, despite the rainy evening, Hass-Holcombe said.

"It's so empowering," she said. "They do Communion and everything."

However, people of many faiths are represented at the event, and both crosses and Jewish Stars of David were raised high by protesters.

"It's multifaith, multirace," Hass-Holcombe said.

The annual protest is, above all, a peaceful one, Hass-Holcombe said. This year she was trained as a peacekeeper, a volunteer designated to defuse situations that appear to be escalating into conflict. Wearing a bright orange peacekeeper scarf, Hass-Holcombe and other peacekeepers made sure that disagreements among protesters and between demonstrators and police were kept under control.

Around 20 people were arrested during the event for acts of civil disobedience, Hass-Holcombe said. Most protesters didn't try to climb the closed gates of the institute, knowing they could face three to six months in federal prison for the attempt. Instead, they listened to speakers, attended vigils and made their presence known in other ways.

Last year, loud music blared from the institute to drown out the presenters. This year, a helicopter flew repeatedly over the crowd, Hass-Holcombe said.

The protesters were directed to stay between two tall fences erected for the event by local police.

But there were gaps to allow access to nearby apartment complexes, so rather than restricting the protesters, Hass-Holcombe said, the fence merely represented an expense for the city of Columbus, Ga.

Hass-Holcombe said she'll continue to spend the time and money each year to attend the annual protest until demonstrators succeed in shutting down the institute.

"We hope we won't have to do this forever," she said. "(Then) we can go back and say, ‘This is where the School of the Americas was.'"