“Struggle for Justice in Latin America”will be the title of a 7 p.m. presentation Sunday, Oct. 28, in the Mountainlair Ballrooms by the founder and co-director of School of Americas Watch (SOA).
The appearance by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, M.M., is sponsored jointly by the Newman Club of West Virginia University and St. Johns University Parish.
Father Bourgeois served as a naval officer for four years, including one year in Vietnam. He is a recipient of the Purple Heart. After his military commitment, he began seminary education and was ordained a Maryknoll Missionary priest.
During missionary service in Bolivia, Bourgeois became aware of human rights abuses against the poor. When he rose in their defense, he was arrested and expelled from the country.
In 1980, he became involved in El Salvador after four U.S. churchwomen, including two of his friends, were raped and murdered there. An investigation determined that graduates of the School of Americas were implicated in those crimes.
Bound by conscience, Bourgeous resolved to draw the attention of the U.S. government and people to unjust acts by graduates of SOA . He then founded SOA Watch.
SOA was established in Panama in 1946 and moved to Fort Benning, Ga., in 1984. Originally intended to provide professional training for military officers of Central and South American countries, it became important to U.S. defense during the Cold War, when unfriendly countries attempted to destabilize governments south of the United States.
Flaws in SOA legislation, however, have led to abuses, Bourgeois maintains. The creation and subsequent funding of SOA did not take into account that many leaders of Latin American countries are not democratically elected, or that the military of few of those nations is under civilian control as it is in the United States. Furthermore, SOA legislation failed to provide for human rights education or any tracking of its graduates, he says.
Last year, a congressional amendment to close SOA failed by just 10 votes.
For his efforts on behalf of peace and social justice, Bourgeois has received numerous honors including the Ghandi Peace Award and the Franciscan Federation Peacemaker Award.
For more information on Bourgeois and the School of Americas Watch, go to: http://www.soaw.org/