School of Americas Protest (2007)

Sun Nov 18, 2007

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On this day in 2007, a protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) began when more than 10,000 demonstrators gathered outside the military training center at Fort Benning in Georgia.

The SOA is notorious for providing military training to graduates that later go on to commit atrocities in Latin America - its graduates have played a key role in the El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador, the St. Jean Bosco Massacre in Haiti, death squads in Honduras, and more.

Protesters carried coffins to symbolize what deaths at the hands of former graduates, and eleven people were arrested and charged with criminal trespass. The demonstration has been staged annually since 1990 to call for the closure of what participants call the “School of Assassins”.