[News] Argentina & Uruguay Say NO to the SOA!

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.soaw.org/new/print_article.php?id=1290
Argentina & Uruguay Say NO to the SOA!

SOA Watch Breaking News & Update
March 28, 2006

Argentina & Uruguay abandon SOA!
Critical victory for human rights organizations across the Americas

We are thrilled to tell you that, after meeting 
with representatives of human rights 
organizations and the three SOA Watch activists 
Carlos Mauricio, Lisa Sullivan and Fr. Roy 
Bourgeois, the governments of Argentina and 
Uruguay have agreed to stop sending soldiers to 
train at the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC)!

These decisions are a critical victory for all 
those struggling for human rights, justice and 
military accountability across the Americas! 
Argentina and Uruguay are the second and third 
countries to take this vital step; they join 
Venezuela, which announced in January of 2004 
that they would no longer send soldiers to the school.

This past Friday, Roy, Carlos and Lisa met with 
the Defense Minister of Uruguay, Azucena 
Berrutti. Minister Berrutti is a former human 
rights lawyer. During the long dictatorship in 
Uruguay she defended numerous political prisoners.

Lisa Sullivan writes:
"From the beginning of the conversation, Minister 
Berrutti told us that there was no need to 
explain the atrocities of the SOA, as she, and 
the people of Uruguay, were fully aware of this 
reality, having experienced first hand the 
horrors of the tortures, detentions, 
imprisonments and 'disappearances' caused by its 
graduates. Over and over here in Latin America we 
have been humbled and realize that we do not need 
to explain these things to our public, but rather 
they have much to tell us, to put faces and 
emotions on the statistics which we have memorized so efficiently...."

Minister Berrutti shared with Carlos, Lisa and 
Roy some very good news: during the year 
President Tabaré Vázquez has been in office, no 
military personnel from Uruguay have been sent to 
the SOA, and none will be sent under this current administration.

Yesterday, the three SOA Watch activists and the 
head of the Mothers of the Disappeared met with 
the defense minister, Nilda Garré, whose husband 
was disappeared during the repression in 
Argentina. Minister Garré agreed that after the 
one Argentinean soldier currently at the SOA/ 
WHINSEC finishes his classes, no more Argentinean 
soldiers will be sent to the School of the 
Americas. 
<http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1289>Read 
the whole update from Lisa, Carlos & Roy.

The tide is turning in Latin America! All across 
Central and South America, governments and 
citizens are rejecting SOA-style military 
"solutions" to social problems. Across the 
Americas, support for the School of the Americas 
is eroding every day. Add your voice to this 
movement for justice! March, rally and lobby to 
close the SOA in Washington, DC April 23-25! (see below for more info).


The Freedom Archives
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(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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