Category Archives: Latin America

Seeking Justice in Latin America

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OLYMPIA WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL

2103 Harrison Avenue, Suite 2, PMB 712, Olympia, Washington 98502-2607

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR APRIL MEETING

Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Father Roy Bourgeois speaks on

“The Struggle for Justice in Latin America”

Sunday, April 11, at 2 PM

The Evergreen State College

2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Olympia 98502
Lecture Hall #1 off Red Square

Sponsors of the Event

Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation
Catholics: Call To Action Western Washington
The Evergreen State College: Latin American Student Organization, LASO
Committee in Solidarity With The People of  El Salvador – CISPES
Olympia Area Peace Corps Association
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace-OMJP
Veterans for Peace: Chapter 109

In 1980 Fr. Roy, Maryknoll priest, became involved in issues surrounding US policy in El Salvador after four US churchwomen–two of them his friends–were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America. Since then, he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia.

In 1990, Roy founded the School of Americas Watch, an organization that does research on the US Army School of the Americas (SOA), now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Each year the school trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills – all paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

The School of the Americas Watch, located just outside the main entrance of Fort Benning and in Washington, DC, informs the general public, Congress and the media about the implications of this training on the people of Latin America. For the last 10 years there has been a peaceful protest with over 24,000 in attendance.