Am Wochenende des 10./11. März 2001 haben 100 AktivistInnen (vom Chicago Direct Action Network, Catholic Worker aus DC, SOA Watch AktivistInnen und Leute aus religioesen Gruppen) in Connecticut das Haupttor des Sikorsky Werkes blockiert. Sikorsky is Produzent der Black Hawk Helicopter, von denen 30 in naher Zukunft im Rahmen des 'Plan Colombia' nach Kolumbien ausgeliefert werden sollen.
Vom 29. Maerz bis 3. April 2001 finden in Washington DC 'DAYS OF RESISTANCE' statt. Bei den geht es hauptsaechlich um Widerstand gegen die School of the Americas (SOA) gehen wird.
Die us-amerikanische Organisation "School of the Americas Watch" (SOA-Watch) hat sich dazu entschieden, Kolumbien zu einem Fokuspunkt in ihrer Arbeit zu machen, da die SOA 10.000 kolumbianische Soldaten ausgebildet hat. Auf einer Demonstration vor dem Weissen Haus werden VertreterInnen von vertriebenen Afro-Kolumbianischen Communities sprechen.
An den DAYS OF RESISTANCE werden neben Aktionen des zivilen Ungehorsams am Pentagon und autonomen Kleingruppen-Aktionen in Washington DC am Samstag Workshops zu Kolumbien und der FTAA (geplantes Freihandelsabkommen auf beiden Amerikanischen Kontinenten) stattfinden.
Opposition to Neoliberal Policy met by U.S. Militarism
by SOA Watch, www.soaw.org
The United States' main goal in the FTAA process is to secure economic and political hegemony over the Western Hemisphere through the FTAA. The Georgia-based School of the Americas (SOA), recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a combat training facility for Latin American soldiers has a crucial role in this project. This school has also become known as the 'School of Assassins'.
Soldiers at the SOA are trained to protect the interests of U.S. corporations and maintain the economic status quo for the few rich and powerful in the U.S. and their cohorts in Latin America.
In official SOA publications "economic development along free market principles" is identified as the "primary foreign policy goal[s] of the U.S." in Latin America. The SOA strategy is "to prepare military and police forces to respond to current threats to the achievement of those goals."
For example, in Mexico, hours after NAFTA went into effect, indigenous communities rose up to say "No!" The Mexican military moved in immediately with troops, helicopters, and artillery. At least 18 of the high-level officers involved in the civilian-targeted warfare are SOA graduates.
In Colombia, recent reports from Human Rights Watch and the U.S. State Department link SOA-trained soldiers to numerous peasant massacres and the assassinations of Labor leaders and striking workers.
Last year the Bolivian government sold the public water system of Cochabamba to a private corporation and the water rates immediately doubled and at times tripled. As thousands peacefully took the streets, Bolivian President and former military dictator, SOA graduate Hugo Banzer sent out the armed forces to attack civilians.
Gen. Walter Cespedes Raallo, Military Governor of Cochabamba, is an SOA grad as well. In 1998, while he was Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Chapre coca region, the level of state sponsored violence escalated. Fifteen farmers were killed and others were brutally tortured. Cespedes was indicted for negligent homicide in three of these deaths, but the case is slow to move forward because of death threats against the prosecution and human rights workers
It is no surprise that as state sponsored violence is used to support economic injustice against the people in Latin America, graduates of the 'School of Assassins' are consistently at the forefront.
Informationen zur SOA auf deutsch ....
Demonstration gegen SOA und Plan Colombia am 17.01.2001 in Wien ....
