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Emerald
Peg Morton, standing before the Federal Building in downtown Eugene in January, holds a cross bearing the name of of a slain Latin
American who protesters claim was killed by soldiers trained at WHISC, formerly called the School of the Americas.
Eugene activist group travels
to Georgia for protest, vigil
■ Local participants will join
a national rally against WHISC,
a military training facility
By Anna Seeley
Oregon Daily Emerald
Armed with community support,
self-determination and an orange
van, four Oregon residents left on a
journey Friday to participate in the
national annual rally and vigil to
close the Western Hemisphere In
stitute for Security Cooperation.
WHISC, formerly known as School
of the Americas, is a Georgia-based
Spanish-language training facility
for military and law enforcement.
Peg Morton, Nick Routledge,
Bonnie Tout and a woman identi
fied only as “Bethany” began their
trip, sponsored by the Committee
in Solidarity with the Central
American People, Eugene Friends
Meeting, Oregon Peace Works and
others, with a send-off from the
First United Methodist Church on
Oct. 26.
The group will travel for three
weeks across the country on their
way to Fort Benning, Ga., to take
part in the national rally against
WHISC. They will be hosted in 15
cities along their way to the Nov.
17-18 event to educate people
about the school and why they
want it closed down.
“It will be an adventure, I’m
sure,” Bethany said.
WHISC was established in 1946
in Panama to promote stability and
combat communism in the region.
It moved to Fort Benning in 1984
and then changed its name in 2000.
WHISC critics claim the school is
the training ground for dictators
and other military personnel in
volved in genocidal policies in
Latin America.
“In the 1980s, I found my coun
try was committing a holocaust in
Guatemala, and I’ve been moved
ever since,” Morton said. “I discov
ered that the Army School of the
Americas was the main training
grounds for people involved in
these atrocities.”
On campus, the Survival Center
will be holding its own vigil to raise
awareness about WHISC the week
preceding the national event, Sur
vival Center co-coordinator Randy
Newnham said. The event will take
place Nov. 15 in the EMU Am
phitheater.
According to a U.S. Department
of Defense news release in Novem
ber of 2000, the institute “fosters
mutual respect and confidence”
and promotes “democratic values
and respect for human rights.” It
also states that the school’s curricu
lum includes “offerings in the areas
of peace support operations” and
“a program of human rights in
struction.”
But critics claim graduates of the
school have been involved in vari
ous massacres and murders, in
cluding the 1980 murder of Arch
bishop Oscar Romero. The group
compared people involved in the
school to terrorists, saying “we
must stop the terrorist in our own
government.”
“Our government commits their
own ways of terrorism on people
who don’t deserve it,” said Donna
Frazier, director of Oregon Fellow
ship of Reconciliation.
Morton said the protest in Fort
Benning is deeply spiritual, with
roots in the nonviolent philoso
phies of Gandhi, Martin Luther
King and Dorothy Day.
“It is spirit-based,” she said. “It
grows out of the Catholic church
because so many sisters and priests
were killed while helping in
Guatemala.”
For more information, students
can contact CISCAP at 485-8633 or
the Survival Center at 346-4356.
Anna Seeley is a student activities reporter
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. She can be
reached at annaseeley@dailyemerald.com.
Oregon Daily Emerald
n O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published
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year and Tuesday and Thursday during the
summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald
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