W H I S K E Y
R I V E R
R A N C H
P R E S E N T S
viewpoint
THE
BY PEG MORTON
HANK SHREVE
BLUES SHOWCASE
FEATURING
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Starving for Change
A fast in protest of militarism
in Latin America
M
y name is Peg Morton and I am from Eu-
gene. I am a Quaker, now 80 years old,
and have been committed to closing
the SOA/WHINSEC (School of the Americas/
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-
operation) for many years. I have previously
fasted on the steps of my hometown federal
building for two weeks, have lobbied, and have
attended the giant demonstrations at Fort Ben-
ning for about 10 years. I crossed the line at Fort
Benning and served three months in a federal prison.
Why am I so committed to this SOA Watch movement to close the school
and end the expansion of militarism in Latin America? In 1987 I traveled
to Nicaragua to stand with the people in the war zone. In 1989, while I
was studying Spanish in Guatemala, fi ve Jesuit priests were massacred
in El Salvador, and Sister Diana Ortiz, who had studied at my Spanish
language school, was kidnapped and brutally tortured. In the 1990s I
traveled to Guatemala to accompany some of the thousands of returning
refugees, and to participate in the fi rst anniversary of the assassination
of the courageous human rights Bishop Juan Gerardi. Later, I traveled to
Chiapas in southern Mexico after the Acteal Massacre by paramilitaries
of a group, called the Abejas, who were committed to nonviolence.
In 2006 I traveled to Colombia to a rural peace community, San Jose
de Apartado, to honor one of its leaders who had been assassinated
along with his family. While there we visited the crowded, dangerous
barrio near the top of a mountain outside of Bogota, where thousands of
Afro-Colombians live, displaced from their small farms along the Pacifi c
Coast, so that large plantations of African palms could be planted.
Each time that I traveled south, as I met and learned from courageous
survivors of these atrocities, I became more deeply aware of the role of
the U.S. government. The U.S. military trains and works in coordination
with Latin American militaries to enforce economic trade and other
policies that benefi t international corporations as they seek natural
resources and profi ts, killing thousands and driving millions from their
lands. My experiences live in my heart and will never go away.
In recent years, I have devoted my attention to the notorious School of
the Americas, which has trained Latin American militaries to torture and
massacre. To this day, graduates of this school are committing atrocities
and undermining democratic movements, for example in Honduras and
in Colombia. I am honored to be a part of a struggle that is committed to
nonviolence, which will increase the presence of love in the world.
Peg Morton of Eugene is participating in SOA Watch Fast, April 4 to 10, a “Fast for Peace and Justice and
to End Militarization: Hungry for Justice, Starving for Change.”
WORKING
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