A group of Grinnellians will once again join around 20,000 people to take a stand against the School of the Americas (SOA).

Now called Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), the SOA was founded in 1946 to provide advanced military training to powers of South America allied with the United States. The school’s mission includes “fostering mutual knowledge, transparency, confidence and cooperation by promoting democratic values; respect for human rights and an understanding for U.S. customs and traditions.”

According to the WHINSEC website, the school has trained more than 80,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen to date. Its graduates include Manuel Noriega, Hugo Banzer—former dictators of Panama and Bolivia, respectively—and chief officials of the Pinochet regime.

In 1990, after 44 years of SOA graduates returning to their home countries and consistently being tied to torture, rape, assassination and “disappearance,” activist Father Roy Bourgeois founded the non-profit group School of the Americas Watch to shut down the institution through non-violent protest. Bourgeois and others rallied outside the gates of the school in Fort Benning, Georgia that same year. The group chose to rally annually in November to honor the murders by Salvadoran Armed forces of eight people, some of whom had actively protested the government of El Salvador. What started out as a small group of activists protesting has since escalated into one of the largest human rights protests in the world. On Nov. 18, 25 Grinnellians will join in a 20,000-person protest on the grounds of the WHINSEC.

One of the group’s organizers, Ragnar Thorisson ’11, sees the protest as a way to expand Grinnell values to the outside world.

“Grinnellians are known for taking stances on issues of social justice, but this trip is an opportunity to a participate in an event which brings what we have learned in the classroom to real action,” he said.

Thorisson has attended the gathering for three years and sees it as a cause that pulls students from the “bubble” and helps them put their ideas into actions.

“It’s a way to question how foreign policy is treating Latin America as the United States’ backyard,” Thorisson said.

Many students didn’t learn about the WHINSEC until getting to Grinnell.

“When I first came to Grinnell, I had never heard anything about the SOA. After hearing [reference librarian and activist] Chris Gaunt speak, I just started learning about how unbelievably horrible it is. … I decided to go on the trip. Now it’s something that I care very deeply about and I wanted to go again,” said Meghan Baylor ’12.

In addition to getting out of the school to actively raise their voices for something they believe in, the participants have used the vigil to foster relationships and lasting connections to the greater social justice movement.

“At the vigil my first year, I met the director of the Partnership America Latina in Venezuela. This past summer I received a Peace Studies grant to work in Venezuela. The great part about it was getting together with members of the international community to share ideas and perspectives and to better understand how all the different struggles are related,” said Joe Hiller ’12.

During his time in Venezuela, Hiller worked with survivors of torture at the hands of SOA graduates.
The heart of Grinnell’s involvement in the vigil is none other than national peace activist, vegan pig-farmer and resident Burling librarian Chris Gaunt. A 13-time veteran of the march, Gaunt says that this opportunity to raise your voice for a real cause is something participants will always remember.
Since Oct. 2009, Gaunt has fought for acknowledgment from senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley to vote against further funding for the war. Titled “Die-Ins,” Gaunt has created an experiment in non-violent protest where she puts her body on the line, the entire time challenging Harkin and Grassley to act the call to end war funding.

Gaunt, who has spent hundreds of hours in the Federal building at the offices of Grassley and Harkin, said that while she has often encountered resistance from federal authorities in her protests she refuses to quiet her calls for action of the part of her elected officials.

“Our government doesn’t appreciate peaceful dissent and they try to shut you up,” Gaunt said.
Gaunt feels that she will be traveling to the SOA vigil, along with the Grinnellian students, to call out to the American Government to acknowledge the abuses that are a direct result of US policy.

“The real crime is the policies of my government and that is where the crimes are being committed. When it comes to war and torture today—it’s criminal. I can’t live and carry out my life in a society where I don’t speak up and say, ‘I oppose this,’” Gaunt said.

Thorisson explained that the College’s financial support for the trip was unconfirmed until a recent decision. After much review, President Kington decided that the College would continue to support the trip.

“The entire trip will cost about $8,000, but each student has a minimal $50 participation fee, which of course can be subsidized or waived if need be,” Thorisson said.

The organizers of the event expressed a desire to further educate the Grinnell campus community about this issue throughout the year and hopes to see the number of participants for the trip double by next year.