Kucinich joins anti-SOA protest

President hopeful Dennis Kucinich was one of the thousand of protestors who marched against the military institute formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). Kucinich spoke on Sunday during the annual vigil against the school:

Kucinich was speaking at the 18th annual protest of the school at Fort Benning that trains Latin American soldiers, police and government officials. One of his first acts as president if elected would be to close the school, he said.

"The type of thinking that produced this school is the same type of thinking that produced the war in Iraq and is producing a war against Iran," Kucinich said. The Ohio congressman and former Cleveland mayor was addressing a crowd estimated by local police to number roughly 10,000.

A spokesman for the school- now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation- said that criticism of the institute is “absurd” partly since “we operate as an open institution that anybody can see and with congressional oversight.” Nevertheless, one Salvadorian torture survivor who participated in the weekend march claimed that the ex-SOA trains human rights abusers who are “sent…back to their countries to torture people.”

Since 2004 at least four countries- Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, and Uruguay- have withdrawn their officers from attending the ex-SOA. According to Wikipedia, several infamous Latin American figures graduated from the institute including Roberto D’Abuisson, Vladimiro Montesinos, and Luis Posada Carriles.

Sources- Wikipedia, Associated Press, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Postbulletin.com, WTVM

Image- PRESS TV (“Dem. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich (r) joined the protest.”)