Blase Bonpane's 'World Focus' airs this Sunday morning,
9-10 AM on KPFK, 90.7 fm. He will surely discuss this topic
with people now surrounding Ft. Benning, in Georgia.
On 20th Anniversary of Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran
Forces, Thousands to Protest "School of the Assassins" at Ft. Benning
AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of human rights activists are gathering at Fort
Benning, Georgia this weekend for the annual protest to shut down the US
Army training center once known as the School of the Americas. The school,
now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or
WHISC, is used to train Latin American soldiers in combat, counterinsurgency
and counter-narcotics. Critics have dubbed the training center the "School
of the Assassins," because some of its graduates have been responsible for
some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America.
This year's protest will commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the murder
of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador, their housekeeper and her daughter by
the US-backed Salvadoran military. The Jesuit priests were killed November
16, 1989, twenty years ago this week, when a military unit entered the
Central American University campus and shot them to death-the priests'
housekeeper and her daughter also killed. The Jesuits had been outspoken
advocates for the poor and critics of human rights abuses committed by the
ARENA government. Many of the soldiers involved in the murders were
graduates of the School of the Americas at Fort Benning.
Earlier this week in El Salvador, the Jesuit priests were bestowed the
nation's highest civilian award, marking the first time the Salvadoran
government has honored the priests since their deaths. El Salvador's defense
minister announced the military is ready to ask for forgiveness and open its
archives to a long-sought investigation. The current head of the Central
American University, Father Jose Maria Tojeira, welcomed the posthumous
recognition.
FATHER JOSE MARIA TOJEIRA: [translated] As a matter of fact, this is the
first time in twenty years that Salvadoran states, by one of its powers,
recognizes Jesuits' dignity. Many people from all parties-of course, ARENA,
as well-commented before those priests were great men who helped to end war
before, because their martyrdom pushed to accelerate peace talks. But never
in twenty years an official word of recognition for those people's dignity.
This is the first time, and I think it's a very important symbol that should
be opened to all victims from El Salvador.
AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the 1989 killing of the Jesuits and the
state of Latin American affairs, I'm joined here in Los Angeles by Blase
Bonpane. He's a former Maryknoll priest who serves as the director of the
Office of the Americas here in Los Angeles. For more than four decades, he
has worked to promote human rights in Latin America. He also hosts the show
World Focus on Pacifica Radio's KPFK here in Los Angeles and the author of
many books, including Civilization Is Possible.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Blase Bonpane.
BLASE BONPANE: Thank you, Amy. It's good to be here.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the significance of this anniversary. You knew the
six Jesuit priests.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes. Our last visit with them was in a labor gathering just
about a year before they were killed. We all met at the university there in
El Salvador, la UCA. And Father Ellacuria really was in charge of the
gathering. He didn't just welcome us to the university; he was part and
parcel of chairing the entire meeting. We were heavily buzzed by the
helicopters at that time, and there were a lot of threats. Febe Velasquez
was killed during that week. She was head of one of the major unions in El
Salvador. And we fanned out from there to the countryside and saw the
particular rebel activity in the area. And that was just about a year before
they were killed in 1989.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the chronology that year that included a series of
murders.
BLASE BONPANE: Well, it goes on, actually, starting-you can start as early
as 1971, when Father Ellacuria got there, and then the bombing of the
university began in '75. In '77, there were twelve students killed, some
from the university and some from the state university, and there were
twenty wounded. They just opened fire on them. The bombing continued at the
university of Father Ellacuria's offices, of the library and of the high
school. There's a high school also in the area. So he was constantly under
attack because of the charges of liberation theology. And if we read the
torture manuals, which School of the Americas Watch uncovered, we see direct
reference to theology of liberation as a subversive act, as a subversive
organization on behalf of the people of El Salvador.
And then, of course, 1977, Father Rutilio Grande was killed, another Jesuit.
And that was the time when Archbishop Romero said, "Me convertí," "They
converted me." By that, he meant he was on-there on behalf of the poor and
that he was no longer part of the oligarchic military connection, which used
to be called the Holy Trinity in El Salvador. And, you know, the fact that
he identified with the poorest of the poor, he became an object of threats,
as well. And, of course, he was killed in 1980 on the 24th of March, and
that was followed by the killing of the sisters, the four sisters, on
December 2nd of 1980.
AMY GOODMAN: And for those who don't know the history, which is not
necessarily people's fault-
BLASE BONPANE: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: -since so much of the corporate media in this country whites
out history-
BLASE BONPANE: Oh, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -the sisters, the nuns, you're talking about.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes. Oh, yes. They were Maryknoll sisters, an Ursuline sister
and a lay sister, as well. And they were killed on December 2nd, 1980. And
this continued-
AMY GOODMAN: By who?
BLASE BONPANE: Well, they were killed really by the security forces. They
were raped and killed. And that also led to the conversion of Ambassador
White, who's been speaking on behalf of the-
AMY GOODMAN: That's the US ambassador to El Salvador, Robert White, at the
time.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes. Yes, they had had dinner with him the night before, and
he entered into the fray. And, of course, that was a great turning point.
Joe Moakley and other Congress people got into it at that time.
And then, years later, actually-we're talking about nine years later-the
Jesuits were killed. But in between that time, tens of thousands of people
were killed. The religious people have no more right to live than anyone
else, and so it was every day torturing and killing.
And it is so ironic that today the Congress of the United States has a
special commemoration of the Jesuits, Resolution 761. They mention them all.
It reminds me of the Scriptural statement that first they kill the prophets,
then they honor them. You know, and so, here they are, all mentioned: Father
Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, all of them mentioned in the
congressional-
AMY GOODMAN: Why don't you read their names?
BLASE BONPANE: OK, the first is the rector, Ignacio Ellacuria, then his vice
rector, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez, Juan Ramon
Moreno, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, the housekeeper Julia Elba Ramos, and her
daughter Celina Mariset Ramos. And that's the twentieth occasion of their
death at the University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas, located in El
Salvador.
And they talk about how the military came in and murdered them all, and then
they speak about the work that each one of them did, including the
housekeeper and her daughter. And then they mentioned the Jesuit colleges in
the United States. And, of course, they also mention that a Salvadoran jury
found guilty two Salvadoran military officers, including Colonel Guillermo
Alfredo Benavides Moreno. And that was the first time in Salvadoran history
when any of the military were charged.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you bring this to the present, because you have the
honoring for the first time in El Salvador, you have this resolution, and
you have this protest that's taking place now?
BLASE BONPANE: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: This is twenty years later at the School of the Americas.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, now has a different name: WHISC.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes. Well, it's important to continue that, because we're
still involved in intervention. El Salvador has had its people in the
streets for over 150 days. I spoke to President Zelaya this week. They are
dealing with the junta in the same fashion.
AMY GOODMAN: This is in Honduras.
BLASE BONPANE: Yeah, in Honduras. They're dealing with the junta as if the
junta has as much right to be there as the actual president. And so, the
battle goes on. And President Zelaya should be reinstated. And
unfortunately, we're not giving him the support we should.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let's talk about that, the US role in what's going on
right now in Honduras.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: The democratically elected president, Zelaya, was ousted on
June 28th.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: He snuck back into the country, still is holed up at the
Brazilian embassy. A deal that was announced as being brokered that would
return Zelaya in the last few weeks seems to have fallen apart, and now
there are elections coming up. Explain what you think the United States has
done and should be doing.
BLASE BONPANE: Well, at this very time, Senator DeMint made a deal with the
State Department, with Hillary Clinton and others, to say, "Alright, I'll
support Tom Shannon as the ambassador to Brazil." And he's bragging about
the fact that, as a result of that, he got their non-cooperation with the
reinstatement of President Zelaya. And so, we have actually seen the open
tension within the State Department at this time, and President Obama has
remained on the sidelines on this one. I think he's making a great mistake,
because he said, "They're asking me now to intervene," as though we were
asked to intervene militarily. We're not asking that. We're asking that the
law be kept. The Organization of American States has jurisdiction to solve
this problem. They decided entirely in favor of President Zelaya.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back for a minute. You mentioned Republican
Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain exactly what he has done and what he has said.
BLASE BONPANE: He negotiated-
AMY GOODMAN: He went to Honduras, is that right?
BLASE BONPANE: Yes, he did.
AMY GOODMAN: With a delegation.
BLASE BONPANE: And then he said, "Alright, I am blocking Tom Shannon from
being ambassador to Brazil. And I will unblock that if you lay off the
reinstatement of Zelaya."
AMY GOODMAN: This was his message to the Obama administration.
BLASE BONPANE: Yes, and he's bragging about it quite publicly. And so, they
did. They agreed, which is very strange to me, because Obama condemned the
coup. At the same time, he is not allowing the law to be kept. The law is
structured through the Organization of American States and the UN, all of
which have condemned the coup.
AMY GOODMAN: And I want to go back to that point you say that President
Obama made in an unusual comment. He said, you know, those who are opposed
to intervention-
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -are actually supporting some kind of intervention here,
critical of those who are asking the US to somehow intervene in what's
happened in Honduras.
BLASE BONPANE: This is a very strange comment, because we were asking that
the law be upheld and that criminals who had overthrown the government of
Honduras not be treated on an equal basis. It's as if someone stole your
car, and the judge said, "Well, maybe I'll give it back to the one who stole
it." You know, there's no logic in the behavior. So we were very
disappointed in Obama in that case.
AMY GOODMAN: The Salvadoran defense minister says that the military is ready
in El Salvador to apologize. What does that mean?
BLASE BONPANE: Well, it means someone high up may make an apology. But for
years, they were torturing the Salvadoran people, and that's why Archbishop
Romero commanded them to mutiny. He said, you know, "I beg you, I order you,
stop the repression." And he was murdered very shortly after.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, that famous last speech-
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -before he was murdered was played in a boom box in the trees
of Fort Benning by Father Roy Bourgeois, the founder of the School of the
Americas Watch.
BLASE BONPANE: Roy Bourgeois climbed a tree and aired that sermon at Fort
Benning over the barracks where the Salvadoran troops were sleeping. And
they came out hearing the voice of the archbishop. Then, of course, Roy was
arrested. He has spent at least five years in federal prisons in his
protests. And it's a great testimony for peace that he's given to the world.
And that was the beginning of the real strong opposition. So he's had now
support from all over the country, from universities and high school
students. It will be at least 20,000 there this weekend to once again
protest at Fort Benning. So it's a very exciting time.
But the intervention in the Americas continues. Honduras is the-one of the
ALBA nations. The ALBA nations, including Venezuela and Bolivia, and going
into Ecuador and Cuba, as well, and Nicaragua, are a whole new direction for
Latin America and a very exciting direction. They've come in with a new
currency. They've come in with a new banking system. They've come in with a
new political system, which the people of Latin America have had in their
hopes, desires and anxieties for centuries. And we're trying to break that
link, striking at the weakest member of the ALBA nations. Next, if this
succeeds in Honduras, Paraguay will be next, and then it will be Nicaragua,
and then it will be El Salvador, because, you remember, the FMLN is now in
charge in El Salvador. The FSLN is in charge in Nicaragua. It's amazing. So,
many of us never thought we'd see so much rapid change in Latin America so
fast in our lifetime.
AMY GOODMAN: Blase Bonpane, you just turned eighty earlier this year.
BLASE BONPANE: Oh, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Happy birthday.
BLASE BONPANE: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: So, your thoughts on Latin America, as you describe the
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas-
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -ALBA, the new leadership in Latin America, and how the US, you
feel, should be dealing with Latin America?
BLASE BONPANE: Yes, I think the whole new movement is irreversible. It's not
going to return back where it was. And it's a very exciting development. We
shouldn't be afraid of it. We operate on paranoia, of great fear, you know,
of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales and all the way down to Uruguay and Chile.
The movement is in process. And it is such a shame that we can't be part and
parcel of that movement. When Obama went to the meeting with the thirty-two
countries, Trinidad, Tobago, the parting shot from the ALBA nations was,
quote, "Are you a prisoner?" They really felt that-
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
BLASE BONPANE: Well, they felt that Obama seemed to be under the spell of
the military.
AMY GOODMAN: Who said to him, "Are you a prisoner?"
BLASE BONPANE: I think it came directly from Hugo Chavez-"Are you a
prisoner?"-because they've seen prisoner. And I've seen presidents who were
prisoners in Guatemala, that were elected and then immediately told by the
military, "You will do what we say, or you're out of here." And we almost
feel that happening with Obama now. It's quite frightening.
AMY GOODMAN: His policy on Cuba?
BLASE BONPANE: His policy on Cuba has been to do a few small issues, nothing
in the area that should be done. Our business with Cuba has increased
massively in recent years, in spite of the fact that it may appear to be
illegal. But the rice farmers of Louisiana and other places are doing a lot
of business with Cuba.
AMY GOODMAN: How?
BLASE BONPANE: Well, they just-they're tolerated by the Treasury Department.
And the business goes on. But the whole thing should be ended, the massive
blockade that has gone on for a half century, you know. And it still goes
on, and it's still very difficult for people to spend time in Cuba. If you
go there as a-for a vacation, you can be arrested and fined. Canadians have
been going there for decades. It's one of their favorite vacation places.
AMY GOODMAN: Blase Bonpane, the world peace march that's coming through Los
Angeles here?
BLASE BONPANE: We're very excited about it. We've been working on it avidly.
I just asked President Zelaya to endorse it, and I'm waiting for his
response. We have-
AMY GOODMAN: You've been speaking to him directly?
BLASE BONPANE: Yes, I have. And I think he will give his full endorsement,
together with many other heads of state that have given their endorsement.
It will arrive in Los Angeles on the 1st of December. It will be here
through the 2nd and then go on to San Diego, Mexico, and into Central and
South.
AMY GOODMAN: And who's organized it?
BLASE BONPANE: Well, it's organized by the people who are marching. It's a
very unusual organization that started in New Zealand. And it's going 99,000
miles around the world in ninety days, and it's on behalf of peace,
nonviolence, an end to the nuclear threat to the world. We feel that the
environmental movement has got to include the threat of nuclear war,
because, talk about global warming, if we have a nuclear exchange, there's
going to be an awful lot of global warming. So we want to see the
environmental movement and the peace movement get married, you know, in
other words, to join forces.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you, Blase Bonpane, for joining us,
former Maryknoll priest, serves as the director of the Office of the
Americas, a human rights institution here in Los Angeles. That world peace
march begun October 2nd in New Zealand-
BLASE BONPANE: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: -on the anniversary of Gandhi's birth.
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