Argentina & Uruguay abandon School of the Americas

Dear friends,
I am very proud to report this news - an example of how social movements and Human Rights activists as well as political parties can work together towards Democracy and Rights for All. School of Americas has been the site where our dictators and pretorian guards try "to learn" how to defeat the peoples and struggle for liberation by evil methods..

In vain. . . resistance and courage win and national governments follow the claim of the peoples after so many years.
Never a step back! .

For Freedom and Democracy,
Sharing our proud and joy from Costa Rica,

Alicia Cabezudo
Argentina

SOA Watch Breaking News & Update March 28, 2006

Argentina & Uruguay abandon SOA! Critical victory for
human rights organizations across the Americas

We are thrilled to tell you that, after meeting with
representatives of human rights organizations and the
three SOA Watch activists Carlos Mauricio, Lisa
Sullivan and Fr. Roy Bourgeois, the governments of
Argentina and Uruguay have agreed to stop sending
soldiers to train at the School of the Americas (SOA/
WHINSEC)!

These decisions are a critical victory for all those
struggling for human rights, justice and military
accountability across the Americas! Argentina and
Uruguay are the second and third countries to take this
vital step; they join Venezuela, which announced in
January of 2004 that they would no longer send soldiers
to the school.

This past Friday, Roy, Carlos and Lisa met with the
Defense Minister of Uruguay, Azucena Berrutti. Minister
Berrutti is a former human rights lawyer. During the
long dictatorship in Uruguay she defended numerous
political prisoners.

Lisa Sullivan writes: "From the beginning of the
conversation, Minister Berrutti told us that there was
no need to explain the atrocities of the SOA, as she,
and the people of Uruguay, were fully aware of this
reality, having experienced first hand the horrors of
the tortures, detentions, imprisonments and
'disappearances' caused by its graduates. Over and over
here in Latin America we have been humbled and realize
that we do not need to explain these things to our
public, but rather they have much to tell us, to put
faces and emotions on the statistics which we have
memorized so efficiently...."Minister Berrutti shared
with Carlos, Lisa and Roy some very good news: during
the year President Tabaré Vázquez has
been in office, no military personnel from Uruguay have
been sent to the SOA, and none will be sent under this
current administration.

Yesterday, the three SOA Watch activists and the head
of the Mothers of the Disappeared met with the defense
minister, Nilda Garré, whose husband was
disappeared during the repression in Argentina.
Minister Garré agreed that after the one
Argentinean soldier currently at the SOA/ WHINSEC
finishes his classes, no more Argentinean soldiers will
be sent to the School of the Americas. Read the whole
update from Lisa, Carlos & Roy.

The tide is turning in Latin America! All across
Central and South America, governments and citizens are
rejecting SOA-style military "solutions" to social
problems. Across the Americas, support for the School
of the Americas is eroding every day. Add your voice to
this movement for justice! March, rally and lobby to
close the SOA in Washington, DC April 23-25! (see
below for more info).