School of the Americas Watch Moves Annual March to US Border

FEATURING HECTOR ARISTIZABAL – The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week ruled that students of a controversial military training school based in the US can remain secret. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of Americas, has been training members of the armed services of many Latin American countries for decades. Activists have pointed out that graduates of the school have gone on to lead death squads, foment coups of democratically elected governments, and more.

Every year the group School of the Americas Watch leads a major march and protest near the Institute in Fort Benning, Georgia. This year organizers moved the march to Nogales, to the US-Mexico border to protest, the militarization of the border and the criminalization of refugees and migrants. The gathering took place from October 7-10.

Find more at www.soaw.org.

Hector Aristizabal, therapist, psychologist, actor, artist and activist and is the founder and Artistic Director of Imaginaction, a non-profit theater arts organization. Originally from Colombia, Hector is a survivor of torture and has been active for years with the School of the Americas Watch.