Protest demonstrations are staged by SOA Watch at the main gate of Fort Benning in November each year, in commemoration of the anniversary of the
1989 murders of Jesuits in El Salvador. The growing annual protest has remained a major focus for SOA Watch and the
grassroots movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC, which likewise has grown throughout the Americas since the first protest in 1990. The original band of ten resisters who marched onto Fort Benning and
splashed blood upon the School of Americas to commemorate the first anniversary of the UCA massacre has grown in recent years to a community of 10,000. People come from across the country and around the globe to honor victims of crimes committed by students of the School of the Americas, as well as their survivors, with music, words, puppets and theatre. Traditionally the legal vigil and memorial service concludes with a mock funeral procession, using the
Presente! litany, onto Fort Benning, with all who choose to march onto the post
trespassing on federal property and subject to arrest. Subsequent to
9/11 and the erection of a security fence at the main gate of Fort Benning in 2001, protesters who wish to take their mourning onto the post need to go over, under, or around that fence, as opposed to the simple marching of the past. At the 2002 protest, the city of Columbus began requiring all attending the event to submit to a metal detector search at the designated entrance. After a lengthy legal battle, however, in October 2004 the
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the forced search was unconstitutional. In 2004, the Army added a second fence topped by
razor wire, and erected a third fence in 2005. On November 20, 2005, roughly 20,000 protesters attended the vigil, "remembering those who have been silenced by SOA violence". Forty protesters climbed over or under the fence and were arrested by
military police. Columbus police also arrested bystanders, including some who lifted the fence. Since protests against the school began, 183 people have cumulatively served over 81 years in prison for their
civil disobedience. On November 19, 2006, over 22,000 protesters attended the vigil, a record high attendance number. On December 3, 2006, Georgia Public Radio broadcast "The Sounds of Protest at the School of the Americas", an hour-long documentary with audio collected at the 2006 protest. "Sounds of Protest" Audio Documentary On November 20, 2010, at least 20 people attending the vigil were arrested, including Kaelyn Forde, a journalist from
Russia Today, and her cameraman, Jon Conway. They were charged with unlawful assembly, demonstrating without a permit and failing to obey a police order to disperse. Forde and Conway were jailed for 29 hours before they were released the following day on $1,300 bond each. Both workers maintain they were "wrongfully arrested". Over the years dozens of prominent actors, musicians, and authors have appeared at and participated in SOA Watch demonstrations including musicians Pete Seeger, Amy Ray and David Rovics, Actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon, and poet and author Brett Axel. In 1994 Richter Productions released a short documentary movie, The School of Assassins, narrated by Susan Sarandon. In 1999 Zeropanik Press released a poetry anthology, Will Work For Peace, edited by Brett Axel, dedicated to The SOA Watch.
Presente! litany The
Presente! litany is a memorial
litany in which the names of people killed in political repression (usually in
Central and
South America) are recited. This litany is used at the annual memorial service held at the gates of the
School of the Americas in
Columbus, Georgia, for those killed by graduates of the school. In Spanish,
"Presente" means "here" or "present", when responding to a roll call. The tradition of reading names of those killed by politically repressive regimes has a long tradition in Latin America. At the funeral of
Pablo Neruda on September 25, 1973, in
Chile,
Hernán Loyola reports that mourners responded with "Presente" (meaning "he/she (the victim) is here") to the shouting out of Neruda's name, as well as that of
Salvador Allende, the recently deposed (and killed) president: Two days later Neruda's body was taken out of the ransacked house. Loyola recollected: "A considerable group of workers and students had gathered outside in the street, and I heard the first shouts: 'Comrade Pablo Neruda!' someone yelled and all the others answered: 'Present!' The cortege left in a defiant column (any massive demonstration was, of course, forbidden) ... and the column grew along the way. Arriving at the general Cemetery along the Avenida de la Paz, the funeral became an impressive popular protest, the first since September 11 ... I confess I was frozen with fear, because the people began singing the
Internationale in a crescendo. Suddenly, I found that I had my fist in the air and was singing. Soldiers, armed to the teeth, surrounded the square opposite the cemetery and I sincerely believed that, in a matter of seconds, they would let off a round of machine-gun fire. When someone in a loud voice began to shout: 'Comrade Pablo Neruda!' we all answered 'Present! The dictatorship of
Augusto Pinochet had begun two weeks earlier with the bombardment of the governmental palace, and would last for 17 years. ==
¡Presente! newspaper==