ROY BOURGEOIS

In November of each year protesters gather at Fort Benning, the site of the U. S. Army School of the Americas. The School provides training for Latin American Military Officers in Counter-Insurgency Training. The graduates of the school have included some of the worst Latin American killers and torturers (See {41061} for example) who rose to positions of power in their lands. It has also included many leaders who did not ever resort to war crimes and atrocities and also became leaders of their countries. It has been an institution of great controversy since it was discovered that the school at one point taught methods of interrogating insurgents that were tantamount to torture. Defenders of the school claim that but for the school, the military atrocities would have been worse and that it contributed to more human and democratic governments in the Americas. The annual protest has attracted more than 16,000 protesters, some of whom—like Bourgeois—have been guilty of trespass and interfering with a government facility and have served jail terms for those violations.

In November of each year protesters gather at Fort Benning, the site of the U. S. Army School of the Americas. The School provides training for Latin American Military Officers in Counter-Insurgency Training. The graduates of the school have included some of the worst Latin American killers and torturers (See {41061} for example) who rose to positions of power in their lands. It has also included many leaders who did not ever resort to war crimes and atrocities and also became leaders of their countries. It has been an institution of great controversy since it was discovered that the school at one point taught methods of interrogating insurgents that were tantamount to torture. Defenders of the school claim that but for the school, the military atrocities would have been worse and that it contributed to more human and democratic governments in the Americas. The annual protest has attracted more than 16,000 protesters, some of whom—like Bourgeois—have been guilty of trespass and interfering with a government facility and have served jail terms for those violations.