Solidarity Statement from Father Roy Bourgeois, School of the Americas Watch

My name is Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas Watch, a Catholic Priest for 38 years, and I want to join my voice to the many, many who are supporting the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

It is our understanding that what we have here is a grave injustice. Sisters and brothers, U.S. citizens who are peace activists, who are critics of U.S. foreign policy as our organization is, the School of the Americas Watch, what we feel we have here, really, if the FBI is interested in investigating terrorism, they should come here to Columbus, Georgia, home of Ft. Benning, in Georgia, where there is the School of the Americas. It is a combat school, that every year trains hundreds of soldiers from El Salvador, Honduras, most of them coming in from Colombia, and this really is a well known terrorist training camp, and if we want to get serious about talking about terrorism and closing down terrorist training camps, I would highly recommend that the FBI come right in their backyard to Ft. Benning, Georgia and investigate the School of the Americas.

And again, I want to offer my support, as so many of us want to, to our brothers and sisters in the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. What has happened to them can happen to anyone. Anyone that is a critic of U.S. foreign policy, anyone who goes to Bolivia — I have worked in Bolivia for five years. I am a critic of U.S. foreign policy. How can one not be a critic of Colombia? If we go over there recently to meet with labor leaders, we are talking about a country where more labor leaders are being killed in Colombia than any country in the world.

We met with human rights leaders, families of the disappeared, and we learned that our country, the United States, is pumping, not millions, but billions of dollars into this country.

We are very concerned about the build up of seven (U.S.) military bases there. And yes, we went there, and yes, we have come back as critics of our country’s foreign policy and all this money, billions of dollars that we are pumping into Colombia, and every dollar we should be aware of is a theft from our schools for children here at home.

In the midst of this big discussion about the economy and budget cuts, maybe we should really start focusing in on what we are pumping into Colombia, the billions of dollars there, and the millions of dollars being pumped into the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. Every dollar from U.S. taxpayers, and every dollar once again, a theft from our schools for our children here at home.

So again, we offer our support and our solidarity to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

Audio of Statement by Roy Bourgeois (mp3)