Imagine being sentenced to three months in federal prison for simply crossing over a white line at a U.S. military base or living in a world where exercising your First Amendment rights isn't always a good idea.
These situations were reality for Judy Bierbaum and Felix Caballero because of their personal commitments to a movement to shut down a little-known U.S. military training center called the School of the Americas.
Last night, Bierbaum, a two-time prisoner of conscience, and Caballero, a former military police officer, talked about their experiences and involvement in the movement Sunday at the Aquinas Newman Center.
The School of the Americas, Bierbaum said, is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers from countries like Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. Once soldiers graduate, they return to their home countries where they use the skills they learn to commit countless acts of violence against their own people, she said.ˇ
"Through the Freedom of Information Act, the Pentagon was forced to release the training manuals," Bierbaum said. "It describes the forms of torture and the use of torture and the acceptance of using torture right inside the manuals."
Bierbaum, who began her research in 1994, has served a total of nine months in federal prison as a result of crossing the white line outside the school in Fort Benning, Georgia.
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The school was closed in December 2000, and has been replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Bierbaum said the school still has the same mission, and nothing has changed except the name.
The School of the Americas Watch, a national organization dedicated to shutting down the school once and for all, holds a rally each November in peaceful protest of the school.
Caballero, a UNM alumnus, spent four years as an MP and was called up from the reserves after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He served six months of active duty in Bahrain, a remote island in the Persian Gulf, which he said sparked his interest in social justice.
He went to the School of the Americas for the first time in November 2003.
"Part of the reason I went to the School of the Americas was because I had an interest in social justice, and I wanted to see how those values that were presented at this peace demonstration fit with my values," he said. "The protests bring awareness and attention to the existence of the School of the Americas on a national level."
The school was founded in 1946 and has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics, according to the School of the Americas Watch Web site.
Ashley Aleman, one of about 20 people who came to the talk, said she was formerly unaware that the School of the Americas existed.
"It was eye-opening to hear, especially from a military man, how much is going on that we don't realize and just how much injustice there is," she said.
