This Friday, ten persons will go to trial in Columbus, Georgia for their non-violent protest last November at the School of the Americas. They face six months imprisonment. Meanwhile, an aid package is winding its way through congress which will only further the atrocities committed by SOA graduates from Colombia. This aid will make the United States a major actor in Colombia's counterinsurgency war. Just last year, President Clinton publicly apologized for US support of the brutal Guatemalan military.
Apologies are fine if one mends their ways.
The Colombian military has graduated over 10,000 students from the SOA and recently a Human Rights Watch Report cited 7 grads for connections with the paramilitaries. The proposed U.S. aid package to Colombia is moving quickly through Congress. However, grassroots efforts and recent reports linking Colombian military and paramilitary forces have initiated debate in Congress. This provides grassroots groups working on Colombia a small window of opportunity to affect the package. It will be voted on by the Appropriations Committee probably on Thursday, March 9.