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You leave home for your cousin’s wedding. En
route, you are grabbed by armed men, blindfolded, shoved into a truck, and
moved to a storage tank with so many others that your captors shoot into
the tank so that some of you can breathe. The unlucky ones are killed by
the bullets. Or were they the lucky ones? Survivors, transported from one country to another,
are beaten and tortured along the way. Finally, caged at Guantánamo,
they have no hope of leaving — ever. Now that Congress has changed hands, many voices will
demand reversal of shortsighted federal policies. High on the priority list
must be the recently signed Military Commissions Act, which gives President
George W. Bush permission to creatively define torture and flaunt disregard
for the Geneva Conventions by denying detainees the right to a fair hearing
or trial. While many here were apparently sleeping, editorials
in the Latin American press decried the serious disconnect between the
United States’ espousal of freedom and liberty and the horrors of
what’s actually being done in Americans’ name. Here’s a
sampling, compiled by Lisa Haugaard of the Latin America Working Group
(www.lawg.org):
• From Colombia’s El Tiempo: “The approval of
this horrible law opens a dangerous Pandora’s box. Countries that
cooperate broadly with Washington, like Colombia, have the right to ask
themselves if extraditing their citizens accused of terrorism, so that they
submit to a regime like this, would not violate their own Constitution. And
there are more questions. With what moral authority can the United States
continue to issue certifications of good democratic conduct to other
countries?”
• From Argentina’s La Nación: “The
war against terrorism must be implacable, but it cannot be used to justify
actions that harm fundamental human rights. This should be true even though
the terrorists themselves will not respect these rights. The respect for
civil and political liberties and for human rights is the very basis of the
moral superiority of civilization, separating it from terrorism and
totalitarian experiences. To set these principles aside signifies giving in
to terrorism, and represents a loss of moral authority which inspires us to
fight for liberty, tolerance and respect for diversity.”
• From Mexico’s El Universal: “In a race to
keep control of both houses, Republicans led by President Bush fixed these
rules and accepted the costs of an undeniable step backwards. The Democrats
betrayed their principles to avoid campaign ads that paint them as soft.
Now, they have a backward law that in no way will protect them from
terrorism, but surely they hope that their candidates will be rewarded with
votes inspired by fear.”
Related to these attacks on liberty and justice, SOA
Watch charges that the School of the Americas, renamed the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, made headlines in 1996 when
the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated
torture, extortion, and execution. New research confirms that the school
continues to support known human-rights abusers. But support for the SOA is eroding. In January 2004,
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said that his country no longer
would send troops to the SOA; earlier this year, Argentina and Uruguay
announced cessation of all training there. Furthermore, 20 members of
Congress who support the continuation of the SOA lost their seats on Nov.
7. Now enough people have awakened to take action.
Friday-Sunday, Nov. 17-19, thousands of people, including activists from
Springfield, will converge in Fort Benning, Ga., to rally and hold vigils
against torture and in support of closing the SOA. In the capital city, you
can support that effort at a solidarity vigil at noon Saturday, Nov. 18,
outside the Federal Building, Sixth and Monroe streets. And at 7 p.m. Dec.
13, at Lincoln Library, Seventh Street and Capitol Avenue, Reel Politics
will present Outlaw, a film promoted by Amnesty International that tells the stories
of victims of torture and extraordinary rendition.
The first “war on terrorism” prisoners
arrived at Guantánamo on Jan. 11, 2002. Matt Daloisio, a national organizer for Witness
Against Torture, says that the fifth anniversary should be a time for civil
action to intensify: “Jan. 11, 2007 should be a day of national shame
but can also be an opportunity to for citizens to insist on the
reintegration of law and justice.”
Wake up. Speak out.
Diane Lopez Hughes is a local peace activist and Pax
Christi Springfield convenor.
This article appears in Nov 9-15, 2006.
