THREE CATHOLIC CLERGY FACE SIX MONTH FEDERAL PRISON SENTENCES FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Franciscan Frs. Louis Vitale and Jerome Zawada and Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch, PBVM Arrested with 33 Others Calling for Closure of SOA

Columbus, GA – Fr. Louis Vitale, 73, of San Francisco, California, Fr. Jerome Zawada, 68, of Cedar Lake, Indiana, and Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch, 68, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, were arrested on Sunday, November 20 after crossing onto Fort Benning in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience calling attention to the US Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC). The group “crossed the line” to protest current concerns about the school’s role in training Latin American militaries and a legacy of torture and human rights abuses committed by graduates of the school.

The three clergy negotiated 10-foot barbed-wire fences to enter the base. Their acts of civil disobedience came at the culmination of a weekend of protest that drew 19,000 people to the gates of Fort Benning, the largest protest yet calling for the schools’ closure. 

“The methods of taught at the SOA and carried out by SOA graduates in Latin America have brought death to many people,” said Sr. Lentsch. “I believe my witness of one person, when joined with others, has a spiritual power that can touch the minds and hearts of those responsible for making decisions about closing the SOA.”

The three were arraigned on Monday in federal court on charges of trespass. All pled not guilty. Sr. Lentsch was released on $1,000 bond; Frs. Vitale and Zawada opted to remain in prison until trial. Trials will begin for all arrestees on January 30. Protests against the SOA/WHINSEC began 16 years ago, and since then 180 people have served federal prison sentences.

The SOA/WHINSEC, a combat training facility for Latin American security personnel, made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture and extortion and which include passages that list religious festivals as “indicators of an imminent attack by guerrillas.” Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.

Thousands of people from across the Americas, including a large contingent of Catholic clergy, came together this weekend to call for the closure of the school and to protest the Bush Administration’s opposition to banning torture techniques. Protestors at the vigil called attention to the recent pictures of abuse at the hands U.S. personnel, and reports about secret CIA detention facilities as part of a broader legacy of US support for torture and human rights abuses.

The annual Vigil to close the SOA/WHINSEC has grown from a dozen people in November of 1990 to this year’s record numbers. Earlier this year Rep. McGovern introduced HR1217 to suspend operations at WHINSEC and to investigate the development and use of the “torture manuals.” The bill currently has 123 bipartisan co-sponsors.