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News :: Miscellaneous |
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El Salvadoran Generals Connected to SOA Found Liable for Torture |
Current rating: 0 |
by SOA Watch
(No verified email address) |
24 Jul 2002
Modified: 03:26:41 PM |
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Jury Awards $54.6 Million to Victims |
WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA - July 23 - A Florida federal jury today awarded $54.6 million to three Salvadorans who proved they were tortured by Salvadoran security forces. Juan Romagoza, Neriz Gonzalez and Carlos Mauricio sued two Salvadoran generals who retired to Florida in 1989. The suit is based on two federal laws that allow torture victims to seek redress in U.S. courts, even if the offenses occurred elsewhere.
The two retired generals are José Guillermo Garcia, Salvadoran Minister of Defense and Public Security from 1979-1983, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, the Director-General of the Salvadoran National Guard from 1979-1983, and subsequently Minister of Defense and Public Security. Both men are connected to the School of the Americas (SOA).
General José Guillermo García received counterinsurgency training at the SOA in 1962. As defense minister García refused to investigate reports that approximately 900 hundred unarmed civilians were brutally murdered by the U.S.-trained Atlacatl battalion in 1981. A 1993 UN Truth Commission on El Salvador verified the reports. García also failed to launch a serious investigation of the murder of four U.S. church women by members of the Salvadoran National Guard in December 1980. García was granted residency in the U.S. in 1989.
General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova was a Guest Speaker at the SOA in 1985. A UN Truth Commission Report cited him for ordering the assassination of four U.S. church women in 1980. Vides Casanova was granted residency in the U.S. in 1989.
During a four-week trial that began on June 24 the plaintiffs told of being detained and brutally tortured by Salvadoran national guardsmen and police under the command of the two generals. The jury began deliberations on Thursday afternoon, and deliberated for 20 hours.
The SOA (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution. In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.
Information was provided by the Center for Justice and Accountability. For more info about the case, including trial testimony and info about the plaintiffs, please see the Center's website: http://www.cja.org |
See also:
http://www.soaw.org
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Comments
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Activists Sentenced to Prison for Civil Disobedience at SOA |
by SOA Watch/ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
24 Jul 2002
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I'm glad the generals got hit in the pocketbook, but look who's sitting in prison while the School of the Americas (sure, it's been renamed, but the crime it teaches is the same) goes about its business of turning out more scum like Generals Garcia and Casanova. ML
July 13 SOAWatch Press Release
COLUMBUS, GEORGIA - July 13 - Twenty-nine human rights activists were given sentences today ranging from three to six months in federal prison. Seven received six months probation. Fines ranged from none to $5000. Thirty-seven defendants had been in federal court all this week for civil disobedience at the School of the Americas (renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation) in Columbus, Georgia. Ken Crowley was the first defendant called before the judge for sentencing. His attorney brought up the fact that the federal probation office had made a recommendation of 12 months probation and a $500 fine. Judge Faircloth ordered that none of the other probation office recommendations were to be talked about. It is believed that a majority of the defendants received the same recommendations.
Eight of the defendants pled guilty to trespass on Monday. Ten pled not guilty while stipulating to the facts presented by the prosecution. Judge G. Mallon Faircloth found these ten guilty on Tuesday. Fourteen defendants were tried on Tuesday and Wednesday all found guilty with one exception. Five defendants who represented themselves were tried Thursday. All of the defendants (excepting the one acquitted) were sentenced yesterday afternoon well into the night.
The 'SOA 37' were among 10,000 who gathered last November to call for the closure of the notorious SOA/WHISC. The defendants peacefully crossed onto Ft. Benning, site of the school. Judge Faircloth is known for giving the maximum of six months to SOA/WHISC opponents. Seventy-one people have served a total of over forty years in prison for engaging in nonviolent resistance in a broad-based campaign to close the school. Last year 26 people were prosecuted, including Dorothy Hennessey, an 88 year-old Franciscan nun who was sentenced to six months in federal prison.
'Those who speak out for justice are facing harsh prison sentences while SOA-trained torturers and assassins are operating with impunity,' said SOA Watch founder Fr. Roy Bourgeois. Defendant Sr. Kathleen Desautels, a 64-year old nun added, 'The indignities I will have to experience in prison pale in comparison to what the victims of the graduates of that school had to endure.'
The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights abuses. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution. In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.
School of the Americas Watch www.soaw.org/newsroom
Sentencing of the 37 SOA Watch Defendants (listed in order of state)
Fr. William O¹Donnell Berkeley, CA, 72, Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine
Leone Reinbold Oakland, CA, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Fr. Louis Vitale San Francisco, CA, Sentenced to three months in federal prison
Toni Flynn Valyermo, CA, 56, Sentenced to six months in federal prison (in custody now)
Jonna Cohen Denver, CO, 20, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Michael Sobol Golden CO, 18, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Kathy Shields Boylan Washington DC, 58, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Richard Ring Atlanta, GA, 33, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Mary Dean Chicago, IL, 37, Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine
Kathleen Desautels Chicago, IL, 64, Sentenced to six months in a federal prison
Brigid Conarchy Grayslake, IL, 23, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine and barred from entering Muskogee County for twelve months
Fr. Jerry Zawada Cedar Lake, IN, 65, Sentenced to six months in federal prison (in custody now)
Janice Sevre-Duszynska Nicholasville, KY, 52, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Ralph Madsen Newtonville, MA, 68, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Palmer Legare Springfield, MA, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch Ann Arbor, MI, 41, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Maxwell Sadler Edwards Waterville, ME, Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $2500 fine
Summer Nelson Missoula, MT, 26, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine (in custody now)
Tom Mahedy Wall, NJ, 39, Former Navy ROTC. Sentenced to three months in federal prison
Linda Holzbaur Ithaca, NY, 45, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Rae Kramer Syracuse, NY, 55, Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $5,000 fine
Laura MacDonald Syracuse, NY, 23, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine (in custody now)
Mike Pasquale Syracuse, NY, 33, Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine
Chani Geigle Salem, OR 19, Sentenced to six months in a federal prison, $1000 fine
Shannon McManimon Philadelphia, PA 26, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Rev. Erik Johnson Maryville, TN, 57, Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine
Kenneth Crowley Houston, TX, 60, Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine
Niklan Jones-Lezama Blacksburg, VA, 38, Sentenced to six months in federal prison
David O¹Neill Elkton, VA, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Lee Sturgis Elkton, VA, Sentenced to six months probation, $500 fine
Peter Gelderloos Harrisonburg, VA 19, Sentenced to six months in federal prison (in custody now)
Abi Miller Harrisonburg, VA, 23, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Sue Daniels Pembroke, VA, 41, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Nancy Gowen Richmond, VA, 68, Sentenced to three months in federal prison, $500 fine
Lisa Hughes W. Hartford, VT, 36, Acquitted
John Heid Luck, WI, 47, Sentenced to six months in federal prison
Kate Fontanazza Milwaukee, WI 53, Sentenced to six months in federal prison, $1000 fine
http://www.soaw.org/new/ |
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