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LOCAL Announcement :: Peace

Medea Benjamin: The Anniversary of the Jesuit Martyrs of San Salvador

On November 16, 2005 Medea Benjamin will be speaking at Loyola University Chicago in regards to the School of the Americas and the Martyrs of San Salvador.
benjamin.jpg
Leader of U.S. Peace Movement Coming to Chicago

Medea Benjamin, founder of CodePINK,
will discuss the School of the Americas on the 16th anniversary of the murder of Jesuit priests in El Salvador

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Where: Loyola University (Lake Shore Campus), Finnegan Auditorium in Damen Hall (W. Sheridan Rd. and Kenmore Ave.)

What: Medea Benjamin, spokeswoman for the U.S. peace movement, will speak about the need to shut down the School of the Americas at Loyola University, Chicago’s Jesuit university. On November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter, were murdered by the Salvadoran military on the campus of the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador. The Jesuits were labeled subversives by the Salvadoran government for speaking out against the oppressive socioeconomic structure of Salvadoran society. Their assassinations were ordered for their unwavering defense of the poor, and were carried out by armed men, later identified as members of the U.S.-trained elite Atlacatl Batallion.

The Jesuits were six of over 70,000 victims who died in El Salvador’s civil war which raged in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The vast majority of these victims were civilians killed by El Salvador’s armed forces and paramilitary death squads. The death of the Jesuits brought international outrage and condemnation upon the Salvadoran Government and pressured them to negotiate an end to their country’s civil war.

For almost 60 years, the School of the Americas (SOA) (recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or WHINSEC) has trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in tactics that are used to wage war against their own people. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and forced to become refugees by those trained at SOA. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders and others who work for human rights.

A co-founder of the high-profile women’s peace group CODEPINK, whose Chicago Area chapter claims 1,200 participants, Medea Benjamin has been a tireless advocate for social justice for more than 20 years. Described as “one of America’s most committed—and most effective—fighters for human rights” by New York Newsday, Benjamin, 52, has distinguished herself as an eloquent and energetic figure in the progressive movement. In June of 2005, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize collectively, on behalf of the millions of anonymous women who do the essential work of peace worldwide.

Since the September 11, 2001 tragedy, Benjamin has been working non-stop to promote a U.S. foreign policy that would respect human rights and gain us allies instead of contributing to violence and undermining our international reputation. Benjamin has led several fact-finding delegations to Iraq and helped establish the Baghdad-based Occupation Watch Center. In January 2005 she organized a trip to the Iraq-Jordan border with parents of fallen U.S. soldiers, to take $650,000 worth of humanitarian aid to refugees from war-torn Fallujah.

During the 1990s, after co-founding the international human rights organization Global Exchange, Benjamin focused her efforts on tackling the problem of unfair trade as promoted by the World Trade Organization. Widely credited as the woman who brought Nike to its knees and helped place the issue of sweatshops on the national agenda, Benjamin was a key player in the campaign that won a $20 million settlement from 27 U.S. clothing retailers for the use of sweatshop labor in Saipan. She also pushed Starbucks and other companies to start carrying fair trade coffee.

Benjamin is currently focusing U.S. attention around the tragic results of the administration’s response to Katrina, leaving the Gulf Coast in shambles and costing countless lives and livelihoods in three states. She also calls attention to the lies, coming under scrutiny in the CIA leak investigation, which led the U.S. into a costly and now seemingly endless war.

Benjamin recognizes the chilling parallel of violence between the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the acts perpetrated by graduates of the SOA. As she travels the country talking about the misguided war and her new book, a vibrant collection of essays entitled Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean, 2005), Benjamin will head from Chicago to Ft. Benning, GA, home of the SOA, to participate in a weekend of mourning, remembrance and celebration that both honors the victims of American-taught violence and sends a strong message to our government: "Close the SOA! No more violence in our name!" Benjamin will address those gathered in protest on Saturday, Nov. 19 in front of the gates of Ft. Benning.

A former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization, Benjamin is the author/editor of eight books, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and two daughters.
 
 

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