Activists press for closure of military training school

Liberty Upended – Anthony Freda

Thousands of activists on Saturday marched on the controversial training base for soldiers from Latin American militaries formerly known as the School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia, to demand its closure.

“The figure that we have now, very conservative, is more than 4,000 people in Fort Benning Road, the main entrance to the military base,” Hendrik Voss, spokesman for the School of Americas Watch (SOAW), told AFP.

The institute, which each year trains hundreds of soldiers sent over from Latin America military, has renamed itself the “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,” or WHINSEC.

The activists called on President Barack Obama to close the school, which they argue costs US taxpayers millions of dollars that, they point out, “could be used to improve or build more public schools in the United States.”

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