In a blatant attack on civil rights, on April 29, 13 people were sentenced to prison terms for protesting at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Columbus, Georgia.

The protest, held on November 16 annually, is part of the SOA Watch's campaign to close the SOA, which trains Latin American soldiers. On November 16, 1989, six priests and two co-workers in El Salvador were killed by SOA graduates. Many other SOA graduates have been involved in human rights abuses in their own countries, including the assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the murders of nuns and priests.

Reverend Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest and founder of SOA Watch, was one of the protesters to appeared before the notoriously conservative US district court Judge Robert Elliott. Bourgeois was sentenced to the maximum of six months in prison for trespassing. Other protesters were sentenced to terms of four months and two months.

From his prison cell, Bourgeois pledged to continue the fight to close the SOA. "This is a school of thugs, a school of terrorists that brings shame on this country", he said.

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