A candlelight vigil is being organized in Nelson.
At the end of November, peace activists from all over North and South America will converge on Fort Benning, Georgia to call for the closure of the US Army’s School of the Americas (SOA).
This decades old military training school, recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, provides training to military personnel from various Latin American nations.
School of the Americas Watch, which is organizing the weekend gathering claims to have evidence that SOA military graduates have led and supported dictatorships from Chile to Guatemala and have targeted persons involved in social movements across Latin America.
In Nelson, there will be a candlelight vigil on Friday, November 22 at 5 p.m. outside Nelson City Hall to mark the 23rd year of the protest and to call for justice in Latin America.
Peace advocates Bud Godderis and Natalie Voykin, both of whom have been to SOA Watch sponsored vigils at Fort Benning, will speak at the event and lead singing and prayers.
The Nelson event is sponsored by KAIROS, an ecumenical initiative that works for peace, human rights and social justice in Canada and the world.
For further information about this event, please call 250-352-9871.