On every November of each year, a group of people flock to the entrance of Fort Benning, a United States Army facility in Columbus, Georgia, to hold a mock funeral procession. During this funeral procession, the group would chant the Presente litany.

After the funeral procession, the group would continue honoring the dead with music and song, with poetry, with puppet shows and theatrical presentations, and with educational workshops. What started out in 1989 as a procession held by only ten people led by Father Roy Bourgeois has attracted thousands of attendees over the years, with the figures in 2006 pegged at almost 20,000 people.

What is so special about Fort Benning that Father Roy Bourgeois’ group brave possible arrest for staging mock funerals and public protests with attempted trespassing at the facility every year? Fort Benning holds the distinction of being the site of the infamous Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly known as the School of the Americas.

The School of the Americas is notorious for its alleged curriculum that is said to be rife with lessons in torture, as well as other methods that violate human rights and the measures stipulated by the Geneva Convention. A great number of the graduates of the School of the Americas have been involved in death squads, in masterminding insurgency measures in various Latin American countries and in human rights abuses.

These allegations were further highlighted when the Pentagon released what are now known as torture manuals, supposedly documents delineating the intelligence training courses formulated by the United States Army for use in the School of the Americas. Amnesty International claims that these documents are filled with instructions on such lessons as torture, motivation by fear, false imprisonment, setting of bounties for the death of targets, abducting the members of the targets’ families, and execution.

Ironically, the School of the Americas was established in 1946 as a facility for United States Army personnel as well as military personnel from Latin American countries where they can learn skills needed for nation-building. The classes are held in Spanish and the courses teach building necessary infrastructure such as bridges and water wells as well as repairing and maintenance of equipment.

In 1963, however, the curriculum of the School of the Americas shifted its focus towards counterinsurgency in response to the growing influence of Fidel Castro as well as the spreading of communism in Latin America. There are whispers abound that the School of the Americans is a breeding ground for the agents of the United States to protect the country’s interests in Latin America, particularly on the growing coffee industry.

In 2001, there were motions to withdraw the legal status of the School of the Americas in the United States’ Congress. As a result, the school was renamed WHISC. WHISC also began to offer instruction of around eight hours on human rights, rule of law, civilian control of the government, the purpose of the military in a democratic society, and the due process. The focus has also shifted once again, this time towards leadership development, peace support operations, disaster relief and others.

The vigil held at the WHISC facility in Fort Benning every year commemorates the death of Archbishop Oscar Romero, a victim of a death squad wherein most of the members are graduates from the School of the Americas, as well as the deaths of other people who died in the hands of SOA graduates.