Six Months in Federal Prison for Protesting US Terrorists

Oregon resident Chani Geigle-Teller sentenced to Federal Prison for protesting SOA

Former OregonPeaceWorks Program Assistant Chani Geigle-Teller was sentenced today to 6 months in a federal minimum security prison and fined $1000 for her role in last year's national protest at School of the Americas. She was released on her own recognizance and will need to turn herself in to begin serving her sentence in about one month.

Excerpt from Chani's statement to presiding Judge Faircloth: "I will never apologize to you or the United States government or to anyone else for protesting these injustices. But I do have one apology to make. I beg the mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters and brothers of Chiapas, of El Mozote, of Colombia, of Guatemala and all of Central and South America, to forgive me for my participation in a system that oppresses, tortures and murders them daily. I ask the God of Life and Truth that sustains those people to forgive me. I beg that they hear my cries of repentence as I hear their cries of 'Basta - enough is enough!'. I also know that I cannot even ask for forgiveness if I am not willing to change my greedy lifestyle. Not only change my own lifestyle, slowly, day by day, decision by decision, but I must stand up to that lifestyle of greed and violence if I am truly sorry in my heart for the grief I have helped put in this world. I am determined to spend the rest of my life doing everything in my power to cor.

"That is why I am here."

SOA 37 UPDATE / 12 Jul 2002
10 School of Americas protesters receive six-month sentences; 26 found guilty and awaiting sentencing

Thirty-seven human rights activists went on trial in federal court this week for civil disobedience last November at the School of the Americas (SOA), which was recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). They were among 10,000 who gathered in Columbus, Georgia, last November to call for the closure of the notorious school. The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers whose graduates are consistently involved in human rights abuses and atrocities. Human rights activist and champion of the people, Archbishop Oscar Romero, for example, was murdered in a church as he celebrated mass by an individual who was trained by the SOA. 71 people have served a total of over 40 years in prison for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience as part of a broad-based campaign to close the school.