FATHER ROY BOURGEOIS

Virtual Truth Commission

Telling the Truth for a Better America
Father Roy Bourgeois

Childhood:

Roy Bourgeois grew up during the 1940s and 1950s in Lutcher, Louisiana -- population 3,900, where life revolved around the Catholic church, Friday-night high school football, and working on the farm or one of the nearby oil or sugar refineries...There was fishing on the nearby Mississippi River, occasional forays into New Orleans, and a teen dance every Saturday night. Chewing gum in class was considered a serious offense. Friends and family remember Bourgeois as a good-natured teen, always quick with a smile and able to find humor in all but the most serious of matters. He was a star athlete, playing football in the fall, running track in the spring, and on the swim team during the summer... In high school and college, he never had problems finding a date, when he wanted one, but preferred spending most of his time hunting and fishing with his father, brother and friends. "He was just one of us; hard-working, God-fearing," said Johnny Caldarera, a family friend who recently retired from a chemical company near Lutcher. "As far as I know, he was a Democrat like everyone else in the '60s, but most of us don't really get into politics. We just work hard and look after our families." Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

1963-1967. Father Roy Bourgeois was a U.S. Naval Officer for four years, including a year of shore duty in Vietnam. He received a Purple Heart. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site. When Bourgeois came home from a four-year tour as an officer in the U.S. Navy, complete with a Purple Heart for wounds suffered during a Viet Cong attack in Saigon, his hometown gave him a hero's welcome. Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

It was in Vietnam where Bourgeois reached a turning point. "I left Vietnam wanting to give peacemaking a chance," he said. University of Massachusetts University Reporter,
As a communications officer, Bourgeois' travels throughout South Vietnam and neighboring countries gave him an opportunity to solicit donations from fellow servicemembers for the country's orphanages. Donations arrived in such volume, Bourgeois ran out of space to store them, and he resorted to storing some items in a large vault set aside for classified documents. When his commanding officer found out about the vault and Bourgeois' practice of sneaking out to visit the orphans, the young lieutenant immediately got "chewed out, but good." "When he finished, I looked him in the eye and said, 'Sir, what the hell you got against kids?' " Bourgeois says, his gray-blue eyes narrowing with disgust. "From that point on, I found myself more involved with kids and less involved with fighting communism." Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

1968, after military service, he entered the seminary of Maryknoll Missionary Order. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

1971, November: Bourgeois spends his first night in jail after protesting the Vietnam War with other veterans in front of the White House. Bourgeois, who served in Vietnam as a U.S. Navy lieutenant, is, at the time of the protest, enrolled in the seminary to become a priest in the Maryknoll Order. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1972 He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972 and worked with the poor in Bolivia for five years. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site. In Bolivia he was arrested and was later banished from the country for speaking out against injustices. "I was very angry ... but I learned something important -- that there was work to do here at home," he said. University of Massachusetts University Reporter,National Catholic Reporter provides more detail on the arrest. "As he was leaving a meeting of the human rights commission, Bourgeois was picked up by two gunmen, who, with a contingent of military officers, were rounding up activists. Bourgeois was taken to a prison where interrogators wanted the names of those at the meeting and punched him when he refused to coooperate. He was also shown a list of people and struck again when he refused to disclose their whereabouts. His captors then drove him to a cemetery, but not before he shouted to a Maryknoll priest arriving at the prison with an embassy official. Bourgeois eventually won his freedom. Later the military said it could not 'guarantee his safety,' and Bourgeois, realizing he was a marked man who could no longer work in Bolivia without endangering others, left the country."

1980: Bourgeois became involved in El Salvador after four US churchwomen were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Two of the nuns were friends. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

Bourgeois returned to South America after four church women were raped and killed in El Salvador. He traced the men wanted for those crimes -- and a string of killings that included Archbishop Oscar Romero, other American priests and nearly an entire town filled with women and children -- back to the School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia. Tim Goodman, Examiner Television Critic, Stark 'School of Assassins' sways with fact, San Francisco Examiner

At his lectures, Bourgeois talks of his patrols with communist rebels in El Salvador, refusing to carry a weapon, but otherwise aiding the guerrillas in the fight against the U.S.-backed Salvadoran government. "He's anti-U.S. military and he's anti-U.S. military involvement," said Col. Roy Trumble, School of the Americas commandant. Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

1980, April: Bourgeois is one of five activists arrested during a protest at the Pentagon, during which he splashes a vial of his blood on the building. He spends 70 days in jail for the action, which is meant to protest the March 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who was killed while celebrating Mass at a church in San Salvador. Citing a United Nations report, Bourgeois says two of the soldiers involved in the assassination attended U.S. Army School of the Americas courses in 1967 and 1972. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1981, December: Fr. Bourgeois conducted a five-day hunger strike at the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, Illinois, to protest the murders of four American missionaries in El Salvador and the Chicago Archdiocese's silence. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

1983, July: Bourgeois entered Fort Benning to protest the United States' training of Latin American military personnel involved in human rights abuses. Bourgeois and some friends dressed in military uniforms, entered the base at night and at the Salvadoran barracks area on a portable stereo played a tape with the last homily by a slain Salvadoran Catholic archbishop who pleaded for an end to the civil war. In a bench trial [no jury], Judge J. Robert Elliott found Bourgeois guilty of reentering a military base after being removed from it, unlawfully wearing a miliary uniform, and committing assault. Father Bourgeois served a 15-month prison sentence for his convictions. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

1986, December: Bourgeois travels with two other priests to Hurlbert Field, a U.S. Air Force base near Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to protest the reported clandestine training of Nicaraguan rebels at the base and nearby Eglin Air Force Base. They kneel and pray in front of the base's main gate, blocking traffic. Unlike the other two, Bourgeois refuses to sign a promise not to return, and is later sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1990: That's been his motivation since he saw Latin American soldiers training at Fort Benning in 1990, less than a year after six Jesuit priests were killed in El Salvador. "I saw those soldiers from El Salvador and Guatemala firing their machine guns on a firing range in Fort Benning, Georgia, and I said, 'No, this is going to stop,' " Bourgeois says. "I'm going to stay here until it does." Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

1990: The School of the Americas quickly became known as the School of Assassins, and Father Roy's passion to shut it down and simultaneously let Americans know what was going on led him on a major crusade in 1990. "When there is a human rights report of an atrocity that has come out of Latin America, we can be sure that it has been connected to a graduate or graduates of the School of the Americas," he said. "We're talking about a school of assassins right here in our own backyard being supported and financed through our tax money." Tim Goodman, Examiner Television Critic, Stark 'School of Assassins' sways with fact, San Francisco Examiner.

1990. "When we established the SOA Watch office outside the gates of Fort Benning in 1990, three people showed up for the first organizing meeting," remembers Bourgeois. "Sometimes it has been very lonely work." Carol Richardson, " What Does God Require? Working to close the 'School of Assassins.', Sojourners, January, 1997. CAROL RICHARDSON, who has pastored United Methodist churches in Ohio and Maryland, directs the SOA Watch Washington, D.C. office. For information, contact SOA Watch, P.O. Box 3330, Columbus, GA 31903; (706) 682-5369.

1990, April: Ten activists, whose identities are not released, are ejected from Fort Benning with orders not to return after marching onto the post to protest training of Salvadoran soldiers at the School of the Americas. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1990, October: Bourgeois and three other activists end a 35-day fast in front of Fort Benning's main gate. The fast, designed to protest U.S. training and aid to El Salvador, is briefly interrupted in its first week when someone throws a tear-gas canister among the hunger-strikers. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1990, November: Bourgeois and two other activists splash bottles of their own blood across the walls of the School of the Americas headquarters, then lie in blood puddles awaiting arrest by military police. The three say they are protesting the November 1989 slaying of six Catholic priests, their housekeeper and her teen-age daughter by Salvadoran soldiers. Citing United Nations reports, SOA Watch leaders say 20 Salvadoran soldiers who attended the School of the Americas were involved in the slayings or in the following cover-up. Seven other protesters who march through the post's main gate about three miles away are arrested on trespassing charges, and later released with orders to remain off the post. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer. He was indicted for wilfully damaging government property, and Judge J. Robert Elliott presided over his March 1991 jury trial. Father Bourgeois was sentenced to 16 months in jail at the Federal Correctional Institute in Tallahassee and restitution of $636.47 [to cover the cost or removing their blood from the building]. Father Bourgeois was released after 14 months. Judge Elliott once again presided over Father Bourgeois' trial on April 29 and found Fr. Roy guilty of criminal trespass. He was sentenced to the maximum possible penalty of six months in jail. He was released on December 18, 1996. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

1991, November: About 70 protesters rally outside Fort Benning's main gate to mark the slaying of the six priests in El Salvador and to remember Bourgeois and the others imprisoned after the previous year's protest. No arrests are reported. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1993, November: A month after the U.S. House of Representatives rejects a measure to close the School of the Americas, about 70 protesters picket Fort Benning's main gate with signs bearing slogans such as "Close the School of Assassins." No arrests are reported. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1994: Bourgeois received the Gandhi Peace Award. Father Roy Bourgeois Gets Peace Award

1994, November: Bourgeois and other activists mark the fifth anniversary of the slaying of the six Jesuit priests in El Salvador with five days of protests. Five protesters are arrested after they chain shut the doors on the School of the Americas building. One of the protesters throws a vial of blood on the school's sign. Three of the protesters later are sentenced to two to four months in federal prison. Bourgeois, who is on probation from his 1990 protest, avoids actions that would get him arrested, including trespassing on Fort Benning. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1995, November: Bourgeois and nine other protesters are arrested following a re-enactment of the 1989 slaying of the six Jesuit priests, during which the activists are herded a half-mile inside Fort Benning by "gunmen" carrying cardboard machine guns. Most are sentenced in May 1996 to two or four months in federal prison; Bourgeois, in his third appearance before U.S. District Judge Robert Elliott, gets the maximum six-month sentence on the misdemeanor trespassing charge. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1996, March: A group of activists, including Bourgeois, fasts for 10-days on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1996, August: Father Bourgeois was awarded the 1996 Franciscan Federation Peacemaker Award which is awarded to an individual who promotes the Gospel values of peace, justice and compassion. In August 1997, Pax Christi awarded Father Bourgeois its 1997 Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award for his work publicizing the atrocities committed by SOA graduates and working for the closure of the SOA. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

1996, November: While Bourgeois serves a six-month prison sentence for his role in the November 1995 protest, 60 protesters march onto Fort Benning, planting crosses before being arrested by post police. The protesters are banned from post, but not prosecuted. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1996: Bourgeois received the Franciscan Federation Peacemaker Award. Father Roy Bourgeois Gets Peace Award

1997, April: A 10-day vigil in the Washington, D.C., area ends with the arrest of 17 protesters who dig a mock "mass grave" on the grounds of the Pentagon. Bourgeois is among the estimated 250 who spent 10 days lobbying and praying at the Pentagon and Capitol, but does not participate in the "grave" incident, and is not among those arrested. Wayne Patrdige, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1997, September: While Bourgeois watches from the lawn of his Fort Benning Road apartment building, protesters pry letters from the post's main entrance sign, splash it with red paint and cover it with slogans such as "SOA=Torture." Two protesters chain themselves to tree stands 30 feet up pine trees just inside post boundaries. Five of the protesters later are convicted on felony charges of destroying government property. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1997, November: After a three-day demonstration that draws about 2,000 to Fort Benning's main gate, Bourgeois and 600 others who march onto post are arrested. Nearly 30 "repeat offenders," including Bourgeois, are prosecuted and sentenced to six months in prison. Wayne Partridge, "Timeline of highlights from protests led or inspired by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer.

1998, April: Tim Goodman, Examiner Television Critic, Stark 'School of Assassins' sways with fact, San Francisco Examiner

1998, Oct 13: Rev. Roy Bourgeois...was presented with the 1998 Adela Dwyer/St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award..., at Villanova University... Bourgeois, founder and director of SOA Watch in Georgia, spoke at the award ceremony about the SOA and its impact on Latin America. Although he said it was nice to be the recipient of the award, Bourgeois said he was even happier that it gave him an opportunity to talk to more people about the growing SOA Watch movement. Bourgeois, 59, was released from federal prison Sept. 18, after he and 600 other activists, among them members of the clergy, religious Sisters, college professors and grandparents from throughout the United States, were arrested at Fort Benning on Nov. 16, 1997, after they crossed the threshold from public property onto the grounds of the military base in a symbolic funeral procession. Lead marchers carried eight cardboard coffins filled with petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of people calling for the School�s closure. Other protesters carried white crosses bearing the names of Latin American victims of massacres perpetrated by SOA graduates...Bourgeois has asserted he will continue to go to prison until the SOA is shut down. Father Roy Bourgeois Gets Peace Award

Today: Father Bourgeois is currently working full-time at the School of the Americas Watch just outside the main entrance of Fort Benning. This office does research on the School of the Americas and educates the US public about the implications of this training on the poor of Latin America. Biographical Summary of Father Roy Bourgeois, at the School of the Americas Watch site.

Profile: The Rev. Roy Bourgeois stops in midsentence as his answering machine picks up...He throws up a palm and tilts his head as someone from an Amnesty International chapter announces that 15 people from her chapter have volunteered to participate in Sunday's protest at Fort Benning. "Oh, that is very good, very good," Bourgeois says as the machine clicks off. "We are gaining momentum. People are really committing themselves to the movement." The "movement" is what the Maryknoll priest has devoted his life to for the past eight years: closure of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. In his one-bedroom apartment outside Fort Benning, Bourgeois talks with the confidence of a general on the cusp of victory after a long, hard-fought war. After eight years of staging fasts, marches and demonstrations, some of which have landed him and others in prison, he says momentum is on his side....In the days before the annual November protest, Bourgeois' telephone rings constantly with people committing to the vigil.... Except for the hottest summer days, the windows in Bourgeois' apartment are open, and the sounds of cars leaving and entering Fort Benning can momentarily drown out conversation and the sound from a tiny television set in his living room/office. Bourgeois says he likes the fresh air, and he likes to save money on his electricity bill by not running the air conditioner stuffed into a kitchen window. His stipend from the Maryknoll Order is enough to pay for the essentials: clothing, toiletries, the apartment's $175-a-month rent and gas for his red Chevrolet Corsica. The support -- Bourgeois won't say how much -- leaves him free to plan protests, travel to lectures, and edit S.O.A. Watch's quarterly newsletter...For Bourgeois, protesting the School of the Americas is a full-time job, a job even his critics admit he does well. "Some people are lawyers, some are preachers, some are saints, some are professional protesters," said Edwin Corr, U.S. ambassador to several Latin American countries in the 1980s. Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

Instead of fighting communism, critics say, he adopted it. "There still are good old-fashioned Marxists out there," said John Fishel, a professor of national security affairs with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. "His actions show a Marxist analysis of U.S. foreign policy." ...But Bourgeois says he's no communist. And he doesn't have anything against the U.S. military, other than its role in training Latin American soldiers...."In Latin America, anyone who works with the poor and oppressed is an insurgent, a communist. If I were doing the same thing in China, they wouldn't call me a communist," Bourgeois says. Wayne Partridge, "Profile of SOA Watch founder, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois", Columbus, Georgia: Ledger-Enquirer, November 13, 1997.

In December 1998, Bourgeois testified before Spanish Judge Baltazar Garzon that the School of the Americas trained key officers of Chile's Pinochet regime, which killed more than 3000 people and tortured thousands more during its 17 year reign. NCR
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Updated January 30, 1999