A week ago, nine SOAW activists from California, Nicaragua, Colorado, Venezuela, Honduras, Virginia and Georgia converged in Quito, Ecuador. One of the first things we did was to visit the middle of the earth, a few miles from Quito, the line that divides the planet into North and South. It was a fitting place to begin a brief mission of citizen diplomacy that modestly hoped to budge a long-standing barricade to peace, plant a tiny seed of justice in the Americas.

Correa

None of us were diplomats by training, we were dairy farmers, teachers, students, journalists, musicians and a priest, coming from various points of the Americas. The only things in our life’s CV’s that prepared us for such a mission was the simple conviction that the School of the Americas was a place that shouldn’t exist , and the belief that each of us shared a measure of responsibility in trying to close its doors.

While the location of our first stop filled was significant, the timing of our visit was also poignant. Within a few days of our arrival in Ecuador, news came that a fellow South American country had been shattered by a crisis, coined immediately as an “express coup”. Paraguay’s President Fernando Lugo -one of eight progressive presidents in South America -was called by the right-wing Congress to immediately resign or face impeachment over a recent land dispute that had ended in violence and death. In spite of the fact that many of the legislators were the very same ones who had promulgated the robbing of million acres of land to distribute them to their own party for decades (millions of acres over the 61-year iron rule of General Stroessner’s Colorado party) they gave President Lugo less than 24 hours to prepare for the trial whose verdict was decided ahead of time. Power was passed to the Vice President who was conveniently aligned with the entrenched opposition in Congress.

Our first days in Ecuador were filled with news of Latin American countries withdrawing their ambassadors - including our host country - along with an ominous backdrop of concern regarding whether this “express coup” might make another appearance in the left-leaning South American political horizon.

It wasn’t long before another crisis also began to emerge nearby. In Bolivia, a strike of police officers demanding a tripling of wages, quickly spiraled into the take-over of police stations throughout the country, reminiscent of the 2010 crisis in Ecuador that almost cost the president his life. Police officers declared themselves in rebellion and unwilling to accept generous offers from the government. Tension spread. As a response to both crisis, the new figure of UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations) convened its presidents to meet immediately in Argentina, to find a solution. The fact that it was not the US calling the shots, nor other South American countries looking to the US in the least way for direction, is indicative of the political moment in South America to which we had arrived.

The mood forebode well for what we hoped to accomplish: requesting that the Ecuadorian government withdraw its troops from the School of the Americas. Increasingly, South American nations were withdrawing their troops from this school that had led to the deaths of thousands of their compatriots. Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia had all pulled out, making it clear that such a school did not represent their interests. We found it unusual that Ecuador was continuing to send between 35 and 100 soldiers to the SOA each year since Correa took power. A few of us had met with him four years earlier, and he had committed to looking into the issue, after taking on the task of closing the US military base in Manta (he announced that the US could stay at the base if they would give Ecuador a base in Florida. The US quickly exited). In the ensuing four years, however, we had heard nothing from Ecuador regarding our request. We had come to bring a reminder.

Among our group were two young women who had experienced coups in their own countries at the hands of graduates of the SOA: Maia Rodriguez from Venezuela, who had lived through the short-lived but tragic coup against President Chavez in 2002 and Jimena Paz who had been present in her native Honduras during the 2009 coup. This SOA-led coup was “successful” and led to the unleashing of violent repression against the resistance movement. Between our first and second visits to Ecuador, Jimena had buried several friends caught in this repression. Her voice reminded us that the decision we were seeking had real consequences.

The goal of our citizen diplomacy mission was clear: getting to the President. The path, on the other hand, was a bit murky. How does one get to a President is a question that Roy and I have found ourselves asking in other countries as well. While we have found several paths, all paved with utter determination and conviction, none is as effective as asking for the help of those in-country who share our concerns, and who have spent years and decades accompanying and seeking justice for those whose lives were stolen by graduates of the SOA.

In Ecuador, the clear and unadulterated voice of justice is found in the calm and eloquent voice of Sister Elsie Monje, a Maryknoll missioner with 30 years working in her native Ecuador as the director of the Ecumenical Commission for Human Rights. No one has to explain to Elsie why the SOA should be closed. The names of those who have lost their lives at the hands of SOA graduates are etched in her heart, having spent years seeking justice in their name, along with their families. Elsie also served as the President of the Truth Commission that investigated the ugly years of repression in Ecuador, then was named to lead the Truth Commission in Honduras. The fact that she was also named as Woman of the Year in Ecuador helped to bring attention to her words.

Thus, when Elsie called a press conference, the media showed up. Lots of them. Soon, the purpose of our little mission of citizen diplomacy was all over the Ecuadorian television screens and newspapers and on the radio. And, things began to move. First, a meeting was held with the Defense Minister, Miguel Carvajal. Only two months installed, he cut an unsual figure for being the head the armed forces. A sociologist and intellectual, he was responsible for significant land redistribution as former Sub Secretary of Agriculture. In spite of the late hour of our visit and an all night set of meetings before him, he was extremely sensitive to our position, and listened intently, and showed a hard-to-hide surprise at the figures we brought to indicate Ecuador’s recent numbers at the SOA/WHINSEC. He promised to try to get us a meeting with the President. It was clear that he was a man of his words.

When we were ushered in two days later to the President’s office, our hope began to mount. Media lined the outside of the presidential offices and the inside as well. We were invited to sit down among an array of the top ministers in the cabinet, including the Defense and Interior ministers, the Secretary of State, the Security Minister and the President’s aide. All were smiling and full of energy and affection. We begin to think that good things were coming our way.

Indeed, as President Correa entered the room and greeted everyone with affection, he barely sat down before saying: "If you’ve come to ask me what I think you have, it’s already done." He then went on to say that this decision to withdraw Ecuadorian troops from the SOA should have come long ago, and indeed, he thought he had made this order much sooner. But, given the many tasks in front of a presidency, he hadn’t followed up to see if it had been done. Turning to his ministers, he said: "This is immediate. Prepare my statement, I will sign it right away."

Meeting with Correa

Correa then went on to share in a way that showed how different the current leadership of South America is from predecessors of decades past, many of them graduates of the SOA. How, he asked, could a country such as ours, with a commitment to justice, to humanity , to sovereignty, to dignity, how could we send troops to a school that had killed the Jesuits in El Salvador and Elba and Celine. When I heard him recite from heart the names of the Jesuits’ housekeeper and her daughter, I knew that this man held this issue at his heart.

We were invited to lunch and together with the president and several ministers, and between songs and wonderful Ecuadorian cuisine, we both celebrated the enormous victory our small experience of citizen diplomacy, while realizing the complexities of those who walk that task daily. Correa interspersed weekend camping plans that his 10-year old son Miguelito had planned for his upcoming birthday with concerns about the panorama of Paraguay and Bolivia. He talked about the challenges of caring for the fragility of the extraordinarily beautiful and diverse land of Ecuador that is loaded with oil and minerals, while fulfilling the needs of education, health care, food and housing for a population that is finally rising out of centuries of poverty.

As we dashed to make our flights, one of our delegation members said we don’t need a plane. Indeed, we were floating with joy at the news we had received. But as I turned from the Presidential Palace to head to the van and the airport, I remembered turning around several months ago, in a different land in Latin America: Honduras. We had been on the road to Trinidad, to try to help a group of landless farmers escape from a ring of armed security guards. Half way there, a phone call from a human rights leader told us: We don’t need martyrs, we need people to do the hard work of bringing justice to our land, turn around.

And so as I turned around, this time from one of those rare moments of victory instead of that moment of danger, Bertha Oliva’s words rang in my ears. And now, as the clock turns to midnight as I fly home, and the calendar turns to June 28, I realize how fragile victory is here in the Americas. Today marks the third anniversary of the Honduran coup, led by SOA graduates, and the repression against those who opposite it continue.

So, today, we are, perhaps, one step closer to closing the SOA with Ecuador’s decision. But while the citizens of Honduras face danger and threats for simply defending their democracy, and the people of Paraguay see their elected president out of office and in the street, I realize our task is still huge.

The call to be citizen diplomats can be embraced by all of us. Some may decide to take up this role by joining us on Nicaragua delegation from August 27-Sept 5 to try to do the same as we just did in Ecuador. Others may read this article then pick up their phone and call their member of Congress to ask to sign on to the bill calling for a defunding of the SOA. Others may ask to show the new SOAW documentary to a local classroom. Some will decide to schedule their trip to the vigil in November now, and others may offer to help a young person get there. Others will simply send this email to a friend, or comment to their brother or daughter about the struggle to close the SOA, or donate a small amount to keep this struggle going.

Our thanks go out to many for making this victory possible in our movement. To all those who joined us on this delegation, to Elsie Monje whose life is a portrait in dignity, to Yury Guerra who was at our side at all moments and made sure we ate and slept and saw the wonders of his land. To our SOAW team in Washington and Santiago, Chile, who did all the hard work in making this happen. To those who donated to bring the young and eloquent voices of Maia and Jimena to this trip. To so many of you whose efforts and donations make it possible to bring this moment of hope to Nuestra America.