| Trinity Home page | |
FOR MORE INFORMATION
CONTACT: Susie P. Gonzalez
Oct. 19, 2005
Former El Salvador Professor Brings His 'Journey For Justice' To Trinity University
SAN ANTONIO - Former El Salvadoran Professor Carlos Mauricio, who survived weeks of torture in his native country at the hands of Salvadoran troops trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas, will bring his "Journey for Justice" to Trinity University Sunday, Nov. 13.
His 12-day journey will begin Nov. 5 in San Francisco and move across the West and South to Fort Benning, Ga., where the 15th annual vigil and protest is scheduled Nov. 18-20. Troops who administered harsh behavior at the School of the Americas were trained at Fort Benning. Graduates have been linked to human rights abuses, including torture, rape, assassinations, and massacres.
In San Antonio, Professor Mauricio will participate in a news conference at 4 p.m. in the Woodlawn Room of the Coates University Center on the Trinity campus. He plans to share his story and his vision, including ways the public can help close the U.S.-funded School of the Americas. He also will lead a student dialogue from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Tiger's Den on the Trinity campus.
His visit to Trinity is co-sponsored by Latino Exchange, a student group, and the department of sociology and anthropology.
Professor Mauricio also works closely with the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) on strategies for building relationships with grassroots social change organizations in Latin America. A key goal is to convince Latin American leaders to stop sending troops to the School of the Americas. During his November travels, he will be joined by a SOAW delegation to support the ongoing struggle against impunity in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and other Latin American nations.
It took 15 years for Professor Mauricio to overcome the beatings and torture he endured after being detained while teaching an agricultural sciences class at the University of El Salvador in 1983. After two weeks of torture and intense interrogation, he was released and fled to the United States where he now resides. He teaches high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. He says that telling his story is not only an important way to tell people what happened to him but as an emotional release from prison.
He has dedicated this year's Journey for Justice to the memory of Luis Eduardo Guerra who was killed in February along with his child by soldiers under the command of the School of the Americas.
In a 2003 report, Amnesty International called for training to be suspended at the school and for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate activities there. His tour through the West and South is being sponsored by SOA Watch (www.soaw.org) and the Stop Impunity Project.
For more information, contact John Donahue, professor of anthropology at Trinity at (210) 999-8508 or by e-mail at jdonahue@trinity.edu.
--30--
© 2006 Trinity University