|
Fr. Roy Bourgeois - SOA Watch Founder
Born in Lutcher, Louisiana, Fr. Roy served as a Naval Officer for two years before entering the seminary of the Maryknoll Missionary Order. Ordained a Catholic priest in 1972, Roy went on to work with the poor of Bolivia for five years before being arrested and forced to leave the country, then under the repressive rule of dictator and SOA grad General Hugo Banzer.
In 1980 Fr. Roy became involved in issues surrounding US policy in El Salvador after four US churchwomen--two of them friends of his--were raped and killed by Salvadoran soldiers. Roy became an outspoken critic of US foreign policy in Latin America. Since then, he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia. In 1990, Roy founded School of the Americas Watch. Read Fr. Roy's full bio here.
Hendrik Voss - National Organizer
Born in Germany, Hendrik started his political activism as part of the antifascist movement against the resurgence of nationalism and racist violence following the reunification of Germany in 1990. In order to avoid the military draft in his home country, he moved to the United States and started to work in the DC office of SOA Watch in 1999. Hendrik and his partner, Gail Taylor, spent seven months living in Guatemala and working with Puente de Paz, a mental health and human rights group that works with survivors of political and domestic violence. Puente de Paz works to empower women in indigenous communities as they reweave the social fabric torn apart during Guatemala's 36-year internal armed conflict.
Lisa Sullivan - Latin America Coordinator
Lisa Sullivan has lived for in Latin America since 1977. She worked for 21 years as a Maryknoll lay missioner in Venezuela and Bolivia, raising her three children in the barrios of Barquisimeto, Venezuela. She is the founder of the grassroots leadership group, Centro de Formación Rutilio Grande.
Lisa is currently the coordinador for Partnership America Latina (PAL). This initiative of SOAW seeks to connect North and South partners in the movement to close the School of the Americas and promote peace in the Americas. Lisa has helped to organize numerous SOAW delegations to meet with leaders in Latin America, leading to announcements of withdrawal from SOA of five countries.
Michael Baney - Development and Operations Coordinator
Since August 2008 Michael has coordinated the office operations, maintained SOAW's database of supporters and donations, and overseen the organization's development work. Born and raised in New Jersey, Michael holds a degree in political science from American University’s School of Public Affairs. Before joining SOA Watch, Michael worked as a research assistant with the Peru Documentation Project and as an intern with the Colombia Documentation Project at the National Security Archive. He also lived for a year in Lima, Peru, where he interned with the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos (APRODEH). At APRODEH he worked on projects related to the extradition and trial of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for charges of murder and crimes against humanity.
Pablo Ruiz Espinoza - Latin America Communications Coordinator
Pablo is a Chilean human rights activist and journalist who lives in Santiago, Chile. During the 1990´s he worked in Chile with the Committee Against Impunity, seeking to bring to trial military who had committed human rights abuses during the dictatorship of General Pinochet. In 1999 he joined the Kamarikun Human Rights Committee and in 2002 became a member of the Human Rights Education Team of the Chilean branch of Amnesty International.
Pablo´s focus on the SOA began in 2000 when he spearheaded efforts of Kamarikun to seek the withdrawal of Chile from the SOA. He organized the visit of the SOAW delegation to Chile in 2006 and 2008, and joined several SOAW delegations to Colombia, Panamá and Ecuador. Currently, Pablo works as the Communications Coordinator for SOAW´s Partnership America Latina.
|
