Controversial Catholic priest Roy Bourgeois has been in front of the White House this week to call for an executive order from President Barack Obama to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas). Opposition groups in many Latin American countries see the Fort Benning, Ga., facility, as helping to support oppressive regimes by training soldiers who go on to torture citizens. The school’s officials counter that they’ve helped address that by adding an eight-hour human rights course. Bourgeois has been to Washington many times to call for the closure of the facility. He says that this time however, something new is working in his favor.
