WASHINGTON - June 11 - Police arrested the presumed murderer of Archbishop Isaías Duarte. John Fredy Jiménez, a graduate of the School of the Americas (SOA), was arrested on Saturday in Cali, Colombia. Jiménez graduated from the SOA in 1992, having completed a cadet combat course. Archbishop Isaías Duarte was shot and killed on March 17.
Colombia has sent over 10,000 soldiers to the SOA, more than any other country. Colombia has the worst human rights record to date in the Western Hemisphere.
Clergy have been consistently targeted by SOA graduates throughout Latin America. While saying mass, Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down in El Salvador in 1980 by assassins trained at the SOA. Bishop Juan Gerardi was bludgeoned to death by an SOA grad in 1998, two days after he released a comprehensive human rights report on the Guatemalan civil war. SOA graduates have been found responsible for the murders of thousands of civilians, including four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 and six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.
Colombia has sent over 10,000 soldiers to the SOA, more than any other country. Colombia has the worst human rights record to date in the Western Hemisphere.
Clergy have been consistently targeted by SOA graduates throughout Latin America. While saying mass, Archbishop Oscar Romero was gunned down in El Salvador in 1980 by assassins trained at the SOA. Bishop Juan Gerardi was bludgeoned to death by an SOA grad in 1998, two days after he released a comprehensive human rights report on the Guatemalan civil war. SOA graduates have been found responsible for the murders of thousands of civilians, including four U.S. churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 and six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.