Why is Luis Barrios in Jail?—Subversive Compassion
By Robert Waddell, March 24, 2009
 Father Luis Barrios, Episcopal priest and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, began a 2 month jail sentence in federal prison on March 9th for entering, with others, Fort Benning Military base in Georgia to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or School of the Americans. This school has trained personnel in counter insurgency and engaged in human rights violations thorough out Latin America.
“I will not try to escape the consequences of my actions,” said Fr. Barrios in a statement he submitted to the court as part of his sentencing. “This would do nothing but diminish the validity inherent in these actions of civil disobedience.”
In full conscious and clarity of his political and spiritual values, Father Barrios has done what so few have done --- gone to jail for his beliefs.
Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were giant examples of people who willingly went to jail, gave up their personal freedom for the need of a greater freedom. Today, Puerto Rican political prisoners, Mumia Abu Jamal and Native American Leonard Pellitier live out their lives behind bars and still their incarcerations serve as symbols to the causes that will not and can not be silenced.
Imprisoned, Luis Barrios has transcended mere protest and has become an icon against oppression sponsored U.S. terrorism taught at the School of the Americas, which is without a doubt a training ground for soldiers and future dictators who have destabilized and demoralized democracy in Latin America. The United Nations has reported on SOA graduates human rights violations in Latin America, especially El Salvador.
According to Third World Traveler.com, “Today, SOA instructors and students are recruited from the cream of the Latin American military establishment. The School trains 700-2,000 soldiers a year, and since its inception in 1946, more than 60,000 military personnel have graduated from the SOA.”
TWT.com continued with how these graduates of SOA have on countless occasions they have violated human rights, “When they return to their home countries, graduates of the SOA hold a rather unique and peculiar view of their countrymen. The look upon priests, social workers, journalists, and liberal intellectuals, not as assets to their societies, but as dangerous subversives, working to undermine the system that keeps these soldiers, army officers, and their sponsors in power.”
 Does one forget so easily that it was the Afghans fighting the former Soviet Union in the 1980s, which would eventually lead to the rise of fundamentalist fanatics like the Taliban? In the United States, a country born of revolution, civil disobedience and free speech, Father Luis Barrios was acting as a son of liberty. America holds onto its freedom, power and wealth by destroying and denying the liberties of other nations. We are strong on the backs of others who are weaker. This reporter congratulates Father Barrios for his patriotism and humanity in rooting out the arms and industry of injustice. He is brave to go to jail and even more courageous for standing up, speaking out and putting his life on the line for a greater good. This is the definition of the Christian faith. Did not Christ throw the money lenders out of the temple?
There’s something sweet about civil disobedience, spring time and Lent that all go together. This reporter once bumped into the actor Martin Sheen at the Shuttle train in Grand Central Station. It was way before Sheen had become even more famous with the show The West Wing on NBC. The day was Good Friday. By that following Monday, it was reported that Sheen, along with Amy Carter and a group of others, were arrested for protesting the development of nuclear arms and technology.
Recently, Father Barrios wrote in an essay, “Lent of Liberation” that “In the Christian tradition Lent is a special moment during which to make personal sacrifices with the intent of becoming better human beings.
“However socio-theologically speaking I have always believed that any personal sacrifice that does not have as its final goal the intent and capacity of benefiting the community turn into egoist actions. That is why on one hand always critically examine what motivates our actions and on the other recuperating a love full of solidarity as our goal and sacrifice as a process to reach that goal….
My struggle against the School of the Americas brought me to this prison in order for me to continue demonstrating my subversive compassion. Let us not forget that compassion is the way in which prove what is genuine and the quality of our love full of solidarity, the most important sacrament.”
 Historically, Father Barrios is not alone in subversive compassion because after all the sacrifice made by men and women of conscience were for a greater good and the betterment of humanity. When Lolita Lebron fired on the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1950s, she said that she was willing to die for Puerto Rican freedom. Instead, she wound up giving up her freedom. Dilcia Pagan did the same. Don Pedro Alibizu Campos made the same sacrifice and was tortured for his beliefs. Not too long ago, the only way to shut down the bombing range and military base on Vieques island was for individuals to be arrested in non-violent protest, people like the Rev. Al Sharpton.
In American culture there is something that loves war and hates love. One sees it on television, video games, movies, a sense of self-righteous entitlement and vengeance where it’s alright to bash someone’s brains in while puritanically cursing love in any way it comes. Luis Barrios’s courage takes form in his actions as a loving citizen protesting injustice, because after all, justice in one place means injustice everywhere.
After his 4-year conviction was overturned and all charges were dropped, Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers and Chicago 10 appeared at a rally and said, “With all these people here, I think the most appropriate, human, revolutionary thing to say, like we always say, ‘all power to the people.’”
On Friday April 3rd at 7:00 p.m. Iglesia San Romero Las Americas will hold their “People’s Mass” at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in the Bronx in support of Father Luis Barrios and his compatriots, with a fervent desire to close the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia.
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
