[[File:Activists from the School of Americas Watch engage in protest.jpg|alt=Activists take part in a peaceful protest outside the entrance of Ft. Benning, by laying down and covering the Fort's entry sign with photos and posters depicting its victims.|thumb|Activists protest against the training of Latin American officers in terroristic repression tactics in Ft. Benning (now Ft. Moore), commonly known as the School of the Americas.<ref name=":17">[[Alan MacLeod|MacLeod, Alan]]. [https://www.mintpressnews.com/notorious-georgia-army-school-became-americas-training-ground-for-global-torture/285223/ “How a Notorious Georgia Army School Became America’s Training Ground for Global Torture.”] [[MintPress News]], July 5, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240418022331/https://www.mintpressnews.com/notorious-georgia-army-school-became-americas-training-ground-for-global-torture/285223/ Archived] 2024-04-18.</ref>]]
The [[Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation]], often (and formerly) called the School of the Americas, is infamous for its training of officers in tactics used for violent suppression, torture, and massacres throughout [[Iberoamerica|Latin America]]. It was originally founded in 1948 in [[Republic of Panama|Panama]], but was expelled in 1984 and relocated to the US, and is currently located in Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), [[State of Georgia|Georgia]], USA.<ref name=":17" />
[[Fort Lawton]] was a 1,100-acre Army post in [[Seattle]], [[State of Washington|Washington]], USA. It was located on land from which the local indigenous peoples had been forcibly removed in the wake of the 1855 [[Treaty of Point Elliot]]. By the 1960s, the U.S. government began a process of declaring the fort as surplus,<ref name=":18">[https://www.seattle.gov/parks/allparks/discovery-park/discovery-park-history "Discovery Park History."] Seattle.gov. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240509142830/https://www.seattle.gov/parks/allparks/discovery-park/discovery-park-history Archived] 2024-05-09.</ref> and amid various proposals for the land's future use, an organization called the United Indians People's Council (later, [[United Indians of All Tribes]])<ref name=":19">Patrick McRoberts and Kit Oldham. [https://www.historylink.org/File/5513 “Fort Lawton military police clash with Native American and other protesters in the future Discovery Park on March 8, 1970.”] Essay 5513, HistoryLink.org, 2003-08-15. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230406044126/https://www.historylink.org/File/5513 Archived] 2023-04-06.</ref> made a claim on Fort Lawton, citing rights under 1865 US-Indian treaties which had promised "the reversion of surplus military land to their original landowners."<ref name=":18" />
In 1970, when the base was in the process of being decommissioned, Native leaders met with Senator Henry M. Jackson and presented him with a detailed plan for turning the base into a center for indigenous arts, culture, and social services, intending to create a facility that could help Native people who had been displaced into the city by federal relocation policies. However, the senator was not receptive, and as [[Sid Mills]], who participated in the events recounted, "After that, we realized if we were going to get any land back, we were going to have to take it."<ref name=":20">Hopper, Frank. [https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2023/08/31/indians-seattle-fort-lawton-land-back “The Day the Indians Took over Seattle’s Fort Lawton—and Won Land Back.”] YES! Magazine, August 31, 2023. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240509145503/https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2023/08/31/indians-seattle-fort-lawton-land-back Archived] 2024-05-09.</ref>
A week later,<ref name=":20" /> on March 8, 1970, a protest occupation by over 100 Native Americans and supporters occurred at the fort, which had been "virtually empty and dormant for months" and used only intermittently.<ref name=":18" /> The occupation began first with a breach of the base's perimeter, after which "about 30 Native American men, women, and children were setting up camp and had managed to erect a teepee when they were discovered by a patrol."<ref name=":19" /> Military police attacked the occupiers with nightsticks and chased them with Jeeps and arrested them,<ref name=":20" /> though some people managed to escape and roam the base for some time.<ref name=":19" /> Two more takeover attempts occurred over the next three weeks. Meanwhile, outside the front gate, a 24-hour occupation camp was maintained. After a third takeover attempt on April 2, negotiations began with city, state, and federal officials to get at least some of the land back, eventually resulting in a 99-year agreement in which the city would receive the land, but would lease 17 acres to the [[United Indians of All Tribes Foundation]]. The [[Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center]] was built on the land and opened in 1977 while other parts of the area were turned into a park.<ref name=":20" />
[[File:Protestors break fencing at naval base in Vieques, Puerto Rico.jpg|alt=A group of protestors use tools to cut away sections of chain link fence|thumb|Protestors breaking into the fencing at US Naval base Camp Garcia in Vieques in 2001]]
The U.S. military used the island of [[Vieques]] as a bombing range and as a location for training exercises from 1941 until 2003. Over the course of its activity there, the U.S. military forcibly displaced people from their homes; seized 77% of the island;<ref name=":26">{{Web citation|author=Monisha Rios|newspaper=Foreign Policy in Focus|title=The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Vieques, Puerto Rico|date=2023-04-23|url=https://fpif.org/the-toxic-legacy-of-us-foreign-policy-in-vieques-puerto-rico/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926191719/https://fpif.org/the-toxic-legacy-of-us-foreign-policy-in-vieques-puerto-rico/|archive-date=2023-09-26}}</ref> caused injury, illness and deaths<ref>{{Web citation|author=Monisha Rios|newspaper=Foreign Policy in Focus|title=The Toxic Legacy of U.S. Foreign Policy in Vieques, Puerto Rico|date=2023-04-23|url=https://fpif.org/the-toxic-legacy-of-us-foreign-policy-in-vieques-puerto-rico/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926191719/https://fpif.org/the-toxic-legacy-of-us-foreign-policy-in-vieques-puerto-rico/|archive-date=2023-09-26|quote=With as little as a 24-hour notice, their belongings were tossed into uncleared resettlement plots that “lacked any previous conditioning, water, or basic sanitary provisions,” and their family homes were bulldozed. Some, including pregnant women and children, were given only tarps to live under for three months until the Navy brought materials for them to build a new home. Under these conditions, several people became severely ill, and a pregnant woman died.}}</ref><ref name=":28">{{Citation|author=Linda Backiel|year=2003|title=The People of Vieques, Puerto Rico vs. the United States Navy|title-url=https://monthlyreviewarchives.org/index.php/mr/article/view/MR-054-09-2003-02_1|quote=On April 19,1999, two F-18 jets mistook the navy's red-and-white checked observation post on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico for a target, and dropped 500 pound bombs on it. Vieques resident David Sanes was working at the observation post as a security guard for the navy. He was killed almost instantly. Three other men from Vieques were seriously injured.|publisher=Monthly Review|doi=10.14452/MR-054-09-2003-02_1|volume=Vol. 54, No. 9 February 2003}}</ref> among the local population and committed acts of sexual violence and harassment; polluted the land and water with [[lead]], [[depleted uranium]], [[napalm]], and other toxic substances; and left behind [[unexploded ordinance]].<ref name=":27">{{Web citation|author=Wilfred Chan|newspaper=The Guardian|title=‘I thought they’d kill us’: how the US navy devastated a tiny Puerto Rican island|date=2023-05-01|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/30/vieques-puerto-rico-us-navy-base-training|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902031832/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/30/vieques-puerto-rico-us-navy-base-training|archive-date=2024-09-02}}</ref> Vieques has been reported to have higher cancer rates than any other municipality of Puerto Rico, with one study showing a 27% higher cancer rate than the rest of Puerto Rico.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Valeria Pelet|newspaper=The Atlantic|title=Puerto Rico’s Invisible Health Crisis|date=2016-09-03|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/vieques-invisible-health-crisis/498428/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241011054315/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/vieques-invisible-health-crisis/498428/|archive-date=2024-10-11}}</ref> As a result of the extreme health and environmental damages caused in Vieques, it was declared a [[Superfund]] cleanup site, meaning it requires a special protocol for decontamination due to its toxicity. The military and its contractors cleanup methods have included open-air bombing of found munitions and open-air burning of vegetation, both of which have been criticized as exacerbating the health and environmental damage.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Denise Oliver Velez|newspaper=Daily Kos|title=Women in Vieques, Puerto Rico, lead the fight against U.S. Navy contamination of their island|date=2018-03-11|url=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/11/1745739/-Women-in-Vieques-Puerto-Rico-lead-the-fight-against-U-S-Navy-contamination-of-their-island|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127115608/https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/3/11/1745739/-Women-in-Vieques-Puerto-Rico-lead-the-fight-against-U-S-Navy-contamination-of-their-island|archive-date=2023-01-27}}</ref>[[File:Anti-Navy protest march in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2000.png|alt=Aerial photo of a march in San Juan with approximately 150,000 marchers|thumb|Protestors march in San Juan against the US Navy presence in Puerto Rico in 2000]]
The U.S. began forced removals of the population and land theft of the island of Vieques in 1941, with people being removed from their homes with as little as 24-hour notice, losing access to their [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence]] farm plots and their homes getting bulldozed. Another wave of forced removals began in 1947, with the U.S. Department of Defense seizing 17,500 acres of agricultural land; by 1948, the U.S. Navy had forcibly taken 77% of the island of Vieques away from the local population, with the displaced people either having to leave entirely or be crowded into the remaining 23% of the island.<ref name=":26" />
Among the protests of the people against the Navy's activity in Vieques were the actions in the wake of the death of Davis Sanes in 1999, a local who was killed when the Navy misidentified a target and dropped a bomb on the security guard post where he worked, as well as wounding others. Activists engaged in acts of [[civil disobedience]] as well as instances of breaking into the base<ref name=":27" /> and occupying the base, with their activities preventing naval exercises for a year until the military forcibly cleared their encampments in 2000.<ref>{{Video citation|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uluOaP697NA|channel=AJ+|title=The US Navy's Toxic Playground: Vieques, Puerto Rico {{!}} AJ+|date=2019-06-12}}</ref> Also in 2000, a march was conducted in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico|San Juan]] with approximately 150,000 marchers to protest the Navy's presence in Puerto Rico.<ref>Ronald Ávila-Claudio. [https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-65630176 "Vieques: el oscuro episodio de los bombardeos sobre Puerto Rico que el ejército de EE.UU. realizó durante décadas."] BBC News Mundo. [https://web.archive.org/web/20241123033803/https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-65630176 Archived] 2024-11-23.</ref> Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba
