By World BEYOND War, International Peace Bureau, Convention for Pan-Africanism and Progress, School of the Americas Watch, and Southern Anti-Racism Network, March 6, 2026
This webinar featured women from Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Sudan in Africa, as well as women from Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela who are resisting U.S. military imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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SPANISH
Text of Ann Wright’s Remarks
First, my apologies for the actions of my government in the current war on Iran, the assassination of 40 members of the leadership of Iran, including Khameni and his family, and on the January 3, 2026 kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and former National Assembly President and former Attorney General of Venezuela, Cilia Flores, who happens also to be the spouse of President Maduro.
The actions of the government of the United States continue to be illegal, unlawful and dangerous to the world.
We, people of conscience in the U.S., are trying our best to figure out how to stop the murderous Trump regime, but so far are unsuccessful. But as you see from protests all over the U.S., we are not giving up.
As a retired US Army Colonel and former US diplomat, I have been asked to give a quick 10 minute overview of the US military in Central and South America and in Africa.
I have worked in both Latin America and in Africa.
Before resigning from the US government 23 years ago in March 2003 in opposition to the US war on IRAQ, I had been assigned as a military officer to the US Southern Command and as a US diplomat I was assigned to US Embassies in Nicaragua and Grenada. As a US diplomat I was the deputy Ambassador at the US Embassy in Sierra Leone and later I was seconded to the United Nations operation in Somalia in 1993-94.
The US military has divided the world into areas of influence. The US Southern Command covers Central and South America, while the US Africa Command (Africom) covers the countries in Africa.
Each command is conducting dangerous military operations in its respective area.
SOUTHERN COMMAND
In the Southern Command, US Special Operations personnel are targeting and blowing up fishing boats that are allegedly carrying narcotics, yet the Trump administration will not provide evidence and the few survivors of the attacks have been proven to be fishermen, not narco-traffikers.
These operations have been challenged by people inside the US military. The head of the Southern Command, xxx, questioned the legality of the assassination actions, and was force out of his position.
For years the Southern Command had an educational facility located in Panama for personnel from the militaries in Latin America. It was called the School of the Americas. When the US Southern command moved from Panama to the continental US, the School of the Americas was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia and the name of the school was changed to Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). https://armyuniversity.edu/whinsec/en/course_catalog
The School of the Americas and WHINSEC trained some of the leaders of the death squads that operated in Central America in the 1980s.
For years, activist groups have had massive protests at Fort Benning, but five years ago the protests moved to Tucson and Nogales, Arizona due to the horrible treatment of immigrants attempting to cross the US border.
AFRICA COMMAND
The U.S. military has conducted many operations in Africa in the past years.
