Burlington Activist Arrested at Fort Benning Protest

COLUMBUS, GEORGIA - - Burlington activist and filmmaker Robin Lloyd was among 40 people arrested on November 20 at a protest outside the U.S. Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia. Protests have been held annually for years outside the military training institute - - more commonly known by its previous name, the School of the Americas - - because some of its international students have been linked to human- rights abuses in their home countries.

Lloyd was among the 19,000 demonstrators who marched to the gates of the Army base in a mock funeral procession. According to a Vermont activist who was also in Georgia for the protest, Lloyd was arrested when she attempted to enter the base and issue a "citizen's arrest warrant" to Colonel Gilberto R. Perez, the facility's director. The warrant cited the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

Lloyd spent a night in jail before returning to Burlington this week. She faces three to six months in prison.