HOLLOMAN AFB – Six peace activists were arrested here at the main gate to Holloman AFB Wednesday (April 24, 2024) morning for blocking the entrance in a protest against the use of killer military drones.

All have been released as of early afternoon Wednesday after being arraigned. Future court dates to be determined.

Those arrested released a statement: 

"This morning the West then Main Gate to Holloman AFB were blocked during the morning commute.  Initially 5 peace activists blocked entry for 20 minutes to the West Gate of Holloman AFB using banners/signs stating: U.S. Drone Warfare is Terrorism; Holloman: Stop Training Drone Assassins!!!; No Tax $$ for Genocide.  Some of the blocked cars crossed the highway to go back to the main gate.  Otero County Sheriff officers arrived. The activists went to the Main Gate.

At the Main Gate, 6 activists blocked the roadway just feet away from the entrance into Holloman AFB using signage stating: Drone Pilots Refuse to Fly; Free Palestine; Honor our Vets, End War; No More War.  The activists chanted: "We will not be complicit; Stop the drone killing; Stop the Genocide."  Within 10 minutes, Otero County Sheriff officers arrived and arrested the six that were blocking the roadway.

From Monday, April 22, 2024 through Friday, April 26, peace groups in the coalition, Shut Down Drone Warfare.org (SDDW), have converged for a week of focused nonviolent actions outside Holloman Air Force Base, a U.S. military drone base near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Why? 

Holloman AFB, on Hwy 70 in southern NM, has become the largest drone training program in the U.S., graduating over 700 pilots and operators annually. Activists from four different states in the region will be participating in the week's protest.

SDDW will hold varied themed vigils daily during commute hours, M-F (6:30-8:30 am and 3:30-5:30 pm).  The week culminates in the day of nonviolent civil disobedience on Wed, April 24, during which they hope to peacefully interrupt "business as usual" for as long as possible by blocking the early am commute. 

Via thoughtful messaging participants hope to educate Air Force personnel about the full effects of U.S. globalized militarization, and in particular the failings of the U.S.drone program and to urge those training to reconsider their participation, which often leads to significant psychic trauma. 

In addition to a focus on Air Force personnel at Holloman, members will do educational outreach in the local community of Alamogordo. 

Scott Thompson, Alamogordo resident and SDDW participant says, "Our government primarily serves an elite class that profits from wars and is unconcerned with the suffering we inflict on other humans. It is the duty of every good citizen to look beyond the headlines and understand the inhumane waste of resources making unconstitutional wars on others. Via public outreach and thoughtful actions we hope to get the attention of the misinformed."

Organizer Toby Blomé says: "In spite of 14 years of persistent opposition to the U.S. drone program and the terror it brings to vulnerable communities, the Pentagon and the drone industry profiteers are plowing forward, creating an ever more destabilized world of weaponized drones. We will not be silent while young recruits continue to be trained in these heinous acts of remotely controlled killing, ultimately becoming victims themselves due to the consequences of severe moral injury. This is not the world we want for our grandchildren, nor for the generations that follow them."

The late Martin Luther King Jr., said that acts of nonviolent direct action serve to "create and foster such a tension" as to demand a response.  He wrote "nonviolent resistance was one of the most potent weapons available to oppressed people in their quest for social justice."

FMI visit  www.ShutDownDroneWarfare.org.