I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 732

To close the United States Army School of the Americas.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 11, 1999

Mr. MOAKLEY (for himself, Mr. SCARBOROUGH, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. VENTO, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr.

GEORGE MILLER of California, Mrs. MORELLA, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. NEAL

of Massachusetts, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. GEJDENSON, Ms. RIVERS,

Mr. SABO, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. WEYGAND, Mr. OLVER, Mr.

TIERNEY, and Mr. FORBES) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services

A BILL

To close the United States Army School of the Americas.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

4 Congress makes the following findings:

5 (1) The United States Army operates a military

6 education and training facility known as the United

7 States Army School of the Americas, which is cur8 rently located at Fort Benning, Georgia, and is used
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1 to train military personnel of Latin American armed

2 forces.

3 (2) The United States Army School of the

4 Americas has a history of abusive graduates, and the

5 continued operation of the school stands as a barrier

6 to United States efforts to establish a new and con7 structive relationship with Latin American armed

8 forces after the Cold War.

9 (3) Closing the United States Army School of

10 the Americas would not prevent the United States

11 from providing appropriate training for military per12 sonnel of Latin American armed forces.

13 (4) The United States Army School of the

14 Americas is only part of the United States’ extensive

15 training relationship with Latin American armed

16 forces, which includes—

17 (A) the Center for Hemispheric Defense

18 Studies, the United States Air Forces’ Inter19 American Air Forces Academy, and the United

20 States Navy’s Small Craft Instruction and

21 Technical Training School;

22 (B) courses taken by Latin American mili23 tary personnel with members of the United

24 States Armed Forces at numerous institutions

25 in the United States; and
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1 (C) training with some of the more than

2 50,000 members of the United States Armed

3 Forces who serve on active duty in Latin Amer4 ica each year.

5 (5) Graduates of the United States Army

6 School of the Americas include some of the worst

7 human rights abusers in the western hemisphere,

8 including—

9 (A) 19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the

10 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and their

11 housekeeper and her daughter;

12 (B) two of the three officers cited by the

13 Guatemalan archbishop’s office as suspected in14 tellectual authors of the killing of anthropolo15 gist Myrna Mack in 1992, as well as three top

16 leaders of the notorious Guatemalan military

17 intelligence unit D–2;

18 (C) one-half of the 247 Colombian army

19 officers cited in the definitive work on Colom20 bian human rights abuses, El Terrorismo de

21 Estado en Colombia, 1992;

22 (D) 10 of the 30 Chilean officers against

23 whom a Spanish judge in 1998 requested in24 dictments for crimes of terrorism, torture and

25 disappearance;
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1 (E) El Salvador death squad leader Ro2 berto D’Aubuisson;

3 (F) Panamanian dictator and drug dealer

4 Manuel Noriega;

5 (G) Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri,

6 a leader of the so-called ‘‘dirty war’’, during

7 which some 30,000 civilians were killed or dis8 appeared;

9 (H) Haitian Colonel Gambetta Hyppolite,

10 who ordered his soldiers to fire on a provincial

11 electoral bureau in 1987;

12 (I) two of the three killers of Archbishop

13 Oscar Romero of El Salvador;

14 (J) 10 of the 12 officers responsible for

15 the murder of 900 civilians in the El Salva16 doran village El Mozote; and

17 (K) three of the five officers involved in

18 the 1980 rape and murder of four United

19 States churchwomen in El Salvador.

20 (6) Despite sustained congressional and public

21 pressure, the United States Army School of the

22 Americas has implemented only limited reforms of

23 its curriculum.

24 (7) The continued operation of the United

25 States Army School of the Americas continues to as-
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1 sociate the United States with the abuses of its

2 graduates.

3 SEC. 2. CLOSURE OF UNITED STATES ARMY SCHOOL OF

4 THE AMERICAS.

5 (a) CLOSURE REQUIRED.—Not later than 30 days

6 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary

7 of the Army shall close the military education and training

8 facility known as the United States Army School of the

9 Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

10 (b) REPEAL OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY.—(1) Sec11 tion 4415 of title 10, United States Code, is repealed.

12 (2) The table of sections at the beginning of chapter

13 407 of such title is amended by striking out the item relat14 ing to such section.

15 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ALL OTHER

16 TRAINING OF FOREIGN MILITARY PERSON17 NEL BY THE UNITED STATES.

18 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con19 gress that, in each training activity undertaken by the

20 United States with foreign security forces, the Secretary

21 of Defense (or any other executive branch official who may

22 be overseeing the training activity) should—

23 (1) substantially increase emphasis upon re24 spect for human rights, the proper role of a military

25 within a democratic society, and accountable and
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1 transparent management of defense and security

2 policy; and

3 (2) vigorously implement Department of De4 fense regulations regarding the screening of foreign

5 candidates for inclusion in the training activity to

6 ensure that the United States does not train individ7 uals implicated in human rights abuses, illegal drug

8 trafficking, or corruption.

9 (b) TRAINING ACTIVITY DEFINED.—In subsection

10 (a), the term ‘‘training activity’’ means any activity in

11 which the United States provides military education and

12 training for foreign security forces, whether conducted in

13 the United States or abroad, including international mili14 tary education and training under chapter 5 of part II

15 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2347

16 et seq.), international narcotics control under chapter 8

17 of part I of such Act (22 U.S.C. 2291 et seq.), activities

18 under section 1004 of the National Defense Authorization

19 Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (10 U.S.C. 374 note), and activi20 ties under the major force program for special operations

21 forces of the United States.

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