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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 873

To close the United States Army School of the Americas.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 22, 1999

Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mrs. BOXER, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mrs.

MURRAY, Mr. HARKIN, Mr. KERRY, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. FEINGOLD, and

Mr. WELLSTONE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

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

9 to train military personnel of Latin American armed

10 forces.
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1 (2) The United States Army School of the

2 Americas has a history of having had graduates who

3 were abusive of human rights, and the continued op4 eration of the school stands as a barrier to United

5 States efforts to establish a new and constructive re6 lationship with Latin American armed forces after

7 the Cold War.

8 (3) Closing the United States Army School of

9 the Americas would not prevent the United States

10 from providing appropriate training for military per11 sonnel of Latin American armed forces.

12 (4) The United States Army School of the

13 Americas is only part of the United States’ extensive

14 training relationship with Latin American armed

15 forces, which includes—

16 (A) the Center for Hemispheric Defense

17 Studies, the United States Air Force’s Inter18 American Air Forces Academy, and the United

19 States Navy’s Small Craft Instruction and

20 Technical Training School;

21 (B) courses taken by Latin American mili22 tary personnel with members of the United

23 States Armed Forces at numerous institutions

24 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 prosecuted by

13 Guatemala for being intellectual authors of the

14 killing of anthropologist Myrna Mack in 1992,

15 as well as several leaders of the notorious Gua16 temalan military intelligence unit D–2;

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

18 officers cited in the definitive work on Colom19 bian human rights abuses, El Terrorismo de

20 Estado en Colombia, 1992;

21 (D) El Salvador death squad leader Ro22 berto D’Aubuisson;

23 (E) Panamanian dictator and drug dealer

24 Manuel Noriega;
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1 (F) Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri,

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

3 which some 30,000 civilians were killed or dis4 appeared;

5 (G) Haitian Colonel Gambetta Hyppolite,

6 who ordered his soldiers to fire on a provincial

7 electoral bureau in 1987;

8 (H) two of the three killers of Archbishop

9 Oscar Romero of El Salvador;

10 (I) 10 of the 12 officers responsible for the

11 murder of 900 civilians in the El Salvadoran

12 village El Mozote; and

13 (J) three of the five officers involved in the

14 1980 rape and murder of four United States

15 churchwomen in El Salvador.

16 (6) Despite sustained congressional and public

17 pressure, the United States Army School of the

18 Americas has implemented only limited reforms of

19 its curriculum.

20 (7) The continued operation of the United

21 States Army School of the Americas continues to as22 sociate the United States with the abuses of its

23 graduates.
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1 SEC. 2. CLOSURE OF UNITED STATES ARMY SCHOOL OF

2 THE AMERICAS.

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

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

5 of the Army shall close the military education and training

6 facility known as the United States Army School of the

7 Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia.

8 (b) REPEAL OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY.—(1) Sec9 tion 4415 of title 10, United States Code, is repealed.

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

11 407 of such title is amended by striking out the item relat12 ing to such section.

13 SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ALL OTHER

14 TRAINING OF FOREIGN MILITARY PER15 SONNEL BY THE UNITED STATES.

16 (a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con17 gress that, in each training activity undertaken by the

18 United States with foreign security forces, the Secretary

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

20 be overseeing the training activity) should—

21 (1) substantially increase emphasis upon re22 spect for human rights, the proper role of a military

23 within a democratic society, and accountable and

24 transparent management of defense and security

25 policy; and
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1 (2) vigorously implement Department of De2 fense regulations regarding the screening of foreign

3 candidates for inclusion in the training activity to

4 ensure that the United States does not train individ5 uals implicated in human rights abuses, illegal drug

6 trafficking, or corruption.

7 (b) TRAINING ACTIVITY DEFINED.—In subsection

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

9 which the United States provides military education and

10 training for foreign security forces, whether conducted in

11 the United States or abroad, including international mili12 tary education and training under chapter 5 of part II

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

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

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

16 under section 1004 of the National Defense Authorization

17 Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (10 U.S.C. 374 note), and activi18 ties under the major force program for special operations

19 forces of the United States.

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