So far S980 has only 12 co-sponsors, none of whom is from Virginia. See below for phone numbers and addresses of members of Congress. Graduates of the school made up over two thirds of the Salvadoran officers cited by the 1993 United Nations Truth Commission for atrocities during El Salvador's bloody civil war. One of the SOA's best-known graduates, former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, is now serving 40 years for drug trafficking. SOA's defenders maintain the Army school's training strengthens understanding of democratic values and respect for civil control of the military.
Critics say otherwise.
LCWR represents 78,000 Catholic nuns across the country. In September 1996, the Pentagon released seven Spanish-language training manuals used at the SOA until 1991. These materials, used to train Latin American soldiers, advocated interrogation techniques like torture, execution, and blackmail. The manuals also identified the targets for these methods as religious workers, labor organizers, student groups, and others in sympathy with the cause of the poor.