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. CAMP-
BELL, 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 re-
ferred to the Committee on Armed Services
A BILL
To close the United States Army School of the Americas.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The United States Army operates a military
education and training facility known as the United
States Army School of the Americas, which is cur-
rently located at Fort Benning, Georgia, and is used
to train military personnel of Latin American armed
forces.
(2) The United States Army School of the
Americas has a history of abusive graduates, and the
continued operation of the school stands as a barrier
to United States efforts to establish a new and con-
structive relationship with Latin American armed
forces after the Cold War.
(3) Closing the United States Army School of
the Americas would not prevent the United States
from providing appropriate training for military per-
sonnel of Latin American armed forces.
(4) The United States Army School of the
Americas is only part of the United States’ extensive
training relationship with Latin American armed
forces, which includes—
(A) the Center for Hemispheric Defense
Studies, the United States Air Forces’ Inter-
American Air Forces Academy, and the United
States Navy’s Small Craft Instruction and
Technical Training School;
(B) courses taken by Latin American mili-
tary personnel with members of the United
States Armed Forces at numerous institutions
in the United States; and
(C) training with some of the more than
50,000 members of the United States Armed
Forces who serve on active duty in Latin Amer-
ica each year.
(5) Graduates of the United States Army
School of the Americas include some of the worst
human rights abusers in the western hemisphere,
including—
(A) 19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the
1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and their
housekeeper and her daughter;
(B) two of the three officers cited by the
Guatemalan archbishop’s office as suspected in-
tellectual authors of the killing of anthropolo-
gist Myrna Mack in 1992, as well as three top
leaders of the notorious Guatemalan military
intelligence unit D–2;
(C) one-half of the 247 Colombian army
officers cited in the definitive work on Colom-
bian human rights abuses, El Terrorismo de
Estado en Colombia, 1992;
(D) 10 of the 30 Chilean officers against
whom a Spanish judge in 1998 requested in-
dictments for crimes of terrorism, torture and
disappearance;
(E) El Salvador death squad leader Ro-
berto D’Aubuisson;
(F) Panamanian dictator and drug dealer
Manuel Noriega;
(G) Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri,
a leader of the so-called ‘‘dirty war’’, during
which some 30,000 civilians were killed or dis-
appeared;
(H) Haitian Colonel Gambetta Hyppolite,
who ordered his soldiers to fire on a provincial
electoral bureau in 1987;
(I) two of the three killers of Archbishop
Oscar Romero of El Salvador;
(J) 10 of the 12 officers responsible for
the murder of 900 civilians in the El Salva-
doran village El Mozote; and
(K) three of the five officers involved in
the 1980 rape and murder of four United
States churchwomen in El Salvador.
(6) Despite sustained congressional and public
pressure, the United States Army School of the
Americas has implemented only limited reforms of
its curriculum.
(7) The continued operation of the United
States Army School of the Americas continues to as-
sociate the United States with the abuses of its
graduates.
SEC. 2. CLOSURE OF UNITED STATES ARMY SCHOOL OF
THE AMERICAS.
(a) CLOSURE REQUIRED.—Not later than 30 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary
of the Army shall close the military education and training
facility known as the United States Army School of the
Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
(b) REPEAL OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY.—(1) Sec-
tion 4415 of title 10, United States Code, is repealed.
(2) The table of sections at the beginning of chapter
407 of such title is amended by striking out the item relat-
ing to such section.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ALL OTHER
TRAINING OF FOREIGN MILITARY PERSON-
NEL BY THE UNITED STATES.
(a) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
gress that, in each training activity undertaken by the
United States with foreign security forces, the Secretary
of Defense (or any other executive branch official who may
be overseeing the training activity) should—
(1) substantially increase emphasis upon re-
spect for human rights, the proper role of a military
within a democratic society, and accountable and
transparent management of defense and security
policy; and
(2) vigorously implement Department of De-
fense regulations regarding the screening of foreign
candidates for inclusion in the training activity to
ensure that the United States does not train individ-
uals implicated in human rights abuses, illegal drug
trafficking, or corruption.
(b) TRAINING ACTIVITY DEFINED.—In subsection
(a), the term ‘‘training activity’’ means any activity in
which the United States provides military education and
training for foreign security forces, whether conducted in
the United States or abroad, including international mili-
tary education and training under chapter 5 of part II
of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2347
et seq.), international narcotics control under chapter 8
of part I of such Act (22 U.S.C. 2291 et seq.), activities
under section 1004 of the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (10 U.S.C. 374 note), and activi-
ties under the major force program for special operations
forces of the United States.
Æ