SF 3064

as introduced - 80th Legislature (1997 - 1998) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                             A resolution
  1.2             urging the President and the Congress of the United 
  1.3             States to support the closure of the United States 
  1.4             Army School of the Americas. 
  1.5      
  1.6      WHEREAS, the School of the Americas was established in 
  1.7   Panama in 1946 and is presently located in Fort Benning, 
  1.8   Georgia; and 
  1.9      WHEREAS, the School of the Americas has trained over 59,000 
  1.10  troops from Latin America and the Caribbean since its inception 
  1.11  and currently trains 900 to 2,000 such soldiers per year at an 
  1.12  annual cost to the American taxpayers of nearly $20,000,000; and 
  1.13     WHEREAS, training manuals used by the School of the 
  1.14  Americas have advocated execution, false imprisonment, physical 
  1.15  abuse, and other forms of torture; and 
  1.16     WHEREAS, many of the School of the Americas graduates have 
  1.17  been involved in a wide range of human rights abuse; and 
  1.18     WHEREAS, two of the three Salvadoran officers cited as 
  1.19  being responsible for the 1980 assassination of Archbishop Oscar 
  1.20  Romero were graduates of the School of the Americas, including 
  1.21  death squad founder and leader Roberto D'Aubuisson; and 
  1.22     WHEREAS, ten of the 12 officers cited as being involved in 
  1.23  the massacre of 900 civilians at El Mozote in El Salvador 
  1.24  graduated from the School of the Americas; and 
  1.25     WHEREAS, nineteen of the 26 officers cited in the November 
  2.1   1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her 
  2.2   daughter in San Salvador, El Salvador, were graduates of the 
  2.3   School of the Americas; and 
  2.4      WHEREAS, Guatemalan Colonel Julio Roberto Alpirez, who was 
  2.5   implicated in the killing of United States citizen Michael 
  2.6   Devine and Efraim Bamaca, husband of United States lawyer 
  2.7   Jennifer Harbury, is a School of the Americas graduate; and 
  2.8      WHEREAS, the editorial boards of the Asbury Park Press, 
  2.9   Atlanta Constitution, Bangor Daily News, Boston Globe, Cleveland 
  2.10  Plain Dealer, Courier News, Des Moines Register, New York Times, 
  2.11  San Antonio Express-News, and Syracuse Post-Standard have called 
  2.12  for the closure of the School of the Americas; and 
  2.13     WHEREAS, the New York Times, in its September 28, 1996, 
  2.14  edition stated "An institution (the School of the Americas) so 
  2.15  clearly out of tune with American values...should be shut down 
  2.16  without delay"; and 
  2.17     WHEREAS, the California chapter of the Veterans of Foreign 
  2.18  Wars has passed a resolution to close the School of the Americas 
  2.19  and the national organization is deliberating the same 
  2.20  resolution; and 
  2.21     WHEREAS, there is growing opposition to the School of the 
  2.22  Americas in the United States House of Representatives; and 
  2.23     WHEREAS, in September 1997, the House of Representatives 
  2.24  came within seven votes (210-217) of passing an amendment to the 
  2.25  1998 Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill that would have cut 
  2.26  $1,500,000 from the school's funding; and 
  2.27     WHEREAS, the House of Representatives' vote represents a 
  2.28  sharp contrast to 1993 to 1994 when amendments to cut the 
  2.29  school's funding were defeated by 82-vote and 42-vote margins; 
  2.30  NOW, THEREFORE, 
  2.31     BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota 
  2.32  that it urges the President and the Congress of the United 
  2.33  States to support the closure of the United States Army School 
  2.34  of the Americas.  
  2.35     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the 
  2.36  State of Minnesota is directed to prepare copies of this 
  3.1   memorial and transmit them to the President and Vice-President 
  3.2   of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the President 
  3.3   and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the Speaker and 
  3.4   the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the 
  3.5   chair of the Committee on Armed Services in the Senate, the 
  3.6   chair of the Committee on National Security in the House of 
  3.7   Representatives, and Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in 
  3.8   Congress.