Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2005

Mr. Speaker, I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation to the leadership on both sides of the aisle for bringing this resolution to the House floor before we adjourn for the year. I especially want to thank Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Chairman Burton, Subcommittee Ranking Member Menendez, House International Relations Committee Chairman Hyde, Ranking Member Lantos, Majority Leader Blunt, Democratic Leader Pelosi, Speaker Hastert, Rules Committee Chairman Dreier and all of their staffs.

Mr. Speaker, on December 2, 1980, Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clark and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and Cleveland lay missionary Jean Donovan were brutally violated and murdered by members of the Salvadoran national guard. The guardsmen who pulled the triggers and their immediate superior, a sub-sergeant, were tried, convicted and imprisoned in 1984 for these heinous crimes, although they were later released in 1997 and 1998. But I am not here today to recall these tragic events. I am here to remember and honor their lives.

These four courageous American women dedicated their lives to the safety and welfare of others, to the poor and the desperate of El Salvador, especially the women and children left homeless and destitute by the violence and the war of that era. It is the way that they lived their lives and the work that they carried out that has proven to be so inspirational to so many people in the 25 years since their death and especially the young people who are looking for role models, both secular and spiritual, to guide their own futures.

I had the privilege to spend December 1 through December 6 in El Salvador and to participate in the many 25th anniversary events organized by the Maryknoll Sisters and other Salvadoran and American religious leaders honoring the lives of these four wonderful women. I was a member of a delegation coordinated by the Washington office on Latin America and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Our delegation joined over 200 other Americans and an equal number of religious representatives from throughout Central and South America and elsewhere. During our 5 days in El Salvador, we walked in the footsteps of these women. We visited small rural communities where they lived and worked. We met with the campesinos, the priests and the sisters with whom they labored. We attended mass, and we worshipped at the site where their bodies were found.

And we listened to the members of their families and their religious orders tell stories of their lost loved ones that brought these women vividly and joyously to life for all of us.

While it was a time of sorrow and remembered grief, it was also a time of celebration, for these four American women are remembered with great love and affection by the Salvadoran people and by so many Americans across our country. Their spirits burn bright and have served to inspire many others, including young people, to lives of service. Who now remembers those who brutalized and murdered them, unless it is with a shudder?

Several 25th anniversary events were held here in the United States during the December 2 weekend in cities as diverse as Kansas City, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Across our country we will also find community centers, neighborhood health clinics, and groups that provide counseling for young women and mothers dedicated to these four women. We will find libraries, schools, and scholarly centers named in their honor and books, films, plays and music created to celebrate their lives.

In El Salvador, throughout Latin America, and even around the world, it is common to come across communities and humanitarian projects named after Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel.

I have been very privileged to get to know some of the family members of these women, and I have long been a friend of the Maryknoll Sisters. A finer group of people one simply cannot find. It is for them, the families, friends, and colleagues of these four church women that I am proud the House is acting on this special remembrance of their loved ones who have been lost to them these past 25 years but who always remain, as they say in Spanish, ``presente'' in their hearts, minds, and souls.

I believe these four American women represent the very best our country has to offer. They represent the best values and ideals, not only of the American people but of all people. My recent time in El Salvador inspired me. It reenergized me. It reminded me that we must remain committed to continuing the church women's legacy by helping the poor and disadvantaged of El Salvador develop their communities and create a more hopeful future for all.

I urge my colleagues to approve of H. Res. 458 and to remember the very special lives dedicated to service of Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford, and Dorothy Kazel.

Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the Four Missionary Women--Bishop

Thomas G. Wenski, Bishop of Orlando, Chairman, USCCB Committee on

International Policy, November 21, 2005.

Twenty-five years ago, many throughout the world were

shocked by the news of the abduction, rape and murder on

December 2nd 1980 of four American missionary women in El

Salvador. That same year saw the intensification of the civil

war in that country that was dramatically marked first by the

assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero on March 24th and,

nearly a decade later, by the slaughter of six Jesuit priests

and their two aides at the Central American University on

December 16th 1989.

There can be little doubt that the sacrificial deaths--the

martyrdoms--of these exemplary Christians, representing the

episcopate, the life of vowed religious men and women, and

the Catholic laity. Nor is there doubt that the findings of

those guilty for these crimes served to hasten the end of

that fratricidal war that was finally concluded with the

January 1992 Peace Accords.

Sister Maura Clarke, MM, Sister Ita Ford, MM, both of the

Maryknoll Sisters, Sister Dorothy Kazel, OSU of the Sisters

of St. Ursula, and lay missionary Jean Donovan of the

Cleveland Diocesan Mission team were all young, dynamic,

deeply committed missionaries. They saw the face of Christ in

the poorest and most vulnerable of the people of El Salvador

and sought to offer what aid and consolation they could

provide. In the poisonous political atmosphere of the time,

their concern for ``the least of these'' was seen by some as

a challenge to an unjust status quo.

May we today rededicate ourselves, together with the

bishops and faithful of El Salvador and all of Central

America, to the task of peace, justice and reconciliation

throughout the Americas for which these exemplary women gave

their lives.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

I rise in support of this resolution to honor the four United States churchwomen who were murdered in El Salvador 25 years ago this month: Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Maryknoll Lay Missioner Jean Donovan. Sisters Dorothy Kazel and Jean Donovan were both from my hometown of Cleveland. I was present at a neighborhood church during a reception for Sister Dorothy before she left on her last trip to El Salvador and have shared many moments with the Kazel family since then.

These churchwomen, along with other martyrs, dedicated their lives to working with El Salvador's poor during the incredibly dangerous and devastating period of the Salvadoran civil war. What their lives were about was bringing the social Gospel to those most in need. More than 70,000 civilians were murdered during the 12 years of that war.

The legacies of a history ripe with violence have lingered. Perhaps the best way to honor the four churchwomen is to do what they would do, to acknowledge the human rights offenses that have continued to this day. I would like to address such offenses: the continued operation of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, under the new name of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation; and the ongoing threats to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in El Salvador.

I would like to urge support for Dr. Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo, the Human Rights Ombudswoman of El Salvador. A crucial component of the 1992 Peace Accords that put an end to the Salvadoran civil war was the establishment of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, the principal human rights investigative and monitoring body in El Salvador. Dr. de Carrillo has received numerous accolades for her work strengthening human rights in El Salvador.

Yet 25 years after the murders of the four U.S. churchwomen, threats against defenders of human rights continue. Over the course of the past year, the Ombudswoman has been the target of ongoing intimidation and harassment. The United States has the responsibility not only to recognize the work of the four churchwomen who we memorialize today but also to support those who are continuing to defend human rights in El Salvador.

The murders of the churchwomen and countless others were executed by members of the armed forces of El Salvador. Three of the five officers involved in the 1980 rape and murder of four churchwomen were graduates of the School of the Americas. Other notorious graduates involved in human rights offenses in El Salvador have included: El Salvador death squad leader Roberto D'Abuisson; 19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter; two of the three killers of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador; and 10 of the 12 officers responsible for the murder of 900 civilians in the Salvadoran village, El Mozote.

In supporting the resolution honoring the 4 churchwomen, I would like to urge for floor consideration of another bill offered by Congressman McGovern, H.R. 1217, the Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2005, which closes the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Additionally, I would like to urge support for Dr. Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo, the Human Rights Ombudswoman of El Salvador. A crucial component of the 1992 Peace Accords that put an end to the Salvadoran civil war was the establishment of the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman, the principal human rights investigative and monitoring body in El Salvador. Dr. de Carrillo has received numerous accolades for her work strengthening human rights in El Salvador. Yet 25 years after the murders of the four U.S. churchwomen, threats against defenders of human rights continue. Over the course of the past year, the Ombudswoman has been the target of ongoing intimidation and harassment, including anonymous death and other threats and public slander, at times even by high-ranking State officials. The United States has the responsibility to support the work of human rights defenders in El Salvador whenever we have the opportunity to do so. In memory of the four churchwomen murdered 25 years ago, I urge my colleagues to publicly support the work of Dr. de Carrillo and to pressure the State Department and the Embassy of El Salvador to also publicly support her work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for House Resolution 458, a resolution honoring the lives of four American churchwomen who were murdered just over 25 years ago in El Salvador. I am a cosponsor of the resolution and am gratified that the House has chosen to bring it to the floor under suspension of the rules.

In late 1980, four American churchwomen were serving communities in El Salvador that were wracked by the violence of that country's civil war. They were murdered by members of the National Guard of El Salvador, horrifying the world and bringing home the impact of that war to the American public. These four lives were but a fraction of the 70,000 civilians who perished in that conflict, and those numbers are dwarfed by the toll of the misery inflicted by the violence that raged up and down Central America in the 1970s and 80s.

Locked in the struggle of the cold war, the U.S. turned a blind eye to much of the suffering in the region, focusing its efforts on the geopolitical ends of thwarting potential communist movements through military means, whether supporting the contras in Nicaragua or right- wing governments in places like El Salvador. We look back on this period today with a mixture of relief that democracy prevailed and disgust at the tactics that were used.

Brave action by these churchwomen carried the flag of democracy and human rights into that region, and helped freedom prevail. Our reliance on institutions like the School of the Americas to train the soldiers of leaders whose primary attractiveness to us was being ``not a communist'' rather than sharing our ideals of human rights hamstrung our efforts. Sadly, our military's reluctance to track those that we have trained makes it impossible for us to look beyond the anecdotal record of those who were the worst, or the best, to assess the true measure of what we did. However, that record was enough for those of us concerned about U.S. training of foreign militaries to push for closure of the School of the Americas and ensuring that the training that the U.S. military conducts here in the U.S. and around the world ensures respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. People like Joe Moakley and Tip O'Neill, who I wish were here to see this. As chairman of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in the 1980s, I led the fight with them to restrict U.S. military assistance to despotic regimes, and to conduct better oversight of foreign military training programs.

Today, as much of our foreign assistance seems to be focused on the military front, in places like Colombia and elsewhere, we should remember that humanitarian assistance, development assistance, and people-to-people contact foster stronger bonds and better allies than military assistance alone. Ensuring clean water, education and stronger civil society provide a better life for everyday people do more to further our goals of fighting terror than another shipment of the weapons of war.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of this important resolution. Mr. Speaker, El Salvador has progressed much since the 1980s when a horrific civil war tore through the country, consuming some 75,000 lives.

In the last decade, the country has held numerous free and fair elections. Power was transferred peacefully from one political party to another, and the military has withdrawn from the political and economic affairs of the country and returned to its barracks.

Standards of living have also improved. According to the World Bank, fewer infants are dying at birth; more children are attending primary school; and more families have access to safe drinking water today than they did 10 years ago.

El Salvador has also become one of our most trusted and unwavering allies and has taken principled and brave stances on such issues as Iraq and the defense of Israel.

Mr. Speaker, despite these extraordinary accomplishments, El Salvador, like many post-conflict countries, still struggles with a host of social, economic and environmental problems.

Public investments in health, education, sanitation and other social programs are low. As a consequence, the health of the population is generally poorer than that of most of El Salvador's regional neighbors. Also, violence, much of it gang related, is crippling El Salvadoran society. And El Salvador's preparedness to respond and mitigate natural disasters remains lacking.

Today's resolution reminds us to draw strength and inspiration from the lives of four admirable women who were killed for dedicating their lives to trying to bring hope to those who are desperately poor in El Salvador.

Working together with our El Salvadoran friends, I am confident that we can overcome the remaining challenges that confront them and strengthen the already close ties that bind our two great nations.

Mr. Speaker, the resolution before us today takes another step towards fortifying these bonds. I want to applaud my friend and colleague, Chairman Hyde, for expediting this body's consideration of the resolution, and I commend the efforts of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) for authoring it.

I strongly urge all of my colleagues to support H. Res. 458.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he might consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the author of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I commend my friend from Massachusetts for his singularly moving statement.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 458) remembering and commemorating the lives and work of Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and Cleveland Lay Mission Team Member Jean Donovan, who were executed by members of the armed forces of El Salvador on December 2, 1980, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, on December 2, 1980, 25 years ago this month, four American church women were murdered in El Salvador by members of the El Salvadoran military. In 1984, five national guardsmen were tried, convicted and sent to prison for these murders.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of their deaths, the resolution before us commemorates the lives and work of the Maryknoll Sisters, Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missionary Jean Donovan. It extends our most profound sympathy and support to the families, friends and religious communities of these four women. It encourages us to find inspiration in their lives and work and calls upon the American people and religious congregations to participate in local, national and international events marking the 25th anniversary of their deaths.

The resolution also recognizes that progress has been made in El Salvador following the war, but reminds us that the work of these missionaries on behalf of the poor remains unfinished. Therefore, it calls on us as a Congress to engage ourselves and relevant U.S. agencies to continue to support and collaborate with the Salvadoran government and other private nonprofit and religious groups working to reduce poverty and hunger in El Salvador and to promote educational opportunity, health care and social equity.

I would like to commend Mr. McGovern for bringing this resolution to the floor. It is a fitting tribute to four inspiring American church women who worked on behalf of some of the poorest Salvadorans, including refugees and children left homeless during El Salvador's internal struggles. I think we could all learn a lesson from the events of 25 years ago and work even harder to ensure that democracy remains strong in Central America and elsewhere so that such events can never be repeated. I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.