The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2008
Floor Speech
THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008--Continued -- (House of Representatives - June 21, 2007)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 4 minutes.
Mr. Chairman, this is a very simple amendment. It ensures that no funds in this bill can be used for programs at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, otherwise known as WHINSEC. It does not affect the funds in the Defense appropriations bill where the majority of WHINSEC's funding is provided.
Last year was the first debate on the WHINSEC, the successor to the U.S. Army School of the Americas. Since last year, the WHINSEC has made a number of very disturbing decisions that bring into question its much-vaunted commitment to transparency and democratic values.
For example, last year's debate brought to light a number of human rights cases involving WHINSEC students and instructors. Instead of using these cases as an opportunity to review its practices and procedures, instead of strengthening the vetting process and fixing any problems that might exist, the WHINSEC chose to attack the messengers.
It asserted that Salvadoran Colonel Francisco del Cid Diaz, responsible for the notorious 1983 Las Hojas massacre, never attended the WHINSEC. I guess they didn't check their own records because here is his name on the list of 2003 graduates.
They attacked the reputation of the current Bolivian Human Rights Ombudsman, Waldo Albarracin, saying that he has no recollection of the military captain who had him kidnapped and tortured in 1997, the same Major Urzagaste who was at the WHINSEC in 2002. When Mr. Albarracin heard of this slander, he sent me a letter describing what happened to him and the role of Urzagaste.
Mr. Chairman, like similar cases regarding corruption charges against three Colombian officers who attended the school, the WHINSEC dismissed the horror of Mr. Albarracin's torture as without merit because the courts dropped the case. Are WHINSEC officials ignorant about how military officers acted with impunity in Bolivia during the 1990s? Or in El Salvador during the 1980s? Are they ignorant of how the Colombian military benefits from the worst culture of impunity in the hemisphere today? The fact that charges of kidnapping, torture, murder, drug trafficking and corruption are routinely dropped is a major problem with Latin American militaries, not a virtue. Even more disturbing is how the WHINSEC responded to criticism. It chose to build a fortress around itself, to make sure that no one in the public, no human rights organization, no foreign policy analyst, would be able to review the names of WHINSEC's graduates and instructors.
For the first time in the history of WHINSEC, including the 40-year history of its infamous predecessor, the School of the Americas, Freedom of Information Act requests are being denied. I have in my hands the school's response regarding 2005 graduates. Every single name is blacked out. Look at it, 18 pages, completely redacted. Is this anyone's idea of transparency? Of open relations with human rights and other policy organizations? This was a deliberate choice. The practice of secrecy extends to WHINSEC's public relations materials, where not a single solitary name of any of its Latin American students or teachers appears. So blacking out the names of graduates wasn't a mistake. It wasn't an anomaly. It's a deliberate decision to keep information secret, to avoid any kind of independent scrutiny or oversight.
Is this the example we want our Latin American counterparts to copy? I hope not, Mr. Chairman.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. The gentleman hasn't been listening to me. The State Department letter that he is quoting is essentially a whitewash. That State Department letter says that Cid Diaz, who I mentioned who is responsible for the Las Hojas massacre, never attended the WHINSEC. I just showed you right here. This is from the WHINSEC. He did. So the State Department was wrong. The State Department letter says that the Human Rights Ombudsman in Bolivia can't remember who his torturer was. I have a letter here from the Bolivian Ombudsman that says he feels he was slandered. So that letter is wrong. And I have proof that it is wrong.
And you talk about accountability. Where's the accountability? This is the first time ever that we can't track the graduates. The school doesn't want to track the graduates. They say they don't have the time. So it has been up to human rights organizations. This is what we get in return. How do we know? How does anybody know? We need to do a better job.
So you didn't listen to my statement, I would say respectfully to the gentleman from Georgia. What the State Department sent to you is wrong and I have the proof.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, there seems to be a disconnect here. Let me again try to be crystal clear.
The problem is that the WHINSEC takes no responsibility for knowing anything about the human rights records of their students before they come to the U.S. or when they return home. They say the vetting process is done by the State Department, and then they say they will not, will not, do follow-up after their students return to their home countries.
How can they then claim that their training is effective? Doesn't that require some kind of follow-up or tracking of graduates? Nobody has addressed the fact that, up until just now, we would have access. There was public access to the people who went to the WHINSEC.
That's how we knew about those who violated human rights, because we had the list. This is now the response that we get from this school about the people who attend the school, not just the students, but the instructors that they bring in. Where is the transparency? Where is the accountability? What's wrong with laying a little sunshine in?
Look, our standing around the world has never been lower. I hate to tell you something, but in Latin America this is one of the most unpopular schools that exists in the United States of America. People think that this is a school responsible for training or at least turning a blind eye to human rights violators, not just from years ago but recently.
But, then again, we really can't tell you accurately and neither can you tell me accurately what the human rights records are of these people who are attending. Because it's all blacked out. I mean, this is not the way a school in the United States that trains for our military should operate.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, let me again make a point here that is that last year when we were debating this same issue, an Army officer trained at the School of the Americas murdered a DEA-trained anti-narcotics unit in Colombia. This is still happening every day.
We were told a little while ago that everything, we are referring to the distant past. Well, again, I mentioned the Bolivian ombudsman, Mr. Albarracin, who was tortured in Bolivia in 1997, and his torturer, Major Urzagaste, went to WHINSEC in 2002.
Again, I am going to keep on saying this. I don't have a problem with training foreign militaries. What I have a problem with is this: the secrecy, the lack of accountability, the lack of transparency.
I am going to tell you something. We are going to find out, sooner or later, who some of these people are; and we are going to find out that they are responsible for atrocities. I gave them an example of somebody who was admitted to the school after he had been accused of torture.
I mean, where is the vetting process? We need to do much better.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds.
I don't want any more reports. What I want is accountability. I want to know whose going there. I want to know what happens to them when they go back to their country. I want to know their backgrounds before they go to the school.
You know, we knew, we found out that 19 of the 26 trigger men who murdered in cold blood six Jesuit priests in El Salvador were graduates of the school because we had access to the names. We don't have access to the names anymore. And no report is going to give us access to the names.
We want transparency. We want accountability. There are problems here. We need to address them. That's our job.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds.
I have great regard for the gentleman from Texas. But my question is, how do you know? Do you track all these people individually? Can you tell me that all these people whose names have been crossed out are pure, that they are following a code of human rights; that they're not guilty of atrocities against their people?
That's the point here. I'm not arguing against the U.S. being involved in training programs. What I'm saying is that there's something fundamentally wrong with a training program where everything is secret; where we're told everybody is great, but yet we can't have access to track down the people who go to that school. We need to change that.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Chairman, I'm not interested in going to visit a school and having hors d'oeuvres and a cocktail.
I'm interested in who goes to the school. That's what I'm interested in. I want to follow-up who goes to the school, who's admitted to the school. And we used to be able to have access to that information. And even though the school didn't track the graduates, human rights organizations did. We are now being denied access. I mean, where's the transparency? You all talk about all the great graduates of this school. How do you know when you get this in return? This is not an open, transparent process.
Furthermore, more and more countries in Latin America are saying we don't want to have anything to do with this school. Uruguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica have all pulled out of the school. They don't want to have anything more to do with WHINSEC.
Mr. Chairman, we've heard a great deal today that without the WHINSEC the U.S. would not be engaged in Latin America. Well, with all due respect, the U.S. trains 15,000 or more Latin American military officers and troops each and every year, less than 1,000 of them at the WHINSEC. We are very engaged in Latin American militaries, and none of these other programs carry the negative baggage that the WHINSEC does.
We have heard that WHINSEC has trained the future leaders of Latin America. But, again, with all due respect, one of Latin America's problems has been that too many of its national leaders were from the military. We should be spending our time and our efforts on strengthening civilian and democratic institutions.
We have heard assertions that that the WHINSEC is transparent and promotes democratic values. But WHINSEC's own actions show those claims to be a lie. What else do you need to see? I mean, what else do you need to see?
Now, I suggest that instead of WHINSEC, we should support the model of Argentina. After separating from the WHINSEC last year, Argentina just opened a new military school where civilian, legal and human rights experts will teach every single military officer about the role of the military in a modern democratic state.
Mr. Chair, America's reputation with the people of Latin America is at the lowest level ever. Cutting the funding for the WHINSEC will send a powerful message to the people of Latin America who, hopefully, will be the real future leaders of their nations, that the U.S. Congress finally gets it.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to just close with a few personal remarks. When I was working for our dear friend and former colleague, Congressman Joe Moakley, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her 16-year old daughter were murdered in cold blood at the University of Central America in San Salvador.
It made me sick to my stomach when I learned that 19 of the 26 soldiers who murdered these priests are graduates of the School of the Americas. These priests were my friends, and I knew them. And over the years, we have raised concerns first about the School of the Americas and then its successor, the WHINSEC.
We have asked for transparency. We have called for accountability. We have asked for specific follow-up with the graduates.
Let me be perfectly clear. There's a reason why WHINSEC does not share information on its graduates and its teachers. They don't want us to do the follow-up. They don't want us to point out what they should be doing.
Passage of this amendment will send a strong signal to Latin America that we do care about human rights. But it will also send a signal to our own military that business as usual is not acceptable.
Vote ``yes'' on the McGovern-Lewis amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McGOVERN. Let me say to the gentleman from Georgia, their record isn't spotless. We presented five cases last year. I mean, maybe you weren't listening to the debate, but we did. And the problem with this year is this is what the WHINSEC gave us, so we can't follow up.
And to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, who I have great respect for, you know, I'm not against military training. And yeah, we need to do better. My amendment, by the way, doesn't cut off all funding for the WHINSEC. Most of that money is in the Defense bill. It only cuts off the money that is under the jurisdiction of this bill.
And yes, it does need to be improved. I don't know how anybody can vote against this amendment in light of the fact that this is their, WHINSEC's, example of transparency. How do we follow up on the graduates? How can we follow up on whether the people that are going there are human rights abusers when we get this in return?
Even under the infamous School of the Americas, we were given the names. That's how I found out that 19 of the 22 trigger men who murdered the Jesuit priests were graduates of the School of Americas. If I got this I never would have known that. This is what they have given us.
Now, this is not transparency. This is not accountability. You want that school to do better, we need to send a message on the floor of the House today that we're not satisfied with business as usual, and the way to do that is vote for the McGovern amendment.
I urge all my colleagues to vote for the McGovern-Lewis amendment. Let's take a stand for human rights. If this country stands for anything, it needs to stand out loud and four square for human rights, and this is one way to prove it. Vote for this amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source