Dan Burton: “Mr. Chairman, I want to give a specific example of how the School of the Americas helps America, the United States of…”

“Mr. Chairman, I want to give a specific example of how the School of the Americas helps America, the United States of America. The Colombian National Police, which is one of our frontline combatant units against the drug cartels in Colombia, gets a great deal of training from the School of the Americas. The first 40 hours of their training is in the area of human rights. General Serrano and the Colombian police because of that have a stellar human rights record. Our State Department has told us in committee that the Colombian National Police, which is a recipient, a beneficiary of the School of the Americas, has an almost 100 percent human rights record. I believe it is because of the School of the Americas, because of the training they are getting there. The thing that is interesting about this is these people who are trained in the School of the Americas, the Colombian National Police that are fighting the war against drugs, against the Colombian drug cartel, lay their lives on the line every single day not just for their people in their country but for our kids in America who are the recipients of the drugs that are coming out of Colombia and Latin America and Central America. For us to close down the School of the Americas and to cut off funding would be a giant step, a giant step in the wrong direction.”