Edward M. Kennedy: “Mr. Speaker, the United States has a long history of involvement in Latin American affairs. As a bastion of democracy…”

“Mr. Speaker, the United States has a long history of involvement in Latin American affairs. As a bastion of democracy with a vibrant economy, the United States is looked to with great admiration and respect by millions and millions of Latin Americans. But our history in Latin America is checkered by our financial, military, and moral support and association with people like Omar Torrijos, the dictator of Panama; Manuel Noriega, the dictator and drug runner; Leopoldo Galtieri, who led the military junta in Argentina; Roberto d'Aubisson, organizer of the Salvadoran death squads that killed Archbishop Romero; 19 of the 26 Salvadoran officers that planned and carried out and covered up the murder of 6 Jesuit priests in 1989; and more than 100 of the 246 Colombian officers cited for human rights violations, including several instructors from the School of the Americas, as well as 6 Peruvian officers linked to a military death squad that killed 9 students in 1992, and the 3 most senior Guatemalan officers who backed a coup attempt in May 1993. What is the one thing that they all had in common? They are all graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. The fact is that this is a school that has run more dictators than any other school in the history of the world. They boast about the fact that 10 separate heads of state throughout Latin America were graduates of the School of the Americas.”