Political Quotes

“I am in opposition to the Moakley amendment. I have visited El Salvador 40 or 50 times. The School of the Americas is something we need. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the Moakley amendment. As you should know, the School of the Americas has trained over 54,000 graduates, including ten presidents, 38 ministers of defense and state, 71 commanders of armed forces, and 25 service chiefs of staff in Latin America. Since the school began training national leaders of South and Central American countries, military or totalitarian regimes in that region have declined and have been replaced with democracies. Right now, Cuba remains as the sole dictatorship in the Western Hemisphere. Not so ironically, Cuba does not participate in the School of the Americas program. This amendment attempts to close the school based on 10-20-year-old assumptions about the school. Although there may have been questionable practices taught at the school in the past, these have all been corrected years ago. Without the training from the School of the Americas, there never would have been peace in El Salvador. The FMLN rebels demanded that the military leadership resign before they would negotiate for a peace settlement. Armed with the lessons taught at the school, these leaders decided to resign. This was not because they were losing, but because President Christiani had urged them to do it. And with that resignation, the peace process began.”