Robert Torricelli: “The Chairman, in the last several months the American people have learned a great deal about Guatemala. Ten Americans…”

“The Chairman, in the last several months the American people have learned a great deal about Guatemala. Ten Americans lost, disappeared, brutalized or raped. Their families have come forward to tell the story of their horrors in Guatemala. The Drug Enforcement Agency has told us a story that nearly one-third of all the cocaine reaching the United States is now warehoused in Guatemala before being shipped to our own cities and towns. Yet 11 Guatemalan military officers indicted in the United States are protected by that country's laws where extradition is refused. Against this, the backdrop of 150,000 people in Guatemala who have lost their lives in the last 30 years through a genocidal campaign against their own people, led by civil defense patrols who roam the countryside harassing, exploiting and murdering poor civilians who are defenseless. Mr. Chairman, in the weeks since we have learned many of these things in the tragic history of Guatemala, President Clinton has suspended United States military assistance to that country's armed forces, demanding cooperation in the investigation of the deaths of Americans, insisting on cooperation in the extradition of military officers involved in cocaine trafficking.”