Nita Lowey: “as I said, the school, in my judgment, must be shut down, but the issue of what to do with the School of the Americas…”

“as I said, the school, in my judgment, must be shut down, but the issue of what to do with the School of the Americas goes well beyond the deplorable actions of the school and right to the heart of the United States foreign policy. The question before us today is whether the United States has a moral responsibility to encourage other governments to respect human rights and democracy. Are human rights and democracy just catch phrases we use, or are they basic principles that we demand of every Nation? We must in my judgment demand human rights and democracy, in name and in practice, from our own military and all of our neighbors. That is why the School of the Americas is an affront to everything that the United States foreign policy should be about. That is why we must close the school. Fifty years ago, the School of the Americas was opened with the goal of improving United States ties to Latin American militaries. The idea was to educate our neighbors to the south about Democratic civilian control of the military. But over the last few decades, we started to hear reports of what was actually being taught there. Words like torture, beating, and execution were increasingly being associated with the school's courses.”