[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 761 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 761
Remembering and commemorating the lives and work of Jesuit Fathers
Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez,
Juan Ramon Moreno, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, and housekeeper Julia Elba
Ramos and her daughter Celina Mariset Ramos on the occasion of the 20th
anniversary of their deaths at the University of Central America Jose
Simeon Canas located in San Salvador, El Salvador on November 16, 1989.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 22, 2009
Mr. McGovern (for himself, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Smith of New
Jersey, Mr. Delahunt, Mr. Flake, Ms. Watson, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr.
Sires, Mr. Dreier, Mr. Connolly of Virginia, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Sherman,
Mr. McMahon, Mr. Gene Green of Texas, Ms. Berkley, Mr. Miller of North
Carolina, Mr. Scott of Georgia, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Klein of
Florida, Mrs. Capps, Mr. Olver, Mr. Courtney, Mr. Hare, Mr. Neal of
Massachusetts, Mr. Costello, Mr. Nadler of New York, Ms. Edwards of
Maryland, Ms. Slaughter, Mr. Tierney, Mr. Arcuri, Mr. Lynch, and Mr.
Pastor of Arizona) submitted the following resolution; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Remembering and commemorating the lives and work of Jesuit Fathers
Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez,
Juan Ramon Moreno, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, and housekeeper Julia Elba
Ramos and her daughter Celina Mariset Ramos on the occasion of the 20th
anniversary of their deaths at the University of Central America Jose
Simeon Canas located in San Salvador, El Salvador on November 16, 1989.
Whereas in the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests and
faculty members of the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas
(UCA) located in San Salvador, El Salvador--Father Ignacio Ellacuria,
Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando Lopez, Juan Ramon Moreno,
and Joaquin Lopez y Lopez--and housekeeper Julia Elba Ramos and her
daughter, Celina Mariset Ramos, were executed by members of the
Salvadoran Army;
Whereas Father Ignacio Ellacuria, 59, was since 1979 rector of the UCA, and an
internationally-respected intellectual and advocate for human rights and
a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran civil conflict;
Whereas Father Ignacio Martin-Baro, 44, was the vice rector of the UCA, a
leading analyst of national and regional affairs, the founder and
director of the respected polling organization, the Public Opinion
Institute, former Dean of Students, Dean of the Psychology Department,
an internationally renowned pioneer in the field of social psychology
and pastor of the rural community of Jayaque;
Whereas Father Segundo Montes, 56, was Dean of the Department of Social Sciences
and a sociology professor at the UCA, and the founder and director of
the Human Rights Institute at the UCA (IDHUCA), who did extensive work
on Salvadoran refugees in the United States during the period of the
Salvadoran conflict, including providing documentation and advice to
United States Members of Congress on refugee issues;
Whereas Father Amando Lopez, 53, was a philosophy and theology professor at the
UCA, former director of the Jesuit seminary in San Salvador, and served
as pastor of the Tierra Virgen community in Soyapango, a poor
neighborhood in the periphery of San Salvador;
Whereas Farther Juan Ramon Moreno, 56, was a professor of theology at the UCA,
former novice-master for the Jesuits, and a tireless pastoral worker and
spiritual guide;
Whereas Father Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, 71, was one of the creators of the UCA and
the founder, organizer and director of Fe y Alegria (Faith and Joy) to
address the lack of education in El Salvador, which opened 30
educational centers in marginalized communities throughout the country
where 48,000 people received vocational training and education;
Whereas Julia Elba Ramos, 42, was the cook and housekeeper for the Jesuit
seminarians at the UCA and wife of Obdulio Lozano, the UCA gardener and
groundskeeper;
Whereas Celina Mariset, 16, had finished her first year of high school at the
Jose Damian Villacorta Institute in Santa Tecla, El Salvador and was
staying with her mother the night of November 15, 1989;
Whereas the six Jesuit priests dedicated their lives to advancing education in
El Salvador, protecting and promoting human rights and the end of
conflict, and identifying and addressing the economic and social
problems that affected the majority of the Salvadoran population;
Whereas the six Jesuit priests, as faculty and administrators at the UCA,
educated many students throughout the 1970s and 1980s, students who
subsequently became Salvadoran government, political and civil society
leaders, and thus helped facilitate communication, dialogue and
negotiations even during the turbulent years of the armed conflict;
Whereas these six priests and two women joined the more than 75,000
noncombatants who perished during the Salvadoran civil war;
Whereas on December 6, 1989, United States Speaker of the House of
Representatives Thomas Foley appointed a Special Task Force on El
Salvador consisting of 19 Members of the House of Representatives,
chaired by Representative John Joseph Moakley of Boston, Massachusetts,
to monitor the Salvadoran government's investigation into the murders of
the Jesuit priests and two women and to look into related issues
involving respect for human rights and judicial reform in El Salvador;
Whereas the Speaker's Task Force on El Salvador found that members of the High
Command of the Salvadoran military were responsible for ordering the
murder of the Jesuits and two women and for obstructing the subsequent
investigation into the crimes;
Whereas the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (Truth
Commission) was established under terms of the January 1992 Peace
Accords that ended El Salvador's 12 years of war and was charged to
investigate and report to the Salvadoran people on human rights crimes
committed by all sides during the course of the war;
Whereas on March 15, 1993, the Truth Commission confirmed the findings of the
Speaker's Special Task Force;
Whereas on September 28, 1991, a Salvadoran jury found guilty of these murders
two Salvadoran military officers, including Salvadoran Army Colonel
Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, the first time in Salvadoran history
where high-ranking military officers were convicted in a Salvadoran
court of law of human rights crimes;
Whereas the University of Central America Jose Simeon Canas in San Salvador
remains dedicated to advancing and expanding educational opportunity,
providing the highest quality of academic excellence in its studies and
courses, and the commitment to human rights and social justice;
Whereas the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States, which
represent many of the highest quality academic communities in the
nation, have maintained a sense of solidarity with the UCA and the
people of El Salvador and have annually observed the November 16th
anniversary of the martyred Jesuits and women;
Whereas in the United States, El Salvador and around the world university
programs, academic and scholarly institutes, libraries, research
centers, pastoral programs, spiritual centers and programs dedicated to
educational achievement, social justice, human rights and alleviating
poverty have been dedicated in the names of the Jesuit martyrs;
Whereas the international and Salvadoran outcry in response to the deaths of the
six Jesuits and two women and the subsequent investigations into this
crime served as a catalyst for negotiations and contributed to the
signing of the 1992 Peace Accords, which have allowed the Government and
the people of El Salvador to achieve significant progress in creating
and strengthening democratic political, economic and social
institutions; and
Whereas November 16, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the deaths of these
eight spiritual, courageous and generous priests, educators and
laywomen: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) remembers and commemorates the lives and work of Father
Ignacio Ellacuria, Ignacio Martin-Baro, Segundo Montes, Amando
Lopez, Juan Ramon Moreno, Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, Julia Elba
Ramos, and Celina Mariset Ramos;
(2) extends sympathy to the families, friends, colleagues
and religious communities of the six Jesuit priests and two
laywomen;
(3) recognizes the continuing academic, spiritual and
social contributions of the University of Central America Jose
Simeon Canas (UCA) in San Salvador, El Salvador;
(4) commends the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the
United States for their solidarity with the UCA and annual
remembrances of the Jesuit martyrs;
(5) continues to find inspiration in the lives and work of
the Jesuit martyrs;
(6) remembers the seminal reports by Chairman John Joseph
Moakley and the Speaker's Special Task Force on El Salvador in
investigating the murders of the six priests and two laywomen;
(7) acknowledges the role played by the Speaker's Special
Task Force, Congressman John Joseph Moakley, the Jesuit
leadership of the UCA, and the Salvadoran judicial
investigation and convictions in advancing negotiations to end
the war so that the deaths of the Jesuit martyrs and two
laywomen contributed directly to achieving the peace to which
they had dedicated their lives;
(8) calls upon the people of the United States, academic
institutions and religious congregations to participate in
local, national and international events commemorating the 20th
anniversary of the martyrdom of the six Jesuit priests and two
laywomen;
(9) recognizes that while significant progress has been
made during the post-war period, social and economic hardships
persist among many sectors of Salvadoran society; and
(10) calls upon the President, the Secretary of State, the
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development, and other United States' Federal departments and
agencies to support and collaborate with the Government of El
Salvador and other public, private, nongovernmental and
religious organizations in efforts to reduce poverty and hunger
and to promote educational opportunity, human rights, the rule
of law and social equity for the people of El Salvador.
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