[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 321 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 321
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 on November 16, 1989, at the Universidad
Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas located in San Salvador, El Salvador.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 26, 2009
Mr. Feingold (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Casey, and Mr.
Menendez) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and
agreed to
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
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 on November 16, 1989, at the Universidad
Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas located in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Whereas in the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, 6 Jesuit priests and
faculty members of the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas
(``UCA'') located in San Salvador, El Salvador--Fathers 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, aged 59, was since 1979 rector of the UCA and
was an internationally-respected intellectual and advocate for human
rights and for a negotiated solution to the Salvadoran civil conflict;
Whereas Father Ignacio Martin-Baro, aged 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, aged 56, was dean of the department of social
sciences, a sociology professor at the UCA, and the founder and director
of the Human Rights Institute at the UCA, who did extensive work on
Salvadoran refugees in the United States during the period of the
Salvadoran conflict, including providing documentation and advice to
Members of Congress on refugee issues;
Whereas Father Amando Lopez, aged 53, was a philosophy and theology professor at
the UCA, was the 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 Father Juan Ramon Moreno, aged 56, was a professor of theology at the
UCA, a former novice-master for the Jesuits, and a tireless pastoral
worker and spiritual guide;
Whereas Father Joaquin Lopez y Lopez, aged 71, was one of the creators of the
UCA and the founder, organizer, and director of Fe y Alegria (Faith and
Joy), an organization to address the lack of education in El Salvador,
which opened 30 educational centers in marginalized communities
throughout El Salvador where 48,000 people received vocational training
and education;
Whereas Julia Elba Ramos, aged 42, was the cook and housekeeper for the Jesuit
seminarians at the UCA and the wife of Obdulio Lozano, the UCA gardener
and groundskeeper;
Whereas Celina Mariset Ramos, aged 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 6 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 6 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 6 priests and 2 women joined the more than 75,000 noncombatants
who perished during the Salvadoran civil war;
Whereas on December 6, 1989, Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas
Foley appointed the Speaker's Task Force on El Salvador consisting of 19
Members of the House of Representatives and chaired by Representative
John Joseph Moakley of Boston, Massachusetts, to monitor the Salvadoran
government's investigation into the murders of the Jesuit priests and 2
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 2 women and for obstructing the subsequent
investigation into the crimes;
Whereas the United Nations Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (the ``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 Task Force on El Salvador;
Whereas on September 28, 1991, a Salvadoran jury found 2 Salvadoran military
officers guilty of the murders, including Salvadoran Army Colonel
Guillermo Alfredo Benavides Moreno, the first time in Salvadoran history
in which high-ranking military officers were convicted in a Salvadoran
court of law of human rights crimes;
Whereas the UCA remains dedicated to advancing and expanding educational
opportunity and providing the highest quality of academic excellence in
its studies and courses and maintains a 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, in 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
6 Jesuits and 2 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 people and the Government
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 the 8
spiritual, courageous, and generous priests, educators, and laywomen:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) commemorates the lives and work of Father Ignacio
Ellacuria, Father Ignacio Martin-Baro, Father Segundo Montes,
Father Amando Lopez, Father Juan Ramon Moreno, Father Joaquin
Lopez y Lopez, Julia Elba Ramos, and Celina Mariset Ramos;
(2) extends sympathy to the families, friends, colleagues,
and religious communities of the 6 Jesuit priests and 2
laywomen;
(3) recognizes the continuing academic, spiritual, and
social contributions of the Universidad Centroamericana 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 Representative John
Joseph Moakley and the Speaker's Task Force on El Salvador in
investigating the murders of the 6 priests and 2 laywomen;
(7) acknowledges the role played by the Speaker's Task
Force on El Salvador, Representative John Joseph Moakley, the
Jesuit leadership of the UCA, and the Salvadoran judicial
investigation and convictions in advancing negotiations to end
the war, such that the deaths of the Jesuit martyrs and
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 6 Jesuit priests and 2
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 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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