Whereas in the early morning hours of November 16, 1989, 6 Jesuit priests and faculty members of the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon CanAE6as (`UCA') located in San Salvador,...

SRES 321 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 Can.AE6as 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 Can.AE6as 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 Can.AE6as (`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 Can.AE6as (`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.