Rabin reported that a demonstration in Vieques was called for June 22 in front of the U.S. Navy's Camp García. Protests were also called for that day in New York's Times Square and in other U.S. cities.

U.S. military officials announced that five warships from the USS George Washington battle group were steaming toward Vieques to conduct military maneuvers off its coast. They will fire as many as 600 shells from ships and 830 bombs from planes, including 500- and 1,000-pound "inert" bombs, onto the Navy's bombing range, despite the protests by local residents and others in Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony.

The Pentagon has carried out such military training on Vieques since the early 1940s, when farmers and fishermen were evicted from their lands to make way for the U.S. military, which now occupies three- quarters of the island. The U.S. Navy suspended its operations in April 1999, after a Navy warplane dropped two "stray" bombs that killed Vieques resident David Sanes, detonating a wave of protests that continue today.

In January, colonial governor Pedro Rosselló signed a deal with U.S. president William Clinton agreeing to the resumption of U.S. bombing practice on the island in exchange for a referendum by Vieques residents on whether the Navy will remain there or leave by May 2003. Immediate withdrawal of the U.S. military will not be on the U.S.-organized ballot. In May, Clinton ordered FBI agents, U.S. marshals, and U.S. marines to evict protesters camped out on the bombing range.  
 
Steady reinforcement of protests
Since then, however, there has been a steady stream of protesters entering the Navy-occupied territory. As one group of demonstrators is detained and kicked out, new ones have entered, seeking to disrupt U.S. military operations. Fifty-six people were arrested on June 17.

On June 13, Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) leaders Rubén Berríos and Jorge Fernández were the first protesters to be convicted and sentenced for trespassing on the Navy firing range in Vieques. U.S. judge Juan Pérez Giménez, no friend of the independence movement, gave them what was widely considered token sentences.  
 
System on trial
PIP president Berríos was sentenced to six hours in prison and the sentence of party environmental advisor Fernández was four hours. After serving the time, Berríos and Fernández were released to a crowd of cheering supporters.

Defense lawyers for the two did not cross examine the seven witnesses for the prosecution, nor did they call any for the defense.

Like many in the independence movement, the two do not recognize the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts in Puerto Rico.

"What is on trial here," said Berríos in a statement read to the court in Spanish, "is the system that degrades Puerto Rico and contradicts the principles that the United States claims to defend. Whatever sentence this court may choose to impose will merely underscore the undemocratic and obsolete nature of the prevailing regime in Puerto Rico. The harsher the penalty the stronger our will to fight."

In the telephone interview, Vieques leader Rabin reported that the fight to get the U.S. military out of the Puerto Rican island has been receiving wider international support. "We've gotten messages of solidarity from south Korea, Japan, Panama, and the Philippines," he said.

One thing all those countries have in common is a long struggle against U.S. military bases. Protests took place recently in a South Korean village to demand U.S. forces stop using their area for bombing exercises.

Ron Richards in San Juan contributed to this article.  
 
 
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