"I can say that Vieques is a one-of-a-kind training facility. It is a vital...facility for our sailors and Marines," Lt. Cmdr. John Kirby of the Navy's Second Fleet told the Washington Post following the Navy's announcement of the exercises. "There is simply no other place where we can train our forces in a combined arms training environment."

Washington insists the U.S. Navy can resume the bombings based on an agreement reached in January 2000 between the Puerto Rican governor and the Clinton administration. The pact allows Washington to continue use of the island despite widespread opposition to the bombing and calls for a referendum on the question--whose time and character is set by the U.S. government--for November 6.

Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the resumption of military maneuvers, which will last six days, will be under protection of the Puerto Rican police to assure "no interference" from local residents. "We hope that the government in Puerto Rico complies with the accords," said Shelton in a news item on the television channel C-SPAN.

The U.S. Navy in Vieques has, in turn, launched an ideological campaign through radio programs to convince Puerto Ricans they should accept the Atlantic Fleet's full-scale mock invasions that include shellings, bombings, and amphibious landings, because the island is the "perfect location" for it.

According to El Diario/La Prensa, the military exercises announced by the Navy will include a fleet of 12 warships assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and 15,000 troops prior to the battle group being deployed in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.

Two-thirds of Vieques, a small island off Puerto Rico's eastern coast with 9,400 residents, has been used by the U.S. Navy for live-fire military maneuvers for six decades. During bombing practices in April 1999, a civilian guard, David Sanes, was killed by a bomb dropped from a war plane. The death, which sparked a wave of protests, including the occupation of the site by opponents of Washington's use of the island, ended last May after a U.S. government raid expelled the protesters. Vieques residents contend that the live-fire maneuvers have been a threat to their health and environment for the past 60 years.

"We're ready to do our jobs, to protest," said Ismael Guadalupe of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, about the upcoming protests. José Paralitici, head of All Puerto Rico With Vieques, told El Vocero that his organization welcomes everyone who wants to join the action to stop the resumption of the bombings in Vieques. The protests include civil disobedience by a range of labor, religious, and community organizations, according to Robert Rabin of the Vieques Peace and Justice Campaign.

In New York, supporters of the struggle to end the U.S. bombings have scheduled a demonstration at 12:00 noon on April 28 at the Federal Plaza, sponsored by Vieques Support Campaign.

The governor of Puerto Rico, Sila María Calderón, introduced a bill that toughens noise regulations on beaches and waters surrounding Vieques in a effort to halt the bombings. Legislators in Puerto Rico announced they plan to approve the bill and will hand it to Calderón for her signature as a law.

The governor of New York, George Pataki, recently visited Vieques to express his opposition to continued U.S. bombing of the island. He was joined by Denis Rivera of the 1199 Health Workers Union and several New York state legislators.

In a statement during the visit, Rabin urged Pataki, a Republican, to "use the influence you may have with President Bush to help him understand that in Vieques, the U.S. Navy, far from defending democracy, violates the most basic rights of our community to live in peace and enjoy the security and happiness guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and Puerto Rico." Rabin said residents of the island have faced "over a half a century of mistreatment" and will "fight to the end to defend its patrimony and the future generations of Viequenses."

Rabin also asked the New York governor to help get charges dropped against Tito Kayak and Gazir Sued, two people who scaled the Statue of Liberty to highlight opposition in Puerto Rico to the Navy's occupation and bombardment of the island.  
 
 
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