As of December 2, U.S. warships were on their way to Vieques, while the Clinton administration continued to strive for some "agreement" that would allow them to carry out exercises not only off the coast but over the island.

The U.S. military took over two-thirds of the island, located off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, in the 1940s. One end is used for a large ammunition dump and the other for a live firing range and amphibious assault training area.

Vieques residents and others have resisted this Navy occupation of their land for decades. The issue exploded as a central focus of the struggle against U.S. colonial rule over Puerto Rico on April 19, when a civilian guard, David Sanes, was killed as a U.S. warplane dropped its bombs miles off target.

Protesters immediately set up civil disobedience camps on the firing range, forcing the Navy to suspend training exercises. Tens of thousands of people have since joined marches and rallies, demanding the U.S. Navy leave Vieques completely. Under this pressure, a wide range of political figures, including pro-statehood governor Pedro Rosselló, called for Washington to stop using Vieques as a target range and return use of the entire island to the Puerto Rican people.

Washington has stepped up pressure in recent weeks, as Pentagon officials announced they intend to use Vieques to train pilots from the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower, now scheduled to deploy to the Arab-Persian Gulf in February 2000. The Pentagon initially announced the Eisenhower would start practice bombing December 1.

Protesters responded with a series of demonstrations November 19–21 in front of the U.S. base on the island and by reinforcing the protest camps now occupying the firing range.

On November 21 Vieques activists announced the formation of a new coordinating body, the Coordinating Committee for Peace and Justice in Vieques. It brings together the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, associations of fishermen and activists in the civil disobedience camps, United Youth, Alliance of Vieques Women, the local Catholic and Baptist churches, Puerto Rican Independence Party, and the Popular Democratic Party, which supports continuing Puerto Rico's colonial status.

The Coordinating Committee announced they would not accept any agreement that allowed even a temporary resumption of bombing on the island.

"We want to send a message to those politicians who seek to create divisions that we are more united than ever," declared Héctor Oliviera, a founding participant in one of the protest camps on the firing range.

The Puerto Rican Workers Federation (CPT) is one of the groups maintaining a civil disobedience camp on the restricted part of the island. "We are not going to leave until we are arrested, if that's what is going to happen," said CPT president Federico Torres Montalvo November 19.

Torres has joined several other prominent labor and church officials to call for "human chain" protests in support of Vieques in the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan, and other cities on December 1.

Some 1,350 students at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Río Piedras met November 10 and voted by a large majority to call a general strike and organize demonstrations if the U.S. resumes bombing. Rafael Ortiz, vice-president of the General Student Council, said they would set up a strike coordinating committee to organize civil disobedience brigades to carry out demonstrations on the main island as well as Vieques to fight against the Navy and the militarization of the island.

UPR students also say they are reaching out to student groups in the United States and around the world for support in their struggle.

The San Juan daily El Nuevo Día reported November 20 on a poll reflecting continued broad opposition to the Navy presence in Vieques. Some 56 percent throughout the country wanted the military to leave and opposed any resumption of maneuvers, El Nuevo Día said. This reached 80 percent among those living on Vieques itself.

The Miami Herald reported November 20 that President Clinton phoned Puerto Rican governor Pedro Rosselló three times recently, trying to get him to back a resumption of the firing exercises. Clinton offered to use only nonexplosive projectiles. Rosselló initially agreed, but backed down in face of broad opposition within Puerto Rico as news of the plan leaked out. The governor refuses to say what else Clinton told him, and is issuing repeated calls for people to remain "calm."

Former governor Carlos Romero Barceló, now Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative to the U.S. Congress, has said he thinks a compromise with the Navy is necessary.

Washington is also increasing pressure by floating repeated rumors of when the administration may announce its decision on Vieques, raising tensions on the island in anticipation of the government's move. Most recently, Secretary of Defense William Cohen declared November 23 that he would make a final recommendation to Clinton in the first week of December. U.S. Navy spokespeople have said they cannot postpone the Eisenhower exercises past mid-December.

El Nuevo Día reported that special units of the Puerto Rican police are training to confront protesters at U.S. government offices and military facilities elsewhere throughout the country.

On November 21 Vieques activists denounced government wiretapping of their phones. A local official told El Nuevo Día that this was done by "U.S. security agencies."

Harvey McArthur is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 100A.  
 
 
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