This was "a small battle victory in a struggle that continues," declared Ismael Guadalupe in a phone interview with the Militant. Guadalupe, a retired schoolteacher, is a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, which has helped spearhead the civil disobedience camps that have occupied the U.S. Navy firing range on Vieques since last April.

"We rejected Clinton's announcement. We remain united in saying: 'not one more shot.' The Navy must leave now and give us back our land," Guadalupe said. Referring to the proposal to use "inert" ordnance, he added, "There's no difference—they're still bombs and we say no."

The U.S. Navy took over two-thirds of Vieques in the early 1940s, using it as its major target range for the Atlantic Fleet. For decades, residents of Vieques and others in Puerto Rico have demanded the Navy leave and return the land to the Puerto Rican people.

This fight became a central question in Puerto Rican politics and a bigger factor in U.S. politics after April 19, when a U.S. plane killed a civilian security guard after dropping bombs off-target during a training flight. Protesters, led by Vieques fishermen and including workers, students, and political figures, set up civil disobedience camps in the target zone and prevented the Navy from carrying out any exercises.

Tens of thousands have joined marches and other protests, demanding the U.S. Navy get out. Under this pressure, virtually all prominent political figures in Puerto Rico, including pro-statehood governor Pedro Rosselló, have spoken out against further bombing and called for the Navy to leave Vieques.

In an attempt to regain use of the Vieques firing range, Washington combined political and economic pressure with preparations for police action against the protesters. In the last week before Clinton's announcement, the administration debated the use of special FBI teams to clear out the civil disobedience camps, but concluded the political cost would be too high.

Clinton's action drew criticism from some big-business, military, and government leaders in the United States.

Pentagon officials had insisted they needed to use Vieques to adequately train Washington's military forces. For weeks, they had said publicly that they must use Vieques in early December to train the Eisenhower battle group, which is scheduled to deploy to the Arab-Persian Gulf in February 2000. House Republican leader Rep. Tillie Fowler denounced the decision, saying it would increase the risks to U.S. Navy personnel.

She also pointed to the example Vieques could set for other peoples who have had U.S. military bases imposed on them. "You can bet the Okinawans and others will soon be pursuing the same tactics as were employed on Vieques," she said, referring to the Japanese island largely taken over by the U.S. military since the end of World War II.  
 

Washington aims to retain bases

U.S. military bases in Puerto Rico also include the huge naval station at Roosevelt Roads, the Fort Buchanan army base, and a special forces camp at Ceiba. They have long been key bastions in Washington's military operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. On December 10, Roosevelt Roads will come under the direction of the Pentagon's Southern Command, instead of the Norfolk, Virginia-based Atlantic Fleet command, underscoring its importance in Washington's war preparations.

Clinton's December 3 announcement laid bare Washington's intention to retain control over Vieques. The president offered a few concessions in hopes of undercutting protests and winning more support for the Navy.

Firing exercises will resume at the end of March, Clinton said, but only using nonexplosive bombs and projectiles. The number of days of actual bombing could be reduced to 90 days per year. He also offered a promise of a $40 million development program—to begin only after Navy exercises resume. He projected this plan as the start of a five-year "transition period" during which the Navy would find an alternative site for future training.

However, Clinton hedged every one of the restrictions, including the five-year withdrawal deadline, with the phrase "unless the people of Vieques decide otherwise," blatantly signaling Washington's intentions to pressure Puerto Rico to accept a continued U.S. Navy presence.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon described the plan as a "cooling off" period.

Independence fighter and former political prisoner Rafael Cancel Miranda told the Militant that Clinton's announcement "was an insult to the Puerto Rican people."

Remarking that he wasn't surprised by Washington's move, Cancel Miranda added, "They acted in their own interests. I'm talking about the ones who decided: the big monopolies and corporations, the U.S. ruling class. Clinton just signed the order on their behalf."  
 

Protests grow

The Coordinating Committee for Peace and Justice in Vieques responded immediately to Clinton's announcement with expanded civil disobedience actions. They set up a new camp the night of December 3, blocking the entrance to the Navy base called Camp García with a roadblock made up cars and tents. At least two other protest sites were set up inside the restricted zone in early December, bringing the number of camps to at least 10.

"If I have to stay here one year, I'll be here one year," declared Emma Rosa, 53 years old, who has spent 10 years working as a fisherwoman. "The children of Vieques deserve to walk on a free Vieques."

On December 6 U.S. federal marshals tried to force the protesters to stop blocking the entrance to the base, but they refused to move. News of the government attempt spread rapidly and hundreds of Vieques residents quickly joined the protest, forcing the marshals to back down. Before dawn the following morning, some young troops were sent to cut the locks protesters had placed on the doors to Camp García. They quickly retreated, however, without accomplishing their task, to the incessant booing of the protesters.

Student leaders at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras announced they would step up participation in the civil disobedience camps on Vieques and called for a protest march to the U.S. Navy recruiting center in Vieques December 8.

The Association of Vieques Women issued a call for more people to join the civil disobedience camps.

The evening before Clinton's announcement, a group of U.S. government employees, including postal workers and workers at the Dept. of Agriculture, held a vigil in San Juan to oppose Washington's policies towards Vieques.  
 

Capitalist politicians try to blunt struggle

Meanwhile big-business politicians in Puerto Rico scrambled to bolster their own positions and divert the struggle for Vieques toward support for some form of continued colonial status.

Rosselló, of the New Progressive Party (PNP), had been privately talking with Clinton for several weeks prior to the December 3 announcement, while making appeals for Puerto Ricans to "remain calm." The governor said he was "disappointed" by the plan and claimed it did not reflect what he had discussed with Clinton earlier.

However, Rosselló said he was open to "seeking a fair settlement... the balance of [U.S.] defense [needs] should have some ingredient of justice and peace for Vieques." Rosselló, whose party advocates making Puerto Rico a state of the United States, is also the head of Al Gore's presidential campaign committee in Puerto Rico.

Carlos Pesquera, gubernatorial candidate of the PNP, called Clinton's proposal "a positive step" that only needed a more definite deadline for the eventual departure of the Navy. "It's unrealistic to expect the Navy to leave immediately," he said.

Sila María Calderón, gubernatorial candidate of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), which supports maintaining the current "commonwealth" status of Puerto Rico, moved to seek a more prominent role in the dispute. She led a delegation of 115 PPD candidates to Vieques December 4, and has shifted her stance to more active support for the civil disobedience protests. Calderón met with protest leaders from Vieques and with Puerto Rican Independence Party leader Reuben Berríos, who has been camped out on the firing range since May 8.

The next day, however, Calderón urged greater reliance on negotiations between Puerto Rican politicians and the U.S. government, saying that the protesters should not get all the credit for Washington's change in plans for the Eisenhower.

Meanwhile, prominent anticolonial fighters stressed the importance of the mass protests.

"The Puerto Rican government strategy of lobbying the U.S. government collapsed" with Clinton's announcement, Ismael Guadalupe told the Militant. "The strategy of the people's struggle has prevailed." He called for strengthening the groups occupying the naval firing range.

"These events have helped open the eyes of many people who have had illusions in the U.S. government," said independentista leader Rafael Cancel Miranda. "The U.S. government rejects the will of the majority of our people. The people are saying 'leave Vieques' but they [Washington] are the ones who have control over our country."

Cancel Miranda noted that the massive character of the fight around Vieques "has strengthened the independence movement" and pointed to the importance of the growing pro-Vieques protests in the United States.

Harvey McArthur is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 100A in Chicago. Militant staff writer Martín Koppel contributed to this article.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home