Major religious groups and officials here, including Archbishop of San Juan Roberto González, President of the Bible Society Wilfredo Estrada, and Methodist bishop Juan Vera initiated the action, which has gained broad support from the labor movement. All Puerto Rico With Vieques, the group that organized the march of 50,000 last July 4, quickly endorsed the march.

The demonstration was called after Puerto Rican governor Pedro Rosselló of the New Progressive Party (PNP) announced a pact with U.S. president William Clinton to resume the use of the island as a naval training ground. The deal allows the Navy to continue its activities and for a referendum to be held seeking additional years, along with a promise to spend up to $90 million in improvements for residents of the island.

The move by Rosselló has shattered the idea that all Puerto Ricans have the same national interests. The vast majority of Puerto Ricans support the departure of the U.S. Navy from Vieques. This has pushed the church and normally pro-imperialist politicians to follow suit. The Catholic Church in Vieques is part of the archdiocese of Caguas, which has now opened its own civil disobedience camp in the restricted land of the bombing range, where anti-U.S. Navy forces have carried out an occupation for the past 11 months. More than 300 people applied to the church and about 100 were accepted to be rotated in and out of the camp.

The opposition Popular Democratic Party (PPD) is walking a tightrope, trying to get the votes of people who want the Navy out of Vieques, but not supporting the protest camps. Under the growing pressure of public opinion, however, Sila Calderón, the mayor of San Juan and the PPD candidate for governor, supports the march.

"For me, all the Puerto Ricans should go," said Calderón, "and I am insisting that the members of the PPD should go as Puerto Ricans. It is not a political march, it is Puerto Rican, in favor of Vieques and not against anything. There will be no political emblems. All Puerto Ricans that love Puerto Rico should be present."

The character of the February 21 march has been the subject of a debate on the front page of the newspapers here for a week.

Declaring the church leaders "separatists," Carlos Romero Barceló, the Puerto Rican nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, said the march "responds to political interests."

Rosselló called on church members to practice "religious disobedience" and defy church leaders by staying away from the march in solidarity with Vieques.

"Ecclesiastic leaders," said Rosselló, "have gone outside their fields, their authority, and are assuming roles in our democratic societies that are designated by vote. None of them has been elected by a vote of the people, and therefore none of the faithful have to follow their directions in matters such as this."

The Labor Federation of Puerto Rico, the AFL-CIO affiliate here, has endorsed the march. The federation faxed leaflets about the march to all of its affiliates including locals of the American Federation of Government Employees whose members work for the federal government. A 17-member delegation from the Japanese Committee in Solidarity with Asia, Africa and Latin America recently toured Puerto Rico. They spoke with the family of David Sanes whose killing by an errant U.S. bomb in April 1999 touched off the current round of protests and longtime activists in Vieques like Robert Rabin. The New Puerto Rican Independence Movement had invited them to Puerto Rico. Okinawa, Japan, is another island the U.S. Navy uses for live-fire practice.  
 
 
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