The protest was in response to the announcement that ships from the USS Harry S. Truman battle group would be training in Vieques throughout the month of August. The training will take place both in waters off the coast of Vieques and on the bombing range on the eastern tip of the island, where the Navy will drop bombs and artillery shells. Vieques, an island 26 miles long and six miles wide, has about 9,000 inhabitants.

Fort Buchanan is the new home of Army South, whose mission is to coordinate U.S. military intervention in Latin America. Known as the Southern Command, it was based in Panama until the recent closure of U.S. bases there--the result of decades of protests by the Panamanian people that eventually forced the return of the Panama Canal and U.S.-occupied zone to the people of that country.

Two marches converged on the rally site. As the demonstrators entered behind a sound truck, one person would call out over the microphone "Marina" and the crowd would lustily shout "Fuera" ("Navy Out").

Although there were no official union contingents, many marchers wore T-shirts and hats from the unions that have been most active in the fight against the U.S. Navy in Vieques and in the previous focus of the anticolonial movement, the 1998 telephone workers strike against the sale of the state-owned phone company to GTE. These include the electrical workers union UTIER, the Teamsters, the phone workers unions, and the teachers federation. The Teamsters provided the flatbed trailer used as a stage for the protest rally.

The anti-Navy groundswell was sparked in April 1999 when a U.S. warplane dropped a bomb that killed Vieques resident David Sanes. More than a dozen protest camps were set up on territory in Vieques used by the Navy for target practice. The protesters were evicted in May of this year by a force of 300 U.S. cops and 1,200 U.S. marines.

Since then, hundreds of people have defied the U.S. military by entering the Navy-occupied territory. Dozens of people have been arrested and brought to trial. Many are members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), who were arrested for refusing to post bail because they do not recognize the authority of the U.S. government in their nation, and U.S. colony.

In response, the PIP has carried out a campaign in defense of its arrested members and leaders. It has set up a protest camp outside the federal prison in the San Juan suburb of Guaynabo. For the past month the camp has been staffed 24 hours a day and will remain open until all the PIP members are released from prison. There are a dozen tents for people to sleep, tarps for protection from the rain and sun, a kitchen, and portable bathrooms. People drop by to visit and talk. There are always domino tables. On Saturday evenings there is live music. There is a stage and regular rallies are held.

Meanwhile, the fight to rid Vieques of the U.S. Navy has been taken around the world. One group of activists, led by Carlos Zenón, a leader of the Vieques fishermen, was invited to Okinawa, Japan, to take part in the July 20 demonstration by 27,000 demanding the removal of all U.S. military bases from that island. Zenón was one of the featured speakers. "The Japanese suffered the brutal onslaught of World War II," Zenón declared. "For us, the residents of Vieques, World War II has not ended."

Japanese and Puerto Rican activists announced that they are creating a permanent Okinawa-Vieques action and information network.

At the same time, Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, traveled to south Korea, where protests have taken place against the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed on 20 military bases there. Guadalupe took part in an International Solidarity Conference on Massacres Perpetrated by the U.S. Military on the U.S. Air Force Base at Mauhyangri. On July 15, hundreds of people protested near the area of Koon-Ni, where the U.S. Air Force carries out bombing practice.

In return, a delegation of leaders from that south Korean community visited Vieques on the August 5-6 weekend.