A dozen members of the Puerto Rican police stood in front of the main gate, silent and stone-faced. These cops have been standing guard since May 4, when FBI agents, U.S. marshals, and marines removed hundreds of protesters from the Navy bombing range, where they had set up civil disobedience camps for the previous year.

The protests against the U.S. military occupation of Vieques exploded in April 1999, when a U.S. warplane on training exercises dropped a bomb that killed local resident David Sanes. In an attempt to quell this movement, colonial governor Pedro Rosselló signed an agreement in January with U.S. president William Clinton accepting the resumption of U.S. bombing practice on Vieques along with a planned referendum by local residents on whether the Navy should leave the island by the year 2003.

At the lively and spirited August 19 action, demonstrators gathered around a stage directly across from the gate to listen to music, poetry, and speeches. On three occasions, protest leader Robert Rabin called for everyone to spill out into the street to picket, as they chanted "Vieques sí, Marina no! Que se vaya, que se vaya, la marina que se vaya! (Navy get out)."

The scene was repeated the following afternoon, when 20 people on horses gathered there to hold a special "horseback picket."

In the evening, solidarity greetings were given by visitors to the camp. Participating this week were six members of the group All Connecticut with Vieques, two students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a group of medical interns from the Bronx, New York, a group of poets from New York, and a delegation of 10 people from the newly formed Vermont-Puerto Rico Solidarity Committee.

The Connecticut delegation was given a tour of the island by Mirta Sanes Rodríguez, sister of David Sanes, and her husband. They also met with Dr. Rafael Rivera Castaño, a retired epidemiology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, who described the effects that decades of Washington's bombing have had on the health of the island's 9,500 residents.  
 
Abnormally high cancer rates
The cancer rate for Vieques residents is 27 percent higher than that on the main island of Puerto Rico, Castaño reported. Children have been tested and found to have abnormally high levels of heavy metals in their bodies. Members of the Connecticut delegation described the case of one such child, a five-year-old from Vieques who has been brought to Hartford, Connecticut, for further testing and treatment for her damaged liver and gall bladder.

A major concern is the U.S. Navy's use of depleted uranium to harden the casings of its shells used to bomb Vieques. Depleted uranium was used by Washington in its 1991 assault on Iraq and may be responsible for the "Gulf War syndrome" as well as affecting the health of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. While much of the depleted uranium remains on the ground in the bombing range or in the waters off the coast of the island, some radioactive particles become airborne and are carried from the bombing range at the eastern end of the island to the populated region in the center.

The U.S. visitors also met Carlos Zenón, a fisherman who has helped lead the protests against the Navy since the 1970s. Zenón explained that the presence of the Navy has had a devastating effect on local fishing. It is impossible, for instance, to set lobster traps in areas patrolled by the Navy since the lines to the traps are cut when the Navy ships pass through. The bombing has destroyed many of the reefs that provide habitat for marine life.

Over the years the lack of opportunity in fishing has led many Vieques residents to leave the island. Today there are more viequenses living on the nearby island of Saint Croix, Virgin Islands, than on Vieques itself. Between 60 and 70 percent of those remaining on Vieques are forced to rely on U.S. food stamps.

Zenón described a public hearing called a few days earlier by the mayor of Vieques and a representative of the colonial government to discuss a "development plan" for the island. Local residents were outraged that this plan had been drawn up without their knowledge or input and dozens showed up to protest. The meeting began at 7:30 p.m. and lasted until 3:00 a.m. Thirty-four people took the floor to denounce the plan. At the end the officials had to be escorted out by the police after promising to "study the matter further."

Zenón said the so-called development plan was one "written by the Navy." It calls for a continued U.S. military occupation for at least six or seven years, as opposed to the three years stipulated in the Clinton-Rosselló deal. It provides for building housing for retired naval officers, a move viequenses see as designed to displace them and dilute their voting power in local elections. And it calls for the construction of luxury tourist hotels that will enrich a few businessmen but not lead to economic development for the community. Already one such facility is under way at Point Martineau on the north side of the island. It is surrounded by a high wall, blocking its beautiful beach area from local residents.  
 
Navy counteroffensive
Meanwhile, opponents of the U.S. military have continued to enter Camp García since the May 4 evictions. When arrested they are transported to the main island and charged with trespassing. At the vigil, Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, described plans for ongoing protests. These include actions by the fishermen in September and a mass demonstration at Camp García in October when the next major round of bombing practice is scheduled.

At the same time, the Navy has undertaken a propaganda counteroffensive. In an extensive interview published in the August 20 issue of El Nuevo Día, a major San Juan daily, Navy admiral Kevin Green attempted to smear the pro-Vieques campaign, stating, "I have heard that our friends in Vieques are fed up with the fact that people from other parts of Puerto Rico, other parts of the United States, and including foreign countries, come to Vieques to cause problems with the Navy, to make a lot of noise, to hold the police hostage and cause an uproar, when all they want is to live their lives in peace." Green neglects to point out, of course, that the vast majority of the people protesting outside Camp García are Vieques residents.

The following day, El Nuevo Día reported the response of Guadalupe and Rabin, who characterized the admiral's statements as "an insult to the intelligence of our people."

In a related development, the Navy is pressing to allow its personnel stationed on Vieques to vote in any referendum related to the future of the island.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home