- Puerto Rico Embraces Vote on Future of Vieques(2001/07/29)
- Jail Time Done, Kennedy Goes Back to Vieques(2001/08/02)
- Tensions Flare Over Bomb Exercises(2001/08/03)
- Protesters gather as Navy bombs rain on Vieques(2001/08/03)
- Studies cast doubt on charges that the Navy's practice bombing on Vieques island causes health problems for residents(2001/07/16)
- Disarming the U.S. Military Hub in Latin America(2001)
- U.S. Founding Fathers Trespass into the Vieques' Military Zone(2001/07/04)
- Marine Commandant Speaks on Vieques(2001)
Puerto Rico Embraces Vote on Future of Vieques
By John Marino
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, July 29, 2001
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, July 28 ESunday's vote on whether the U.S. Navy should immediately stop bombing on this Puerto Rican island won't bind the federal government to abide by its results, and critics contend it contains unrealistic options.
But most residents here are enthusiastic about going to the polls, the first time they will be able to electorally express their opinions about the Navy military training they have lived with for 60 years.
"After years of being ignored, we are finally being listened to," said Yashei Rosario, 33, a merchant.
"The Navy has always acted like the landlord here. Now, the moment has come for them to reap what they have sown," she added.
The vote is the latest gambit by the government of Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon to pressure the Bush administration for a quick Navy exit from Vieques. The Bush administration has said it will order the Navy off the island by May 1, 2003.
In an address celebrating the anniversary of the island's status as a U.S. commonwealth, Calderon said Wednesday that Bush's decision "reaffirms the validity of the pleas made by Puerto Ricans" over the Vieques issue, and she urged residents to vote in the referendum because its results will be noticed in Washington.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a town meeting here Friday, told Vieques residents the same thing.
"You send a strong message on Sunday, and on Monday we will send a strong message to the White House," McAuliffe said. "Everyone here has to vote and you have to get everyone you know to vote."
The vote is being criticized because it includes an option that calls for an immediate end to Navy bombing and the cleanup and return of land it owns here. A federally sanctioned referendum slated for Nov. 6, which the Bush administration is seeking to cancel, only allows residents to vote off the Navy by May 1, 2003, or allow it to remain indefinitely for a $50 million economic development commitment. The fact that Sunday's vote does not mention the Navy's economic commitments is also being criticized.
But even critics are calling for Vieques residents to participate. Two strong Navy allies, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), told Vieques residents in a column published in local newspapers last week that a vote against the Navy would lead to Puerto Rico's independence from the United States.
Navy officials, meanwhile, have begun spending $40 million authorized by Congress on social and economic development projects on Vieques. In recent days, they have begun accepting applications for $25,000 grants to start up or expand businesses and paying $100 a day to local fishermen when they can't work because of maneuvers.
Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode denied the programs were timed to coincide with the referendum, saying the projects are going forward now because the Pentagon has only recently released funding for them.
"All we can do is try and be the best neighbor possible," she said. "Monday is not going to be any different than today."
There are 5,893 registered voters in Vieques, and participation is expected to be high, given residents' passions about the issue.
Two days before the vote, Juana Rivera, 55, a teacher and local statehood leader, was pasting up pro-Navy posters along one of the island's main streets. The poster featured a photo of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and read, "Fidel Castro asks you to vote for Option 2," which calls for the immediate cessation of Navy bombing.
"Everyone makes mistakes, and we should all be given the opportunity to correct them," Rivera said.
Rivera also charged that the anti-Navy movement is rife with supporters of Puerto Rican independence and socialism, and predicted an end to federal social spending programs for Puerto Rico should the Navy be asked to leave.
"I don't want Fidel Castro here," he said.
But that message does not appear to be resonating.
"This is not a separatist movement but a movement of the people," said food vendor Jimmy Soto, 44, adding that statehood, commonwealth and independence supporters have all called for an end to Navy bombing.
"There will be a big celebration here Sunday," Soto predicted. "The Navy will finally know how we feel about them."
Virginia Navarro, 68, was one of hundreds of residents who attended an anti-Navy rally in the main square of Isabel Segundo, the island's main settlement.
"In the old days, you were careful not to complain about the Navy or else you would be called a communist, but David's death woke us up," Navarro said.
She was referring to the April 1999 death of civilian security guard David Sanes Rodriguez in a botched Navy bombing run, which sparked a drive across Puerto Rico to end Navy training here.
"The importance of the referendum is that only Vieques residents will vote, and the whole world will know how we feel," she said. "We've contributed for 60 years to national defense, but enough is enough. We just want peace."
Jail Time Done, Kennedy Goes Back to Vieques
Associated Press
Thursday, August 2, 2001
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico, Aug. 1 -- Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. left prison today after completing a 30-day sentence for trespassing on U.S. Navy land on Vieques. He immediately returned to the island to encourage protesters planning to invade the Navy bombing range here.
Kennedy, who brought his 7-year-old son, Conor, to Vieques, was accompanied by New York labor leader Dennis Rivera, who also served a 30-day sentence for trespassing on Navy land. Both men were trying to stop a round of U.S. military exercises in late April and early May.
Earlier today, the two emerged from a federal detention center in a San Juan suburb on the main island of Puerto Rico, flashing peace signs echoing the "Peace for Vieques" slogan.
The Navy plans to resume exercises on Vieques on Thursday, ignoring the results of a nonbinding referendum this weekend in which 68 percent of voters chose an immediate end to the bombing.
"We are going to continue putting on the pressure," promised Rivera, who heads New York City's 210,000-member health care union.
Thirty percent of voters supported the Navy remaining indefinitely and resuming bombing with live munitions -- a protest vote against the alleged anti-American policies of Gov. Sila Calderon, who called the referendum.
Tensions Flare Over Bomb Exercises
By MARCELO BALLVE
The Associated Press
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. Navy security personnel fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of protesters and journalists on Vieques island, sparking debate over the military's latest use of force and its resumption of maneuvers on the outlying Puerto Rican island.
The Navy said protesters were trying to break into a restricted area on Thursday night so security personnel fired tear gas, bean bags and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. The projectiles were fired only after the protesters fired a flare toward the base, shined bright lights at the officers and tried to break into the fence, the Navy said.
Tomas van Houtryve, a photographer for The Associated Press, was hit in the arm by a rubber bullet as he ran away from guards firing tear gas. He had been covering the protests and the start of the maneuvers.
Van Houtryve said the protesters only shook the fence and yelled at the Navy when security personnel fired a flare, canisters of tear gas and then three rubber bullets at the fleeing crowd.
``There were people cutting the fence (on the range), throwing rocks at the security force and vehicles, and pushing on the fence,'' said Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Goode. ``As a result the security forces perceived this as threat to harm military personnel.''
But according to Van Houtryve, protesters didn't have any tools to cut the fence and didn't fire any flares. Photographers did use bright flashes to take pictures, he said.
Goode declined comment when asked about the conflicting report.
At least 12 protesters managed to invade Navy land bordering the bombing range to try to stop exercises, according to protest groups.
Some of the protesters early Friday morning spoke out against the Navy's use of rubber bullets and tear gas.
``This is another act of brutality and violence on the part of the Navy,'' said Robert Rabin, an anti-Navy activist. ``There was no doubt that this was an abuse of power because the military knew that there were journalists (in the crowd).''
The latest exercises, which could last until Aug. 10, involve ship-to-shore shelling, air-to-ground bombing and beach assaults, making the maneuvers some of the biggest since a civilian guard was killed by off-target bombs on the range in 1999. His death sparked island-wide protests on the 18-mile-long island of Vieques and on the main island.
The Navy has trained on Vieques for every major conflict from World War II to Kosovo, and today uses Puerto Rico as a base to fight drug traffickers.
Last week, nearly 70 percent of Vieques residents voted for an immediate end to the bombing. Thirty percent supported the Navy remaining indefinitely and resuming bombing with live munitions.
President Bush has promised the Navy will leave Vieques by 2003. But in a nonbinding local referendum on the bombing Sunday, only 1.7 percent of voters among Vieques 9,100 residents backed his plan.
Protesters gather as Navy bombs rain on Vieques
San Juan Bureau Orlando Sentinel
August 3, 2001
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- U.S. Navy ships pounded the shores of this tiny
island with dummy bombs Thursday only days after residents here asked the
Navy to stop its military exercises immediately and leave.
It was the first day of training exercises expected to last more than a week -- and it will be the largest and most complex since the Vieques controversy exploded in April 1999.
As thousands of sailors and other troops resumed work, protesters gathered near the gate to the Navy base.
This time, however, they were protesting more than the Navy's exercises. They were also expressing anger over President Bush's refusal to abide by Sunday's referendum on Vieques.
In Sunday's nonbinding referendum, 68 percent of Vieques voters said the Navy should stop bombing immediately, clean up the island and return most of the land, which it has owned since World War II.
After the vote, Bush said the Navy would not be able to stop its training immediately, repeating his earlier decision to end the exercises for good in May 2003.
After exercises resumed, about 200 people chanted, "Navy Go Home" and "Democracy, Baby, Democracy" while others put mock ballots on the Navy
fence. Military police with dogs and pepper spray lined up on the other side.
Protesters were hoping their actions would fuel further civil disobedience as the Navy continues exercises throughout the week.
"Sooner or later that vote will have enough strength to knock down that Navy fence," said Ismael Guadalupe, president of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, as he gave the signal for the crowd to move closer to the fence. "That vote has to be defended."
As the 10-day training session continues, small groups of protesters plan to break through the Navy's fence to get to the target range, repeating actions they took during training exercises in April and June. The protesters were able to stop or disrupt the Navy's training for hours at a time.
Prominent lawyers and Roman Catholics, including at least one parish priest, plan to go onto the restricted Navy grounds before the week is out. The priest, who was arrested earlier this year when he broke through the fence, wrote a plea this week to Bush.
"Everyone has spoken, and no one has paid attention. Now in the name of God, I ask you that you remove the Navy from Vieques," the Rev. Nelson Lopez said at a news conference. "The people have spoken and ask for peace, and that gives us more strength to act."
No arrests had been reported Thursday evening, and two more groups of professionals, students and Vieques residents were expected to break through the fence under cover of darkness. The Socialist Workers' Movement reported that three teachers, a doctor, a lawyer, an athlete and a journalist have been on the target range since Wednesday afternoon and shot flares to signal the Navy that they were there.
Navy officials denied those reports.
During the day and night, about 23,000 sailors, Marines and soldiers will be conducting ship-to-shore shelling, air-to-ground bombing and amphibious beach assaults that Vieques Commissioner Juan Fernandez called an "all-out war scenario."
The USS Vella Gulf, a guided-missile cruiser, and another ship firing 70-pound shells at the 900-acre target range began the exercises Thursday morning. It was the final training for the Norfolk, Va.-based Theodore Roosevelt battle group, which may be sent to the Persian Gulf or Mediterranean.
"If something were to happen in the Persian Gulf, this is the final step in training that prepares the troops to carry out an effective combat campaign," Navy spokesman Bob Nelson said.
On the legal front, Ponce Mayor Rafael "Churumba" Cordero Santiago, who heads Puerto Rico's second-largest city, was sentenced Thursday to 30 days in federal prison for trespassing onto Navy grounds during previous exercises. He is the latest of the more than 700 people arrested and charged with trespassing to be tried.
Environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. and New York labor leader Dennis Rivera were released Wednesday after serving 30-day sentences for
trespassing and urged more people to get involved.
Studies cast doubt on charges that the Navy's practice bombing on Vieques island causes health problems for residents
July 16, 2001
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A series of studies this year cast doubt on charges that the Navy's practice bombing on Vieques island causes health problems for residents.
The studies concluded that the Puerto Rican island's water supply was not contaminated by the live-fire exercises, nor were there ill-health effects from the use of depleted uranium ammunition in 1999. Meanwhile, the U.S. Public Health Service continues to study cancer rates on Vieques, after a limited analysis found a slightly higher rate among the island's 9,000 residents compared with Puerto Rico's 3.8 million citizens.
Congressional proponents of keeping the range open are citing the studies to refute Democratic Party claims that the 60-year-old range poses a health hazard to the residents of Vieques.
On the other hand, range opponents cite homegrown studies in Puerto Rico that concluded the bombing practices cause a variety of health problems.
President Bush last month overruled the Navy brass and handed a victory to protesters by deciding that the Navy must leave the island by May 2003. His policy shift leaves in limbo a federal law that mandates a Nov. 6 referendum that would allow Vieques' 6,400 registered voters to decide whether to keep or evict the Navy.
Mr. Bush wants the law repealed, but range backers such as Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, vow to retain the legislation. Mr. Inhofe and Navy admirals view Vieques as a crucial training ground for Atlantic Fleet carrier battle groups before they leave on dangerous deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Liberal Democrats have led the protests to kick the Navy out. Despite Mr. Bush's compromise, Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe issued a statement last week linking the range to health problems.
"Many experts believe that the military exercises that take place on Vieques may be the reason that the island's residents suffer from higher illness and mortality rates than the rest of Puerto Rico," Mr. McAuliffe said. "The bombing of Vieques has gone on too long and done too much damage. The time for it to end is now, and the Democratic Party will not stop until it does."
Studies to date have looked at four issues:
* Water contamination. The U.S. Public Health Service's Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) tested the island's public drinking water supply and private wells.
"The public drinking water supply is not being impacted by the bombing range activities and is safe to drink," the agency reported.
The agency also found that water from virtually all wells was safe. The small exception was one private well that contained high levels of nitrates.
The contamination, the report said, "is probably a result of agricultural or septic systems in the area," and not from the bombing range.
* Radiation. Some protesters claim that the Navy's one-time use of depleted uranium anti-armor rounds from an attack jet resulted in higher than normal levels of radiation.
But a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) investigation found that "the levels of radiation detected in soil, vegetation and water by the NRC investigators are consistent with normal radiation background levels and do not represent a public health hazard."
* Heart disease. Range critics claimed the noise from periodic bombings caused thickening of the heart muscle, or vibroacoustic disease. A local Puerto Rican medical school did a study that backed that claim.
But a follow-up study by the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and School of Medicine rebutted those findings.
"Within the constraints of the data available, no inference can be made as to the role of noise from naval gunfire in producing echocardiographic abnormalities," the university concluded.
* Cancer rates. Based only on raw data complied by the Puerto Rican government's cancer registry, Vieques has a slightly higher rate of the disease per 100,000 people per year than Puerto Rico's average.
But Bill Johnson, legislative director for Rep. James V. Hansen, Utah Republican, says no conclusion can be drawn from that fact. He said the data compare the cancer rate of a 9,000-person island with rates for the entire 3.8 million-person territory, a process that can produce skewed numbers.
The raw data also show that both the Puerto Rican and Vieques cancer rates are well below the U.S. average.
The U.S. Public Health Service is now reviewing the information and will file a report later this summer.
Spring 2001
Disarming the U.S. Military Hub in Latin America
The Vieques-Iraq Connection
by Luis Monterrosa
When U.S. warplanes from the USS Harry S. Truman bombed targets south of Baghdad on February 16, it was one in a long string of such bombing attacks conducted by U.S. and British forces that, according to the Gulf News of Dubai, have killed 311 Iraqis since December 1998. Exactly since six months before the February attack, the same USS Harry S. Truman conducted its final bombing practice runs -- in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
And when Navy officials announced April 12 that bombing would resume in Vieques in late April, it was for a deployment of the USS Enterprise to the Persian Gulf immediately afterward.
Since the 1940's, Vieques has served as a dress rehearsal in the U.S.' global theater of war. In recent times the cast has included the U.S. military, NATO and South American and Caribbean allied forces, although the protagonist has always been the U.S. Navy. U.S. military bombing exercises have made Vieques the sneak preview of the U.S. military's foreign acts of aggression.
During the Vietnam War, for instance, the military used Vieques to practice carpet bombings and its ignoble napalm program, the jellied gasoline used against the Vietnamese people. It was also from Vieques that the United States prepared for its military intervention in Guatemala in 1954 and the Dominican Republic in 1965, and conducted its final rehearsal for the invasion of Grenada in 1983. In this way, the military has created an involuntary, mutually destructive relationship between Vieques and countries subject to U.S. military foreign policy. Since the beginning of the Gulf War in 1991, the most salient of these relationships between Vieques and the outside world has been with Iraq.
About 50,000 troops train on Vieques every year, including virtually all naval and Marine troops entering combat in the Gulf War. According to Admiral Diego Hernández, U.S. forces' "success" in Iraq is due to the troops' extensive dress rehearsals in Vieques. The U.S. bombings' destruction of Iraq is well known. Less known is its destructive precursor relationship to Vieques. As Roberto Rabin, of the Committee for the Defense and Rescue of Vieques recently acknowledged, "If [the U.S. military] did it in Iraq, you know they practiced it first in Vieques."
According to a July 1999 study conducted by the Secretary of the Navy, entitled The National Security Need For Vieques, forward deployed naval forces engage in military activity on average every five weeks, necessitating a constant tuning of their military apparatus. Two U.S. carriers, USS ENTERPRISE and USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT, are good examples of this.
In November, 1998, the ENTERPRISE battle group trained in Vieques and left for the Arabian Gulf. Shortly upon arrival, the battle group began military operations, "expending more than 690,000 pounds of ordnances on Iraqi targets in a 70-hour time period," according to the Navy study. In early 1999, the ENTERPRISE battle group also launched a Tomahawk missile land attack on Kosovo. The ENTERPRISE, which also conducted training in Vieques in December of 2000, is currently slated to deploy to the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf in May of this year.
After practicing on the Vieques range in February of 1999, the THEODORE ROOSEVELT battle group also engaged in the NATO Kosovo operation. From May 12 to June 12, 1999, aircraft from ROOSEVELT's airwing flew more than 2,500 combat sorties, launching nearly a thousand precision guided munitions at Yugoslavian and Kosovar targets. Referring to these military operations, the Commander U.S. Second Fleet and Commander U.S. Marine Corps Forces Atlantic illustrate Vieques' utility: "Every facet of naval training refined on the Vieques range complex was immediately demonstrated under stress." The skills acquired by the Navy in Vieques included high altitude, single and multiple aircraft bombing sorties using guided munitions.
According to Jay, L. Johnson, chief of naval operations, and Gen. James L. Jones, commandant of the Marine corps, "The fundamental value of the Vieques facility is proven every day by our forward deployed naval forces. The Aircraft Carrier Battle Groups and the Amphibious Ready Group that trained at Vieques within the last year [1999] ended up flying combat operations over Iraq and Kosovo within days of their arrival overseas. They delivered many of their attacks from high altitude, and their ability to do so successfully was directly related to their training at Vieques."
During the last decade the U.S. has consistently propped up the Iraq threat to justify its continued bombing exercises in Vieques. In light of widespread protest against the military's presence in Vieques, the U.S. Navy has set the stage for its theater by attempting to put the argument for Vieques in the context of the evil antagonist -- Saddam Hussein. In March of this year, Rear Admiral Richard Naughton of the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON was quoted on AP wires with his dramatic quip ""The No. 1 thing that would make Saddam Hussein happy would be to parade an American fighter pilot down the streets of Baghdad."
High-altitude bombings have become the signature method of U.S. military operations. As Michael Ignatieff has pointed out, "If pilots fly high, they can't identify targets accurately and the risks of horrifying accidents increase. Flying low improves accuracy but the risk to pilots issignificantly increased." For example, when U.S. and British warplanes launched ten missiles on targets in southern Iraq in August 2000, they missed several, killing a civilian and injuring twenty, according to Agence France Presse. But preventing U.S. casualties has become a mantra for the politics in Washington of U.S. military action overseas.
"Our interest was in addressing the question of the safety of the pilots that are flying those missions," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said of February attacks on Baghdad, and added "that the Navy munitions did not find their targets precisely."
According to an internal UN Security Sector report, during one five-month period, 41 per cent of the victims of bombings were civilians. The places hit were farmland, villages, fishing jetties, and barren valleys where sheep graze. In January 2000 an American missile hit Al Jumohria, a street in a poor residential area, killing six children and injuring sixty-three people, a number of them badly burned.
Navy officers also cited the military's Kosovo operations for why it must bomb Vieques. Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations stated that "events in Kosovo should remind us of the value of the forward presence provided by combat-ready Carrier Battle Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups... The THEODORE ROOSEVELT Battle Group commenced highly successful strike operations three days after entering the Mediterranean and only 10 days after beginning her regularly scheduled deployment."
The ROOSEVELT battle group's performance, said Lautenbacher, "is noteworthy for its many successes: scores of fixed targets destroyed, more than 400 tactical targets destroyed or damaged, and in excess of 3,000 sorties without a single loss...It takes a proper level of resources and the most realistic training we can provide prior to deploying -- precisely the type of coordinated, live fire training conducted at
the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Testing Facility at Vieques."
As The Washington Times explained last year:"In December 1998, the USS Carl Vinson battle group was in combat within eight hours of arriving on station in the Persian Gulf, firing cruise missiles against Iraq. The last seven carrier battle groups deployed have seen combat in such places as Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Vieques prepared them."
On June 25 - 27, 2000, five ships of the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON Carrier Battle Group trained in Vieques prior to deploying to the Mediterranean and Arabian Gulf that summer. The training included ship-to-shore gunnery as well as air to ground bombing exercises. According to the Navy, Vieques is the only location in the Atlantic where naval units can conduct the Combined Arms training required prior to deploying to "...areas of potential hostilities in support of U.S. Foreign Policy."
It is clear that as tiny an island as Vieques is, it serves as the military springboard for the most powerful military force in all of history. In this sense, Vieques is a symbolically important place for peace and demilitarization in the Middle East and anywhere that U.S. foreign interests bring war. Its significance lies in how a vibrant movement from a small island has, together with supporters from Puerto Rico and around the world, formed a phalanx of justice that is nonviolently marching closer to ousting a belligerent and colossal military brute.
Sources: "Navy drops napalm on Vieques," in: www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/023.html;Edwin Meléndez and Edgardo Meléndez, The Colonial Dilemma, 59; Wall Street Journal, 11/15/99; peacehost.net/EPI-Calc/Vieques.html; Roberto Rabin interview, 4/4/01; Commander, U.S. Second Fleet, National Security Need for Vieques, 7/15/99; San Juan Star 1/14/01; Miami Herald, 11/15/99; The Washington Times 5/21/00; Navy web site: (www.navyvieques.navy.mil/news14.htm); The Guardian Daily. 3/4/00; Chris Allen-Doucot; Princeton Packet, 2/12/99; Associated Press,
3/29/00, 5/21/00; Ignatieff, NY Review of Books, 7/20/00; Journal of Aerospace and Defense Industry News. 12/10/99; Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr.
Fellowship of Reconciliation Puerto Rico Campaign
Produced by the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean
Vieques Libre - http://www.viequeslibre.org
Resistance Collectives Amig@s de Vieques, Amigos del MAR & Horsemen for Peace
Press Release:
"U.S. Founding Fathers Trespass into the Vieques' Military Zone"
4th of July 2001
Vieques, PR. - The Resistance Collectives Amig@s de Vieques, Amigos del MAR, and Horsemen for Peace, in coordination with Vieques' hooded youth,
sneaked today at 5:30 PM into the restricted Navy zone to conduct a manifestation against the military presence on the Island.
"We have chosen Independence Day for this action, because more than two hundred years ago they (Americans) suffered a similar subjugation as the
one suffered today by the people of Vieques, as consequences of a foreign military force," stated Llaima Sanfiorenzo, spokesperson of the
collectives, who was arrested for trespassing into the bombing range during last April.
The collectives deployed into the military zone to set two mannequins of the Founding Fathers amid the military road. "These mannequins represent
the very principles of justice and liberty that served as a horizon to the emancipation and independence of the United States of America from the oppressive British Empire and its military might. The situation faced by
the people of Vieques resembles in many ways the 'long train of abuses and usurpations' of which the Colonies where victims during the revolutionary
period," said Freddie Marrero, Doctoral candidate in Sociology from New York, who sneaked into the bombing range during the past maneuvers and got
out without being arrested.
While U.S. Soldiers intervened with the mannequins, loudspeakers hidden in the woods broadcasted a version of the Declaration of Independence adapted
to the reality faced by the people of Vieques. Each mannequin had a version of said declaration in Spanish and English in its hands.
"By means of this action we want to call upon the historical conscience of the U.S. Soldiers, to appeal to their patriotic sensibility and to remind
them of the principles that should guide each soldier actions. We expect them to remember very well, the self-evident truths, 'that all men are
endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' They should ask themselves about
the encroachment of the life, liberty and happiness of the people of Vieques done by the institutions they serve," added Marrero.
"It's a great contradiction that while they claim to defend noble principles such as liberty, democracy, and human rights; in practice they
do such a great harm to those very same precepts. Behind their fatigues there are human beings. That's where we aim our words and action,"
concluded Sanfiorenzo.
Once they finished their action, the group withdrew from the military fence and promised to continue similar acts to reach the conscience and
sensibility of the soldiers that secure the bombing range. "We are giving them, yet another opportunity to get the hell out of this
Island and leave us in peace. We really hope they take advantage of it," said one of the hooded youth for peace in Vieques before disappearing into
the woods.
Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (July 4, 1776)
(Adaptation to the reality of Vieques- July 4, 2001)
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitled them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
...When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evidences a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it
is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of this colony and in particular of the island municipality of Vieques; and such is now the necessity which constrains us to demand the
immediate withdrawal of the American Naval forces and the unconditional return of these lands to its natural and legitimate proprietors, the
people of Vieques.
The history of the present military rule over this island is the history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
progressive destruction of its natural and vital resources: its people and their territory. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to the judgment of
an impartial world.
1. Before the military aggression in the 1940's the population of Vieques was over 30,000 inhabitants. Today, in the first year of this new
millennium its population barely reaches 9,000.
2. The American Naval Forces confiscated over two thirds of the whole island territory, forcing the exodus of the majority of the population and
the collapse of its economy and well being.
3. The sustained military exercises have progressively proven very harmful to the health of the people reflected in an infant mortality rate 53%
higher than in Puerto Rico.
4. The incidence of lung cancer and other related deceases is 27% higher in Vieques than in Puerto Rico.
5. Ecological damage to the flora, fauna, water resources including beaches and reefs has been intense and its effects in the long run might
be irreversible.
6. Poverty and unemployment are much higher in Vieques than in Puerto Rico.
7. Naval practices are particularly harmful to the fishing community and their interests due to their displacement to far off fishing waters.
8. Schools are harassed and interrupted by constant noise during bombing practices and air maneuvers for long periods several times a year.
9. Social unrest hampers normal life of the native community during naval exercises, always fearful of stray projectiles and civil casualties. These
have mounted over the years.
10. The military occupation of Vieques has been particularly harmful to its very rich archaeological sites, having been since its remote past the
main entrance of migratory groups to the island of Puerto Rico and the western Caribbean.
11. Heavy bombardment has been responsible during the years of the imminent disappearance of numerous species in danger of extinction like
the blown pelican, and the sea turtles (carey and tinglar).
12 The lush mangroves, the reefs and lagoons already suffer irreparable damage.
13 The accumulation of toxic wastes throughout the island is already intolerable and threatening to the very existence of human life.
14 The incarceration of hundreds of Puerto Ricans for opposing the continued degradation of the island is mounting and threatening with very
serious social upheavals.
15 The open participation of the American Armed Forces in the local political process, the manipulation of local agents and the creation of
contra factions to harass navy critics is becoming a classical colonial confrontation rapidly eroding American prestige and sympathies throughout
Puerto Rico and beyond.
16 The prejudiced intervention of the Federal Judicial System in favor of the Military has violated the rights of hundreds of American citizens in
Puerto Rico and Vieques.
17 The unresolved Status Issue, the intolerance of the American Military Establishment, the mounting repression of critics and the fostering of
rightist extremists in the island are elements which could end in Civil War in Puerto Rico and urban violence in American Continental cities where
Puerto Ricans are just as alarmed with the Vieques situation.
Faced with this fearful situation we have decided to address the American People and appeal to their sense of Justice. During the past two years
representatives of numerous civic, religious, professional and intellectual groups have been responding generously. Many continental
Americans are being jailed together with our activists creating in the process bonds well defined by Reverend Jesse Jackson's recent words: "We
are Family". As long as American blood, sweat and tears are mixed with ours in a common cause, our course of action will never be un American,
and the American flag will never be treated as foreign. Otherwise, we shall hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace
Friends.
Therefore. We, the people that constitute the Moral representatives of the Puerto Rican Nation, gathered to affirm and defend its integrity and
territoriality, appealing, first to the Architect of the Universe and second to the World to witness the righteousness of our intentions,
solemnly declare:
1. That Vieques is an integral part of Puerto Rico, geologically, historically and culturally. Therefore, any threat, or harm inflicted on
her is also done to Puerto Rico.
2. That Vieques, as well as Puerto Rico has an inherent Right to decide what is to their well being without threats, or intimidation of any
nature, least of all from a foreign military institution.
3. That based on our inherent Right to determine our political course, Vieques has decided to terminate all relations with the American Naval
Forces and demands their withdrawal from its inmediate territory.
4. That Vieques, as well as Puerto Rico claim our right to defend ourselves from aggression or violation of our natural rights by any means
at our disposal.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence and the collective confidence in the
solidarity of our people, we risk our lives by becoming human shields during the bombings and risk our freedoms in acts of civil disobedience,
submitting ourselves to the arbitrariness of their courts and to the perverse will of their judges.
Marine Commandant Speaks on Vieques
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- By bowing to Puerto Rico's demand that the Navy abandon its training range on Vieques, the Bush administration may have stoked protests against U.S. military bases elsewhere, the commandant of the Marine Corps said Friday.
``I do worry about the effect of being forced to leave Vieques, not only on our domestic training ranges but on international access,'' Gen. James Jones said in an interview with a group of Pentagon reporters.
Jones said he was particularly worried about the Marines' future on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where pressure has been growing for several years to evict the U.S. military from its largest overseas base.
``This is a small world now,'' Jones said. ``People on Okinawa watch what happens on Vieques, and they will draw conclusions from that.''
The Bush administration announced in June that the Navy would leave Vieques by May 2003. It has asked Congress to drop its requirement for a Puerto Rican referendum in November which, if successful, could have allowed the Navy to stay.
Jones made clear he believes it was a mistake to give up on Vieques, which the Navy says is the only site in the Atlantic region where the Navy and Marine Corps can conduct land, sea and air exercises simultaneously.
``We should try everything we can to win that referendum,'' Jones said.
The four-star general said it is clear that the U.S. military in the years ahead will have to get by with fewer permanent bases. He has suggested arrangements with a number of countries, like the Philippines, for U.S. forces to train on their territory for short periods and then move on. He likened this to a ``lily pad in the Pacific'' that would enable the Marines to maintain a presence and train with friendly militaries without having as many permanent land bases.
He also mentioned training with the military of Indonesia. He said Indonesia and other nations of the Asia-Pacific region are interested in having better relations with the American military.
``They want to have us out there in the region, but they don't want us to be so heavy and so omnipresent,'' he said. ``If that's reality then you have to figure out ways of doing that.''
On another matter, Jones said the Marines might be able to resume test flights of the troubled V-22 Osprey aircraft in six to eight months, if the necessary engineering and other changes can be completed by then.
The Osprey, which uses a unique tilt-rotor technology to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane, was grounded after a December 2000 crash in North Carolina that killed all four Marines aboard. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not yet decided whether the program will be continued.
Jones said the Marines have made about 80 of the 120 recommended corrections to the aircraft so far.
Jones is committed to putting the Osprey program back on track, but it remains unclear whether the Bush administration will pursue it. He said Pete Aldridge, the Pentagon's technology chief, has yet to be convinced that all of the Osprey technology issues can be resolved.
In Crawford, Texas, on Friday, President Bush raised the possibility of cutting one or more of the Pentagon's aircraft programs.
A reporter asked Bush whether budget constraints might prevent him from going ahead with the Osprey as well as the Air Force's F-22 stealth fighter and the multi-service Joint Strike Fighter. Bush said no decision had been made, and he added, ``We can't afford every single thing that has been contemplated.''