VIEQUES - Some residents back military exercise

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Current News : One Thread

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/120/nation/Navy_s_presence_divides_Vieques+.shtml

Navy's presence divides Vieques

Some back military despite bombings

By Richard Chaco N, Globe Staff, 4/30/2001

IEQUES, Puerto Rico - As a young girl growing up on this tiny, laid-back island, Matilde Rosa remembers a time when Navy bands marched proudly in local parades and carnivals.

She remembers seeing her first Santa Claus arrive aboard a Navy helicopter to the cheers of dozens of local children. And she recalls the days when the Navy's PX and officers' club were open to local residents.

But those days are long gone.

Rosa, a 46-year-old mathematics teacher and the leader of a small group of pro-Navy activists, now finds herself belonging to an overpowered and muted minority of residents who support the Navy's presence on Vieques, while many of her fellow Puerto Ricans have taken up a passionate crusade to push the Navy out for good.

''I don't understand all this anger, except to think that it has come from people who aren't really from here,'' Rosa said yesterday sitting in the living room of her two-story home, a few miles from where hundreds of anti-Navy protesters continued to picket against a controversial bombing exercise. ''The Navy isn't a perfect neighbor, but it's been good to many families here, including some of those who now call themselves protesters.''

They may lack the backing of Hollywood celebrities, high-ranking politicians, and media-savvy environmental groups which have portrayed the Navy as a monolithic enemy as dark and evil as Darth Vader, but there are some people on Vieques who want the sailors to stay.

After the Navy suspended exercises yesterday to honor the beatification in Rome of a Puerto Rican man, a fleet of Navy ships and fighter jets is expected to resume bombing exercises today. The maneuvers involve dropping dozens of 500-pound dummy bombs and firing 5-inch shells on a Navy-owned target range at the eastern tip of the island.

The protesters, who insist that the bombs harm residents' health, are expected to step up their demonstrations and civil disobedience acts against the Navy in an attempt to disrupt the exercises. Authorities have arrested 136 protesters who have breached the Navy's 9,000-acre restricted area.

The island is about 21 miles long and 5 miles wide at its widest point. Although the Navy owns about 70 percent of the land, the bombing range occupies about 3 percent of the land.

Among those who have been detained and are expected to appear today before a federal magistrate in San Juan are environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr., US Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, and actor Edward James Olmos.

Lawyers for some detainees complained yesterday that their clients were being crammed into small, overcrowded cells. In one incident, witnesses reported a scuffle between Gutierrez and military police after the congressman was arrested Saturday. A Navy spokesman confirmed the altercation, saying Gutierrez had been uncooperative.

But beyond the spectacle of protesters chanting anti-Navy slogans and security agents in riot gear firing pepper spray, it is clear that the debate over the Navy's presence has deeply divided friends, families, and neighbors on this island of 9,300 residents.

''My heart breaks to see how Vieques has changed because of this fighting,'' said Camilo Mares, a 55-year-old Vieques native who considers himself neutral in the debate. ''Sure, we had our disagreements, but we always resolved them. Now, I'm afraid that this is changing everything about us.''

Luis Sanchez, a 33-year-old security guard at the Navy's Camp Garcia and president of another pro-Navy organization, said he no longer talks about the issue with his relatives because it has become too divisive. ''Family unity is very important for us,'' he said. ''Although we don't all agree on this issue, we've learned not to let it come between us.''

Antibombing demonstrators dismiss Navy supporters as puppets for an entity they say has caused irreparable harm to the island during the 60 years of bombing exercises. Navy opponents, who include the local mayor and Puerto Rico's governor, Sila Maria Calderon, argue that noise and chemicals from the blasts have contributed to higher levels of cancer and other illnesses.

Sanchez and other pro-Navy residents, however, say that the protesters are mostly outsiders or recent arrivals looking to foment controversy.

They also attribute any existing health or environmental problems more to negligent politicians who run this US commonwealth than to the sailors who train here.

''The Puerto Rican government receives millions of dollars in federal aid, but Vieques gets very little for infrastructure, tourism, or health programs,'' Sanchez said.

Anti-Navy activists point to last year's elections - in which 60 percent of Vieques voters elected a mayor and governor who oppose the bombings - as proof that most people here want the Navy to leave. But the bigger test probably will come in November, when a referendum on the matter will be held for island residents.

''I think then it will become clear that a solid majority of Vieques residents are against the Navy's presence,'' said Wilfredo Estrada Adorno, a pentecostal minister who opposes the bombing maneuvers. ''I respect people who openly support the Navy, even if I disagree with them. But it's time to admit that the Navy has become a bad neighbor.''

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 4/30/2001. © Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/119/world/Exercises_on_hold_for_a_day_ in:.shtml

Exercises on hold for a day in Vieques but protests continue; 8 arrested

By Manuel Ernesto Rivera, Associated Press, 4/29/2001 21:39

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) Federal authorities arrested eight anti- U.S. Navy protesters and sprayed another group with tear gas on Vieques island Sunday, hours before the military was to resume bombing exercises that had been paused for a religious occasion.

The exercises are to resume Monday morning and are expected to last several more days, Navy Lt. Jeff Gordon said. The Navy had avoided exercises Sunday as the largely Catholic U.S. territory observed the ceremony putting Carlos Manuel Rodriguez on the path to sainthood.

Authorities arrested eight people Sunday who allegedly cut through some fencing around the Navy land to enter the bombing range, Gordon said.

In another area near the Navy's Camp Garcia facility, Navy personnel and U.S. marshals sprayed tear gas at dozens of protesters who allegedly cut through fencing and threw rocks at military and federal guards, Gordon said. The crowd dispersed and there were no arrests in that incident, Gordon said.

So far, 136 protesters have been arrested since Thursday night for entering the range in hopes of thwarting the exercises, which began Friday.

On the occasion of the beatification, Puerto Rico's governor, Sila Calderon, asked Pope John Paul II to help bring a permanent stop to U.S. bombing exercises on Vieques. She made the request in a letter delivered to the pope by her secretary of state.

Rodriguez one of five people beatified on Sunday was a layman who died in 1963 after a life dedicated to the church. The Vatican has attributed a miracle to him: a woman recovered from non-Hodgkins lymphoma after praying to Rodriguez.

Some 25,000 people, including many Puerto Ricans, attended the ceremony in St. Peter's Square. Rodriguez, an office clerk, gained fame in Puerto Rico for his piety and his efforts to spread the study of liturgy and bring laypeople into the church.

Gearing up for the resumption of exercises in Vieques, activists claimed that about 40 protesters were on the Navy bombing range Sunday.

''We're going to keep putting people on the bombing range because we have demonstrated that we have been more efficient at getting people in there than the Navy has been at taking them out,'' said protest leader Carlos Zenon.

The Navy has used its Vieques range for six decades and says it is vital for national defense. It denies anti-Navy activists' claims that the exercises cause health problems.

Opposition to the exercises grew after an April 1999 accident in which two off-target bombs killed a Puerto Rican civilian guard on the range.

The current exercises involve about 15,000 sailors and Marines and a dozen cruisers and destroyers in the battle group led by the Norfolk, Virginia-based aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. Jets also were dropping non-explosive bombs.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001


Moderation questions? read the FAQ