Anti-Navy Protests
Grito en la UPR contra la Marina y el ROTC

Información enviada a Mario Rojas, Director de Tlahui. Puerto Rico, a 1 de Septiembre, 1999. update no. 2 (9/1/99). From the Daily News by Juan Gonzalez P.I.P. Nueva York.

From: News and Views | Beyond the City | Friday, August 27, 1999. Anti-Navy Protests.

Draw the Big Guns he bitter dispute over a Navy bombing range on the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques will reach a climax next week.

That's when a Pentagon task force will recommend to Secretary of Defense William Cohen and President Clinton what to do in the face of near-unanimous calls from Puerto Rico's leaders for an end to nearly 60 years of bombing on Vieques.

As release of the reports nears, both sides have pulled out their big guns.

Gen. Wesley Clark, commander of U.S. troops in Europe and of NATO forces, warned on Monday that U.S. Navy and Marine Corps forces "may not be fully combat-ready" if the Pentagon fails to resume bombing on Vieques. All maneuvers on the island have been suspended since early May, when anti-Navy protesters set up several encampments on the practice range.

Vieques is the main Marine and Navy practice range in the Atlantic Ocean, and it also is used by allied forces. But more than 9,300 people live on the less than one-third of the island the Navy doesn't own.

Ever since David Sanes Rodriguez, a civilian Navy employee, was killed in April when two 500-pound bombs missed their targets, long-simmering resentment against the Navy has turned into massive protest.

One public opinion poll this week showed that 70% of Puerto Rico's voters want an end to the bombing. Even more troubling, 37% have developed negative views of the Navy's overall presence in Puerto Rico.

Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, however, has warned that the "loss of Vieques would degrade the readiness of our sailors and Marines for battle."

Puerto Rico's Gov. Pedro Rosselló pulled out some heavy firepower of his own this week when he hired former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell and Sam Nunn, one-time chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, to represent the island. Rosselló threatened a federal suit against the Navy if Clinton does not order a complete end to the bombing.

Rosselló said Vice President Gore told him during a telephone conversation this week that Gore supports Puerto Rico in the dispute. A Gore spokesman declined to say what the two men discussed.

The Navy has violated past agreements with island governments by using napalm, depleted uranium shells and even cluster bombs in Vieques, according to Carlos Romero Barceló, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in Congress. Studies show that Vieques residents suffer from a 27% higher cancer rate than the rest of Puerto Rico.

"This is an extraordinary example of environmental injustice," Romero Barceló said. "This would never have happened in Martha's Vineyard."

The Navy is violating Clinton's 1994 executive order that all federal agencies should eliminate policies that have discriminatory impact on minority and poor communities, Romero Barceló said.

The man saying this is no radical. Romero Barceló is one of the most conservative leaders in Puerto Rico. But even he admits that the "Navy's arrogance has made things worse."

In July, the Navy issued a detailed defense of why Vieques is essential to national security. In the report, the Navy brass said it was willing to concede a possible reduction in the number of days devoted to bombing and to offer money to Vieques for local economic development.

But that won't pacify anyone in Puerto Rico. With each day that passes, the Pentagon realizes Vieques may be slipping from its grasp. The Navy is so worried Clinton is about to give in that Danzig organized an unusual briefing for the Rev. Jesse Jackson when Jackson visited Vieques two weeks ago to back the protesters.

On Aug. 13, two Navy admirals visited Jackson at 6 a.m. in his San Juan hotel room to plead their case. One of them was Rear Adm. Kevin Moran, commander of the Naval Region Southeast. The other was the commander of Roosevelt Roads Naval Base.

The two admirals spent half an hour explaining to Jackson why the live-fire practice conditions on Vieques can't be replicated anywhere else in the world.

"You guys don't get it," Jackson told them, shaking his head. "These people don't want you here."

The Navy reminded him, Jackson told the startled admirals, of a man who desperately wants a beautiful woman.

"The woman keeps saying, 'No,' and you keep insisting you have to have her," Jackson said.

But just in case Clinton considers caving in to the admirals, Jackson and Puerto Rican leaders aren't giving up. They're already planning a series of events stateside, including a Sept. 12 ecumenical church service in East Harlem and a massive rally Oct. 2 in Times Square.

Maybe it's time Martha's Vineyard or some other Atlantic island sacrifice a little for national defense.

El Nuevo Día Interactivo - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Grito en la UPR contra la Marina y el ROTC
martes, 31 de agosto de 1999
Por Carmen Millán Pabón
El Nuevo Día

A POCOS días de celebradas dos marchas multitudinarias -una por la excarcelación de los presos políticos puertorriqueños y otra por la salida de la Marina de Vieques- un grupo de estudiantes del recinto de Río Piedras de la Universidad de Puerto Rico convocó a lo que llamaron una "marcha-concentración" en contra de la militarización.

La actividad, "A estudiar sin militares, Fuera ROTC, Fuera Marina", se celebrará mañana miércoles a las 10:00 de la mañana comenzando en la rampa de Estudios Generales hasta el edificio del ROTC.

Todavía no se sabe si las clases serán suspendidas mientras se lleva a cabo la actividad.

RICARDO OLIVERA Cora, presidente de la Unión de Juventudes Socialistas (UJS), y portavoz de las organizaciones que dirigen la marcha, dijo que los jóvenes le quieren decir "no", no sólo a la Marina, sino al reclutamiento de jóvenes en las escuelas superiores. "También le queremos decir no a la ROTC en las universidades. Vemos la lucha contra la Marina y el ROTC como una sola".

Olivera Cora reconoció que la cercanía de las otras marchas crea un ambiente favorable "en las fuerzas populares" para que se unan a sus reclamos. El joven estudiante indicó que la presencia de cadetes y de militares uniformados en el recinto origina situaciones de provocación.

A pesar de múltiples esfuerzos, El Nuevo Día no logró contactar a oficiales de la Oficina del ROTC para conocer la cantidad de estudiantes adscritos a ese programa y la forma de reclutamiento.

ADEMÁS DE la UJS, participan en la marcha la Organización Socialista Internacional (OSI), la Juventud Pro Independencia (JPI), la Juventud del Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño (JPIP), la Federación Universitaria Pro Independencia (FUPI) y el Consejo General de Estudiantes (CGE).

From: ALM alm1998@aol.com
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