> The Orlando Sentinel's San Juan Bureau has been doing good coverage of the
> growing movement to stop the U.S. Navy from using the island of Vieques as
> a bombing range. Information on the Puerto Rican Independence Party:
> http://www.pip.org.pr and http://www.jpip.com (youth group; both of these
> sites are in Spanish); http://www.jpip.com/home.htm (in English).
>
>
> Activists make selves at home on
> Navy's land
>
> Published in The Orlando Sentinel on May 1, 1999.
>
> Ivan Roman
> San Juan Bureau
>
> VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- On a ridge overlooking the
> Caribbean, protesters on Friday placed 50 white wooden crosses
> amid pieces of bombshell casings, strewn metal and explosives dropped
> there by the U.S. Navy.
>
> The activists, protesting the death of a security guard
> killed by a Navy bomb last week, gathered here to tell the Navy to stop
> its military exercises and go home.
>
> A banner they placed in the middle of the white crosses
> expressed their sentiments the best: "Clinton Stop the Bombing."
>
> About 50 fishermen and activists sailed for more than
> an hour into the restricted target-bombing range in eastern Vieques,
> known as Camp Garcia, to a place that one protester called the "hole
> of death." The crosses were placed as a tribute to those who have
> devoted their lives to get the Navy to leave the Vieques land it expropriated
> almost 50 years ago.
>
> They also wanted to show their support for other
> protesters who have been sleeping on hammocks hanging from old bombed out
> tanks on the top of the hill -- using themselves as human shields to
> force the Navy to stop bombing practices there.
>
> "I'm going to be here until my body can't take it
> anymore," said Pedro Zenon, 21, a computer technician who remembers hearing
> a bullet from training exercises near the residential area of Vieques
> whizzing by him while diving with his father two years ago. "[The Navy]
> doesn't scare me. They must go."
>
> That is the call from Zenon, his father, a longtime
> activist and fishermen fighting the Navy's presence, and hundreds of others
> who have seen their cause take hold since security guard David Sanes
> Rodriguez was killed last week by a bomb that missed its mark by
> three miles during target practice.
>
> His death has become a rallying cry for Vieques
> residents tired of the constant bombing exercises, and politicians in San Juan
> who think the Navy is not only hurting the local population
> physically, but strangling its economy as well.
>
> The Navy owns three-fourths of the 52-square-mile
> island where U.S. and foreign amphibious, air and ground troops regularly
> train. The population of more than 9,300 is sandwiched between the
> Navy grounds on both ends. Recent studies also have shown an
> abnormally high percentage of cancer cases in Vieques, but federal
> authorities have not accepted the protesters' theory that the weapons caused
> cancer.
>
> Margarita Santos, who brought her 3-year-old grandson
> along, said she was doing it for him. The Navy should give back the
> land so the children can build homes and an economy, she said.
>
> "If the Navy gave back that land, maybe I wouldn't have
> to live in Fajardo on the main island, looking for work," said
> Santos, 39.
>
> The hill the protesters have dubbed "Mount David" in
> memory of Sanes had been bombed so much in the past few weeks that it
> was hard to walk more than a few steps without encountering bombs and
> shell casings, including some that the Navy warns are still live.
> Three Navy officials approached the protesters Friday to warn them again of
> the dangers and hand them a 1978 injunction telling them they are on
> federal grounds and must leave.
>
> Navy Secretary Richard Danzig wrote to Gov. Pedro
> Rossello on Friday, asking him to encourage the protesters to leave
> the bombing range. Rossello, who wrote to President Clinton
> requesting an immediate stop to the bombing exercises, said the Navy
> should allow access to the protesters and that they, in turn, must
> be mindful of the dangers they face.
>
> "The responsibility falls on both sides," Rossello said
> Friday.
>
> Ismael Guadalupe, a member of the Committee for the
> Rescue and Development of Vieques that sponsored Friday's event,
> said it plans more incursions into the restricted territory but not
> where most of the bombing takes place and unexpended rounds are still
> lodged in hillsides and beaches.
>
> Veterans of the struggle say decades of agreements,
> negotiations, hearings and paperwork have led to more disappointment.
> As long as the protesters are there, the Navy can't use the nearby
> observation post that was hit by mistake last week, killing Rodriguez
> and injuring four others.
>
> "There are many of us older people who have worked a
> long time on this, but this will be a movement by the young people
> who are going to free us, as it should be," said Myrna Pagan, mother of
> one of the protesters camped out on the hill.
>
> In the spirit of civil disobedience, the protesters
> said theyweren't afraid of being arrested. And if they were, others would
> quickly take their place. Other groups, including the Puerto Rican
> Independence Party, plan a major entry and civil disobedience on Mother's
> Day weekend.
>
> To relieve the protesters who are there now, Mayra
> Carroll, a photography and fine-arts student, went with three
> others from the University of Puerto Rico to join in and camp out for
> the weekend. When summer comes, they plan to be there a lot more often.
>
> "I believe in the anti-military struggle, and we have a
> right to get these lands back for the people of Vieques," said Carroll,
> 21. "There is a moment when you just can't turn back. We have to take
> advantage of the momentum of this issue right now."