HUGE NAVY BASE RUNS DRY
Challenge to U.S. colonialism in P.R.
By Andy
McInerney
Puerto Ricans have been waging a tremendous campaign to get
the U.S. Navy off of the island of Vieques. Then, on Oct. 29,
the struggle against the Navy took a new turn when activists
cut off the water supply to the larger U.S. naval base at
Roosevelt Roads.
Members of the Water for All Movement, a community group,
blocked two water-intake valves supplying the Roosevelt Roads
base in protest over the Pentagon's refusal to pay for water
service. The group charges that while the Navy extracts over 2
million gallons of water a day from the Blanco River,
neighboring communities suffer water shortages.
Puerto Rico's Department of Natural and Environmental
Resources (DRNA) has fined the Navy $8 million for violations
of water usage and $8.8 million for the years of free water the
Navy has taken. If the Navy does not respond by mid-November,
the DRNA says, its water will be officially cut off.
The Navy has threatened to block any action by the DRNA,
arguing that Puerto Rico's government does not have the right
to prohibit its use of water.
Puerto Rico has been a colony of U.S. imperialism since
1898. The Pentagon uses the island for a host of military
functions, including military training at Vieques and, as the
base of the Southern Army of the U.S. Southern Command, housing
tens of thousands of troops.
The inhabitants of Vieques and militants across Puerto Rico
have waged a long struggle against the U.S. Navy's use of the
small island for target practice. Now, however, the Pentagon's
presence on the island is under fire from Puerto Ricans of all
political backgrounds. The change came with the killing of a
civilian employee, David Sanes, during an April military
exercise on Vieques.
The U.S. imperialist government, while threatening
repression, isn't sure how to handle the Vieques issue. At the
core of its vacillation is the fear that a heavy hand will
escalate the struggle to other Pentagon installations on the
island--and may even threaten the presence of the U.S. Southern
Command.
The new protests at Roosevelt Roads show that that fear is
well founded.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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