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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 30, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Vieques, Puerto Rico
Growing movement rejects Clinton-Rosselló deal
By Berta Joubert
Washington is rushing to implement the "Clinton-Navy-Rosselló agreement" allowing the U.S. Navy a continued presence in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Meanwhile, anti-military and solidarity actions are expanding. They demand that the Navy get out of Vieques completely.
The U.S. Navy occupies two-thirds of Vieques. It has conducted live-fire training there since 1941.
A bomb dropped by a U.S. Marine Corps jet there killed civilian security guard David Sanes last April, arousing massive protests, including a vigil in the target area and a mass march of 200,000. The Navy had to suspend exercises.
As of mid-March the U.S. House and Senate were both deliberating the merit of two projects President Bill Clinton submitted in February. One returns the western part of Vieques to the Puerto Rican government. The other allocates $40 million to hand out to the Viequenses.
The U.S. military stores ammunition on part of the 8,200 acres of land comprising Vieques' western area. The U.S. Navy would retain 100 acres for the infamous ROTHR radar installations and for other communications facilities.
Labeled "anti-drug," this radar is really a military installation directed against Latin America. It has aroused many protests in Puerto Rico.
According to the U.S. government, the $40 million would be a "bottomless Aladdin lamp granting wishes to the people of Vieques."
This money would supposedly finance health research, install a fire alarm system in the airport, construct a commercial dock and improve sea transport; construct an artificial reef, and directly compensate fishers' losses due to Navy bombardments.
It would also finance a referendum in which the Navy offers the population of Vieques some choices. They can choose being bombarded with live ammunition forever--in which case the "magnanimous" Congress will throw in another $50 million--or with inert ammunition for three years, after which the Navy would leave.
Still more, it would pay to improve highways and bridges, fund a training program, preserve and administer natural resources, and establish an economic-development office.
The Pentagon made very clear that no disbursement would be made until the U.S. and Puerto Rican governments clear the restricted areas of the anti-Navy activists who are camping there. The Pentagon brass hope to re-start military practices next May.
Without waiting, Washington is going full-steam ahead with parallel actions to implement Clinton's directive. It named Adm. Kevin Green, 1991 Gulf War veteran, as the head of the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command based in Puerto Rico. He will also be the liaison between both governments, the person to implement the "agreement."
Forced to show "good faith" in the face of mounting resistance, last week the United States started to remove the 1,650 tons of conventional ammunition buried in underground warehouses in the western part of the small island. Most of these weapons will be stored in the U.S. Base Roosevelt Roads in the Big Island, Puerto Rico.
Another "good-faith" action was the Feb. 28 return of 110 acres of land adjacent to the Vieques airport, which the people of Vieques have been demanding for years.
'Too little, too late'
The people of Vieques and Puerto Rico say, "Too little, too late!"
They will accept nothing less than the complete and immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from Vieques' soil. Anybody who tries to prevent that result will receive their just contempt, as shown by the recent demonstrations against Gov. Pedro Rosselló while he was at the governors' convention in Washington.
Rewarded by Washington for being a traitor to his people, Rosselló was invited to a special dinner and stay in the White House for one night. He was even mentioned as a potential candidate to head the Health Department under an Al Gore administration, should there be one.
Several demonstrations in Washington made sure the message from the people of Vieques was delivered: "Rosselló, traitor, Vieques is not for sale."
U.S. puppets from the pro-statehood ruling party in Puerto Rico, the PNP, are trying everything to close the deal with the United States. They organized a state-sponsored demonstration to counter the 200,000-plus anti-Navy demonstration two weeks earlier, only to come up with much smaller numbers than projected.
Meanwhile the struggle in Vieques is being energized by the mounting solidarity in Puerto Rico, the United States and beyond. Coalitions have come together across the United States. The latest is the Pro-Vieques Coalition of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
International solidarity has been growing. In Puerto Rico last month, Cuban, Dominican and Haitian representatives celebrated a "Caribbean Unity Day for Vieques." In mid-May a delegation from the Human Rights Commission of the Government of Argentina visited Vieques to show its support and pledged to work on behalf of the struggle.
Pentagon fears copycat protests
The Pentagon fears Vieques-type actions springing up in other places where Washington has military facilities. But it is too late. Scottish activists are protesting the U.S. Navy's use of the Cape Wrath range. This is where the battle group USS Eisenhower had to go for practice after the Vieques activists forced them out of their range on the small island.
A spokesperson for the Scottish group said: "We are here to show solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico and to stop Scotland being shelled by the U.S. Navy. We are trying to protect the seabird colony on Cape Wrath and also trying to protect the people of Iraq from being bombed."
Activists from the Vieques struggle were planning to join their Scottish comrades in early March in their joint struggle against the U.S. Navy.
Meanwhile in Vieques, even the children are committed to the Navy's ouster. In a very moving display called "We Want Peace for Vieques," elementary school students showed through artwork their view of the Navy's presence: a black boot crushing the island, bloody bullets falling on their schools, a crying tree. It is these children, and the promise of a free Vieques, that fuel the energy of those fighting against the Pentagon.
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