Socialist Action /July 2001
Bush Forced to Respond to Vieques Protesters
By DAVID BERNT
On June 14, President Bush, responding to heightened
protests, announced he would order an end to the Navy's bombing of the island
of Vieques by May 2003. The U.S. Navy has used the island off the coast
of the Puerto Rican mainland as a training ground for amphibious assault
exercises.
The Navy currently occupies 70 percent of the 33,000-acre
island for its training exercises. The Navy exercises have included the
use of live ammunition and bombs.
"We don't want the bombing stopped in 2003-we
want it stopped now," said Robert Rabin, a leader of the Committee
for the Rescue & Development of Vieques. "The demands of the community
are immediate and permanent cessation of all military activity, the removal
of all military artifacts and equipment, and the decontamination and return
of all lands to the people of Vieques."
The 9300 residents of Vieques have endured harsh
poverty and severe health risks as a result of the bombing on the island.
Over 70 percent of the island's population lives under the official poverty
line. The island's two major industries, fishing and tourism, have suffered
as a result of the bombing. Fishermen are not allowed to fish during Navy
exercises, and constant bombing has polluted the water around Vieques.
Vieques residents suffer from extreme health risks
associated with the pollution caused by the use of bombs in Naval exercises.
After over a half century of bombing, the soil in Vieques is contaminated
by cancer-causing chemicals, including depleted uranium. In 1998 alone,
the Navy fired at least 273 radioactive depleted uranium shells on the island
bombing range.
In 1994, when the U.S. government was preparing
for war in Yugoslavia, the Navy dropped 20,000 pounds of napalm on the island.
The Navy has admitted to discharging environmental pollutants above legal
levels, including arsenic, 6.6%; lead, 105%; and cadmium, 240%.
Vieques residents are 27 percent more likely to
develop cancer then other Puerto Ricans. Certain forms of cancer have increased
by 300 percent over the last 20 years. Vieques residents also have higher
rates of scleroderma, lupus, thyroid deficiencies, asthma, and high blood
pressure. Despite this, the Navy and the U.S. government continue to deny
any connection between the bombing and health risks.
The Navy has used the island as a bombing range
for over six decades. For years activists associated with the Puerto Rican
independence movement have called for an end to the bombing.
The movement in solidarity with Vieques broadened
to all sectors of the Puerto Rican population in reaction to the killing
of David Sanes in April of 1999. Sanes, a resident of Vieques, was killed
when a Navy bomb was misfired and hit a security post. Sanes's death set
off a series of mass demonstrations demanding an immediate end to the bombing.
One day after Sanes's death, protesters headed
by the Puerto Rican Independence Party entered the bombing range and set
up camps forcing the Navy to suspend bombing. Mass protests, including a
rally of 85,000 in San Juan, erupted across Puerto Rico and the United States.
The protesters managed to suspend the bombing for over a year.
In May 2000, federal agents forcibly removed and
arrested over 200 protesters who had refused to leave the bombing range,
including Puerto Rican politicians, priests, nuns, and activists. The Navy
resumed bombing in June 2000.
Protests continued, periodically disrupting bombing
on the range. After the Navy resumed bombing after a two-month suspension
in March and April of this year, 128 people, including prominent politicians
and activists, were arrested for trespassing on the Navy's property.
In late May, 100,000 Cubans rallied in solidarity
with the people of Vieques in front of the U.S. Interest Section in Havana.
The Cuban government also sponsored a resolution that was passed in the
UN Committee on Decolonization calling on the U.S. government to stop the
bombing immediately.
In response to these protests, Bush made his announcement
"promising" to suspend the bombing in "a reasonable period
of time." Bush's announcement differs little from a deal brokered by
President Clinton last spring with the pro-statehood Puerto Rican governor
that would have set up a referendum on the island with the options of allowing
the Navy either to remain there or to end bombing forever by the year 2003.
The referendum would in fact have been non-binding,
as it was the result of a presidential decree that could have been rescinded
in the future. Similarly, Bush can take back his "promise" at
any time.
Nevertheless, although Bush's plan does not insure
that the bombing will end, it should be seen as an indication of the strength
of the anti-Navy movement.
U.S. rulers are concerned that the Vieques movement
will spill over into a broader movement in favor of Puerto Rican independence.
The movement has polarized Puerto Ricans, increasing consciousness of the
adverse effects of U.S. imperialism.
The Navy occupation also has consequences elsewhere,
as the range is used to practice imperialist war games. The Navy has used
Vieques to train soldiers for invasions of Chile, Cuba, Vietnam, Panama,
Iraq, and Yugoslavia, among other countries.
Activists plan to continue protesting until the
Navy occupation ends once and for all. Ismael Guadalupe, a leading Vieques
protester, announced that the presidential decision "in no way changes
our plans in relation to the current maneuvers. We will continue the protest,
the international denunciation, and the civil disobedience actions in order
to defend our people against the dangers of bombing and other U.S. Navy
activities."
In order to win, the Vieques movement must continue
to mobilize people in Puerto Rico and the United States. Only a broad movement,
based on independent mass mobilizations, will force the Navy out of Vieques
permanently. U.S. Navy out of Vieques! Stop the bombing now!
Socialist Action /July 2001 |