Puerto Rico Update Archives

When Will the Navy
Leave Vieques?

By John Lindsay-Poland

President Bush's announcement from Sweden on June 14 that Navy training on Vieques will end in 2003 changes little, but raises many questions. Under current law, approved by Congress and endorsed by the Navy, Vieques residents are to vote in November for the Navy to leave in 2003, or continue live-fire bombing of the island indefinitely.

More than a hundred people protested Navy bombing of Vieques on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on July 4. Photo: Walter Gómez

So why did Navy Secretary Gordon England propose to short-circuit the Vieques referendum? For the Navy, a vote by a community against one of its bombing ranges would be an embarrassment and set a precedent with broad implications. The military might be forced to heed the wishes of people in Okinawa, Japan, where non-binding plebiscites have called for closing Marine bases.

The Bush announcement included no formal commitment, such as an executive order, for the Navy to cease training and tests or leave Vieques in 2003. Instead, Navy Secretary Gordon England promised to submit legislation that will eliminate the November 6 referendum in which Vieques voters would choose whether to throw out the Navy in two years. This is why some oppose the change, since it would take away any guarantee that the Navy will ever leave. As Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) said, "in three months down or a year down the road, the president can say, 'Oh, now we decided we needed it' and the referendum didn't take place."

England said that the announcement was timed to try to allay protests against imminent navy exercises that began on June 13. He told Congressional questioners that in April there were 183 arrests, while in June, "we've had some disruptions, [but there was] no where near the level of disruptions that we had" in April, "so that data point would tend to indicate that yes it did diffuse the situation somewhat."

In fact, the fewer arrests in June were more likely a result of heavy sentences and of a more strategic use of civil disobedients. The Navy admitted for the first time on June 20 that the presence of protesters on the range had held up bombing. Of 2,000 bombs programmed to be dropped, the Navy dropped only about 350, according to Robert Rabin.

Judge Hector Laffitte, himself a naval reservist, sentenced Puerto Rican Senator Norma Burgos to 40 days in jail, telling her, "your job is to make laws, not break them." When she replied, "give us justice," he increased the sentence to 60 days. He also sentenced Ayala Ayala, a Viequense who suffers from vibroacoustic disease, to 30 days.

The Navy's Parting Shots?
In July the Navy announced a new round of bombing between August 1 and 10. The exercises begin only three days after the non-binding referendum in Vieques, in which residents are choosing between three options -- an immediate end to the bombing and transfer and cleanup of the lands, an end to bombing in May 2003, and indefinite bombing with live ordnance.

At the same time, the Navy announced that it plans to build giant storage tanks for fuel, floating piers, and troop barracks in many of the most sensitive beaches and coastal areas of the eastern part of Vieques. These include several areas designated as conservation zones, which the Navy has agreed are ecologically fragile. The proposal to the Puerto Rico Planning Board reportedly acknowledges that the Navy has dumped fuel in these areas in the past, and lacks any plan for how to move the fuel or the tanks during the island's periodic hurricanes. The Navy's declared purpose is to establish a floating base against civil disobedience.

To make matters worse, the Navy admitted releasing chaff - tiny strands of silica glass used to confuse radar - into the air near Vieques in June, and meteorologists saw a strange cloud drift over Puerto Rico at the same time. In addition, the Navy quietly disclosed that the bombing in June killed a whale.

Alternatives to Vieques
A trial balloon -- or an attempt by local promoters -- to relocate the range to the Texas coast near Corpus Christi failed after opposition surfaced from forces including the Sierra Club and the governor. Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MI) proposed that "we could negotiate with the Colombians on a lend-lease program" for "a number of inhabited keys out there in the Caribbean" near Panama. Taylor predicted that environmentalists would "raise a holy stink" and said he wasn't "so sure that the Colombians are going to love that idea."

The Navy's own study of alternatives to Vieques, completed in August 2000 and only recently leaked, offers more insight into the Navy's thinking about its exit strategies. The report recommended using Eglin Air Force Base and Pinecastle in Florida and Fort Bragg in North Carolina for air-to-ground bombing practice, and Camp Lejeune, as well as new agreements with countries in Europe and the Middle East, for ship-to-shore bombing and amphibious landing maneuvers. The analysts recommended using more than one installation, because "encroachment is a growing problem at almost all U.S. military ranges, so it seems only prudent not to become dependant on any single range or range complex."

Rear Admiral John J. Shanahan testified before a federal court in Washington on July 10 that much of the training conducted on Vieques is obsolete. Shanahan said the Navy knew years ago that amphibious landings have become antiquated and haven't been used since the Korean War.

The dispersion of training and tests now conducted on Vieques to a number of wide-ranging locations follows the military's model of action when it was forced in 1999 to leave a complex of military bases in Panama that served a variety of purposes. There, as in Vieques, the military held out as long as possible to stay, but then moved its Panama operations to locations in Ecuador, Aruba, Curacao, Honduras, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

Navy Secretary England said that he is convening a new panel that will use the study by the Center for Naval Analysis as a starting point in its search for how to replace the training carried out in Vieques.

'Make it a Wilderness'
Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee revealed their intentions for the future of the Vieques lands bombed by the Navy during hearings on June 26. "I would like to suggest that if we leave, we tell them that never, ever will the developers get this," said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). "We're going to make a wilderness out of it." Bartlett asked Navy Secretary England whether he would "support us in the position that no way ever will this land go to developers? It's our land." England replied that he would "certainly work with you."

Unable to believe that opposition to the Navy bombing represents a majority of Puerto Rican opinion, some Congressmen upset about the Navy's departure see hotel interests behind the Vieques peace movement. "Every one of those little camps on the island didn't just occur," complained Rep. Taylor, referring to civil disobedience camps on the bombing range in 1999-2000. "Somebody's footing the bill, and it's developers who want to get their hands on 16 miles of beachfront property."

In fact, under the law Congress approved last year, the bombing range in eastern Vieques will be turned over to the Fish & Wildlife Service of the Interior Department, which is prohibited from transferring title to any other entity. Fish and Wildlife has already received some 3,100 acres of Vieques land, as part of a land transfer on April 30, in the midst of bombing and protests.

The Navy transferred another 4,000 acres on western Vieques to the municipal government at the same time, but activists point out that the land has 17 contaminated sites still under Navy control, including an area where the Navy conducted open burning and detonation of old munitions. Contamination on the sites appears to be minor compared to the environmental disaster on the bombing range in eastern Vieques.

The process for the western end transfer, says Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, "is perhaps more important as a precedent for the environmental response on the east side than it is in directly protecting the public and the environment." In the deed eventually signed by Vieques officials, the Navy gave Vieques primary responsibility for responding to discoveries of unexploded ordnance. It also reduced the time allowed local officials to demand action of the Navy on previously unidentified contamination from the two years required under federal law to only 90 days.

Opposition Reaches New Levels
The Navy is facing unprecedented legal action against its bombing in Vieques. In April, Puerto Rico passed legislation prohibiting noise in Puerto Rican waters that would be caused by ship-to-shore shelling of naval exercises. The ship-to-shore bombing is thought to cause a thickening of heart tissue in swimmers, known as vibroacoustic disease. The Commonwealth immediately filed for temporary and permanent injunctions against the bombing in federal court in Washington, DC. While Judge Gladys Kessler denied the temporary injunction against the bombing in April, hearings on a permanent injunction have gone forward.

When the Navy announced new training from June 13 to 30, it said the training would not include ship-to-shore bombing, in most observers believe is an admission that such bombing would violate the Puerto Rican noise ordinance. The Navy prevented Puerto Rican authorities from taking adequate measurements of noise from shelling by ships in late April and early May, according to Richard Copaken, attorney for Puerto Rican Governor Sila Calderón.

The Navy also confronts six other civil cases in federal court, including a suit on environmental grounds brought by Vieques citizens represented by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and another for violations of civil rights. Kennedy was sentenced to 30 days in jail for entering the range. Families from Vieques afflicted with cancer and other ills have brought 1900 administrative tort claims against the Navy, and more are expected. These suits are in addition to the civil disobedience cases also wending their way through the federal courts. During his testimony before Congress in late June, England seemed rattled by the legal opposition.

"I do not believe we can continue to have effective training in the environment that exists, and I do not believe that environment is going to go away," England said.

Meanwhile, mainstream support for an immediate end to the bombing has reached ever higher levels of political power. AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, in a blistering statement on July 6 said that "The AFL-CIO and our 65 affiliated unions call on President Bush to stop the bombing of Vieques immediately and to move U.S. troops out of the area. Only then can the healing begin." Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe announced three days later that the Democratic Party will work to end bombing, and called on Congress to hold hearings on the health and environmental impacts of the bombing. "If Bush's neighbors in Kennebunkport had to suffer through the same problems," McAuliffe said, "would he be as slow to rectify the situation as he is in this case?" McAuliffe said he will visit Vieques soon, and that the next DNC meeting in September will take up the Vieques issue.

Six Congressional representatives visited Vieques on July 15 in support of the referendum that includes an option for an immediate end to the bombing, transfer of lands to Puerto Rico and a full cleanup of contamination by the federal government. Senator Hillary Clinton visited Vieques several days earlier, and Reps. Luis Gutierrez and Rod Blagojevich, both representing Chicago districts, visited Vieques in May. The Navy denied Gutierrez and Blagojevich access to Camp Garcia, incensing Blagojevich, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Internationally, the United Nations Decolonization Committee on June 21 unanimously approved for the second year in a row a resolution calling on the United States "to order the immediate halt of its armed forces' military drills and maneuvers on Vieques Island", to release protesters arrested on the range, transfer the lands to Puerto Rico, and "decontaminate the impact areas." The legislature of the Dominican Republic also passed a resolution on July 12 urging an end to the bombing.

What you can do:

• Call the White House Comment Line (202-456-1111) and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (202-456-6797) to urge an immediate end to naval training and tests in Vieques and funding for a cleanup of Vieques lands and waters.

• Write to prisoners in federal jails because they have committed civil disobedience in Vieques. A full and current list of prisoners and their addresses can be found at www.viequeslibre.addr.com/prisionero/prisionero.htm

• Contribute to the costs of the movement for peace, environmental cleanup and

• Checks can be made payable to: CPRDV and sent to: Comité Pro-Rescate y Desarollo de Vieques, Apartado 1424, Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765.

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