Supporters of the struggle have also been mounting protests in New York, including an April 9 picket line near Times Square, a National Vieques Summit for Peace with Justice scheduled for Hostos College in the Bronx April 13, and a fund-raising cultural event the day before at the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 Martin Luther King, Jr., Labor Center in Manhattan.

The Navy's bombardment of the island, the first such assault there since last October, began April 1 and is scheduled to run through April 22. The operation involves the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington, with its 10 ships, planes, helicopters, and more than 8,000 troops. The maneuvers include ship-to-shore shelling and air-to-ground exercises, and the dropping of inert bombs on the eastern end of the island.

U.S. military police fired tear-gas cannisters at protesters who had peacefully gathered April 6 outside the U.S.-occupied navy base. On that day they were joined by 150 members of the National Puerto Rican Coalition who had come to Vieques from the United States to express their solidarity with the fight to get the U.S. Navy off the island. Many of them were also subjected to the tear-gas assault.

Rear Adm. Kevin Green, commander of Naval Forces Southern Command, insisted that his troops were responding to rock-throwing by the demonstrators. But eyewitnesses on the scene denied this claim, accusing the Navy personnel of wanting to provoke an incident.

Puerto Rican governor Sila Calderón condemned the use of tear gas as "an unacceptable action." Adding that "this is a violation of people's civil rights." Calderón dismissed Green's version of what transpired saying it was in contradiction to the report filed by her own police.

Irked by the colonial arrogance of the U.S. rulers, Calderón stated, "I told the admiral that it is impossible for the U.S. Navy to always be right and the government of Puerto Rico to always be wrong."

The Puerto Rican governor has announced her backing for a plan that was publicly endorsed by President George Bush that the Navy will leave Vieques by May 2003. However, a law passed after September 11 requires the Navy to continue using the Puerto Rican island until it finds a suitable replacement.

A March 27 article in Hoy reports that an environmental document sent by the Navy to libraries in Vieques and Ceiba project that U.S. military activities will continue on the island until 2006. The report, dated March 2002, was prepared by the Atlantic Division of the Navy's Marine Engineering Department and was sent to the Commander of the Atlantic Force, according to a publication in a local newspaper.

This document "reaffirms the stance the U.S. military has taken all along and restates their desire to not leave Vieques," stated Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. "They're finding a way for the navy to continue bombing until 2006 and that's why we're fighting against them."

The White House denied having any knowledge of this projected change in the date when the navy will leave the island.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home