Washington has used Vieques, located east of Puerto Rico’s main island, for Navy training exercises since World War II. Vieques has been used to prepare U.S. military interventions from Grenada and Nicaragua to Yugoslavia and now Iraq. The repeated bombings, as well as the storage of hazardous materials on the island, have had a devastating effect on the residents’ livelihoods and health. Fishermen and other local citizens have spearheaded a movement demanding the U.S. military leave Vieques.

Protests mushroomed after a U.S. warplane dropped "inert" bombs that killed a civilian guard in Vieques in 1999. In face of sustained protests, U.S. and Puerto Rican colonial officials signed an agreement in 2000 that the Navy would leave by 2003. The Bush administration has given a verbal pledge that U.S. forces will leave by May but has refused pleas from Puerto Rican officials to put it in writing.

"We are not waiting for the Navy to end its military maneuvers on its own," said Ismael Guadalupe, a leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, in a phone interview. He reported that there will be protests both on Vieques and the main island, starting January 11, demanding the Navy cease its military moves there and pull out of Vieques for good. Guadalupe stated, "We understand that the Navy keeps saying they will leave, but so far they have never fulfilled their promises."

Guadalupe reiterated his committee’s demands, known as the "four Ds"--demilitarization, decontamination, devolution [of the lands], and sustainable development. "We need to continue the struggle against the military maneuvers," he said, "as part of a broader social struggle" for the land, sovereignty, and economic development.

Puerto Rican proindependence leader Rafael Cancel Miranda, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE, also stated that the fight against the U.S. military must rely on a popular struggle, not promises by the colonial authorities. Noting that the U.S. government is prone to making promises "in order to trick us, to put us to sleep," he called for continued struggle against the U.S. military in Vieques, highlighting the fact that these war games take place at a time when Washington is moving toward an invasion of Iraq.

Anti-Navy protests have already begun. On New Year’s Eve, unidentified opponents of the U.S. military broke down 500 feet of fencing at three points around Camp García, the U.S. military base on the island.

Demonstrations have been called in U.S. cities, including one in New York on January 13 at 4:30 p.m. at Times Square.

Puerto Rican governor Sila Calderón, feeling on the spot because of the U.S. government’s refusal to confirm its promise to leave Vieques, sent a letter to U.S. president George Bush December 27 complaining about the military exercises in January and their timing. Expressing concern that Washington has made no visible move to transfer its operations from the island, she noted that "the Navy has not fulfilled its responsibility to certify alternate locations for military exercises" as a substitute for Vieques. In a slap in the face of the colonial government, the White House continued its policy of refusing to reply directly to the Puerto Rican governor on the subject of Vieques. White House spokesperson Mercy Viana said, "The letter has been referred to the Department of the Navy."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home