Vieques
McAdoo, Maisie
Last February 6th, naval ships from West Germany, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Holland converged on the small island of Vieques, ten miles off Puerto Rico's southeastern coast. The...
...The small flotilla of eighteen foot fishing boats remained in tense confrontation with the ships for eight hours...
...It is an island municipality of Puerto Rico (Isla Grande) and its citizens are Puerto Rican-that is, U.S...
...Operation Solid Shield, the biggest military operation in the Atlantic...
...Governor Carlos Romero Barcelo, a strong advocate of statehood who is generally very friendly toward the U.S., has brought suit in federal court to enjoin the Navy from continuing operations on Vieques...
...But with the protest movement gathering force in Vieques, there is a question about how much longer the Navy will have free rein on the island...
...Much of their grazing land is pockmarked with craters, dry and barren...
...Their actions forced the cancellation of a second military maneuver, scheduled for May of this year...
...After the Viequenses NACLA Reportupdate * update o update * update ImB IIII I I I I II] I I I H I I I I I III III I I I forced the cancellation of Operation Springboard in February, they followed up with a "Tournament of Dignity" on March 30, attended by fishermen not only from Vieques but from the main island as well...
...The Department of Defense is a formidable power in Puerto Rico...
...Puerto Rico has continued to be a strategic base for the U.S...
...It owns more land, employs more people, and spends more money than all other federal agencies on the island combined...
...The small island of Vieques has been particularly important to the Navy in the testing and evaluation of weapons and as a training ground- for the Atlantic Fleet forces...
...From 7:30 in the morning to 11 at night, six or seven days a week, naval ships and aircraft bombard the island and carry out underwater demolition...
...When we arrived at Monte Santo, the relocation area, we found a sugar cane field...
...Today, 26,000 of the island's 33,000 acres are restricted by the Navy for military use...
...presence on their island...
...And so a chain is established by which dozens of hundreds of fish can meet their death in only one of those traps Unexploded bombs litter the ocean floor...
...But weighing this prospect against the continuing bombardment of Vieques, many Puerto Ricans want the Navy out, and public sentiment has been significantly mobilized in this direction...
...Decolonization Committee calling for the transfer of full authority and power over the island to Puerto Ricans is only one more sign of the writing on the wall...
...Navy...
...On July 1 - 4, there was a three day occupation of restricted Navy land by hundreds of Viequenses and their supporters...
...1978 marine and aircraft fire, missile launching and amphibious landings...
...Fishermen, whose livelihood depends on these waters, find the ropes to their traps severed by naval craft...
...the Navy keeps a massive munitions arsenal for use by the Atlantic Fleet in any future conflict involving Africa or Latin America...
...As part of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Range (headquartered at the Roosevelt Roads base on the island of Puerto Rico) Vieques is one of the U.S...
...Led by the Vieques Fisherman's Association, the protestors had managed to halt, for the first time in 37 years, the bombardment of their island...
...military's most important training and weapons testing grounds in the world...
...The fish, seeing food inside the traps, enter them, only to become trapped themselves...
...citizens...
...military installations in Puerto Rico...
...About 9,600 people live on the island of Vieques in an uneasy state of confrontation with the U.S...
...Our first child was born the very next day- right there...
...Like other Puerto Ricans, the people of Vieques have seen their traditional means of livelihood-agriculture and fishingundermined by the U.S...
...Two young boys have been killed AIrclbo San Juan Aguadilla Ca a Jb aya ~ ,,A I by explosions, and numerous people have been maimed by grenades...
...THE PROTEST GROWS The Navy's continued presence on Vieques has become a major issue throughout Puerto Rico...
...The issue of Vieques cannot be separated from the broader question of Puerto Rico's relationship to the U.S.-a subject that is currently being hotly debated...
...in the Caribbean...
...The recent vote of the U.N...
...I knew that those who protested were mistreated...
...Even the Governor of Puerto Rico has joined efforts to oust the Navy...
...The Navy first moved to Vieques during World War II when Puerto Rico became a key area in the defense of the Caribbean and Panama Canal against German submarines...
...Finally, the naval ships backed down, turned around and returned to international waters...
...Navy's disregard for the rights and well being of the residents of Vieques has a long history...
...THE NAVY VERSUS THE PEOPLE The U.S...
...Dangers from the use of live ammunition is also very real...
...Not too long ago they made us lose 131 traps at one shot when the ropes are broken the nets descend to the bottom of the sea where for at least one year they serve as a death trap for all sea life...
...There were no houses or anything...
...The U.S...
...So, undeniably, the Navy is in a good bargaining position...
...Vieques is known for its miles of white beaches, claimed to be some of the most beautiful in the Caribbean, for its phosphores...
...Only about twenty miles long and four miles at its widest point, Vieques is called Isla Nena (Baby Island) by its inhabitants...
...inva51update * update * update * update I i i i i i PUERTO RICO V,1 eurs 4 PUNTA ARENAS HSZ eI"LA VAE UtWU SProperty of the Puerto Rican government, the rest belongs to the U.S...
...Vieques' use as a training and testing site has been greatly stepped up since 1975 when mass protests forced the Navy to withdraw from the neighboring island of Culebra...
...At one end of the island...
...Navy had invited fleets from these NATO and South American countries to come to Vieques to participate in Operation Springboard-several days of war maneuvers to practice surface shooting, anti-subNov.lDec...
...used Puerto Rico as a launching area for the invasion of the Dominican Republic, it has been used in intelligence monitoring of neighboring socialist Cuba, and it would undoubtedly be used as a launching area for any U.S...
...When the Navy first arrived on the island in 1941, residents were given 24 hours to evacuate their homes, and were 52 then moved by trucks to a narrow strip of land in the center of the island...
...But the island is also the site of one of the two largest U.S...
...government...
...Puerto Rico's status must change...
...cent bays and lagoons, and for rare species of fish and turtles that live in its coastal waters...
...This shift in popular sentiment and the possibility of a victory in the Vieques struggle is likely to have important repercussions for the broader debate over Puerto Rico's future status...
...These operations make life on Vieques like living in a battle zone...
...In 1965, the U.S...
...The destruction of the island's vegetation by bombs has left the water table unprotected, and the Navy controls many of the areas where underground water could be tapped...
...Operation Springboard never took place...
...What hangs in question is whether it will be drawn closer into the U.S...
...embrace as the 51st state, or whether Puerto Ricans will gain the right to selfdetermination and independence...
...Extensive environmental damage, both on the island and in the surrounding waters, is one of the main reasons for the decline of fishing and agriculture...
...The constant noise makes it difficult for residents to go about their daily lives, creates a problem for teachers in conducting classes, and is the suspected cause of the high rate of emotional disturbances on the island...
...If they leave, they take both jobs and capital with them...
...As one islander recalls, I was given $30 for the house and there was nothing I could do about it except put everything we owned in the truck...
...An anchor, striking one of these bombs, would detonate an explosion strong enough to kill everything for two or three miles around...
...On the land, farmers find that their cattle and poultry produce less and less milk and eggs...
...sion of Nicaragua...
...The naval ships were met by a flotilla of forty wooden fishing boats belonging to local fishermen who refused to leave the area...
Vol. 12 • November 1978 • No. 6
