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Protesters plan steps to disrupt Navy exercises
By Iv�n Rom�n, | San Juan Bureau
Posted March 31, 2002
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Both sides in the struggle to get the Navy out of
Vieques are geared up this week for the first face-off since the Sept. 11
attacks.
Those trying to disrupt the military exercises that have been going on for
decades in the island/municipality southeast of Puerto Rico held off on their
civil disobedience when the Navy dropped dummy bombs on the target range
there last September. And subsequent military maneuvers have been canceled.
So many are anxiously waiting to see what happens during the target practice
that starts Monday and runs for 22 days. Many think the struggle is over, or
at least cooled down, since President Bush promised Gov. Sila Calderon face
to face last December at the White House that the Navy would leave by May
2003.
"All there's been is a statement by Bush, but that statement is not in any
document that commits him or anyone to it," said Ismael Guadalupe, president
of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, which wants all
bombing to end immediately. "It's up to us to keep the pressure on."
Action on several fronts this month indicate the flame of controversy could
easily be rekindled:
Several groups offered civil-disobedience classes recently and are finalizing
the lists of volunteers who plan to break onto Navy grounds.
About 200 Puerto Rico police officers are already in Vieques to try to
prevent protesters from getting onto Navy grounds. This detail, which
includes some patrols by sea to intervene with fishermen who venture into
restricted waters, comes with a $1 million price tag.
Vieques Mayor Damaso Serrano and a group of citizens tried unsuccessfully to
get an injunction in the local courts to stop this week's bombing exercises,
alleging that the Puerto Rico Planning Board decided that the maneuvers were
"incompatible" with coastal protection programs. The mayor, activists and
religious leaders responded by blocking the police's access to roads with
cars, trucks and garbage and temporarily won the standoff.
About 150 of 400 activists with the National Puerto Rican Coalition meeting
on the island for their annual public-policy conference will go to Vieques on
Saturday, and some plan to go onto Navy grounds to disrupt the bombing runs.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu will take a break during her
upcoming trip to Puerto Rico to visit Vieques. Menchu will be participating
in the first meeting of the Civil Society for the Development of a Culture of
Peace, and but activists have not discussed with her the possibility of
joining the civil-disobedience campaign.
An international committee of Catholic religious leaders will present
evidence of mistreatment of protesters during previous arrests to the U.N.
Human Rights Committee in Geneva this month. In a show of solidarity, all of
the Caribbean's top religious hierarchy will meet in Vieques on April 10 for
religious ceremonies.
Calderon called for moderation because she is convinced that the Navy's exit
from Vieques is only about a year away. She originally demanded an immediate
and permanent end to the bombing exercises, but she backed off that position
late last year.
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