----- Original Message ----- From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 12:55 AM Subject: [Cuba SI] WW: Vieques defiant. CANA-Balino Statement from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject: WW: Vieques defiant. CANA-Balin'o Statement X-From_: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Jul 6 2000 Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List-Archive: <http://wwpublish.com:8080/Lists/wwnews/List.html> Sender: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>(WW News Service) Precedence: list From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 Subject: [WW] Vieques Resisters Defy U.S. Bombs X-Original-Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 13, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO: RESISTANCE CURTAILS NEW U.S. BOMBING RUNS By Berta Joubert-Ceci After a year of peace, the Pentagon scheduled its first massive practice with inert ammunition in Vieques, Puerto Rico, for June 24. The practice shelling was supposed to last six days--June 24-29. But militant protests helped cut the Pentagon tests short--to just three days. The bombing tests aroused a week-long campaign of civil disobedience that organizers called "extremely successful" in a statement released June 29 by the National Hostosiano Congress (CNH). The CNH is an umbrella group of several pro-independence organizations, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, and the coordinating group All Puerto Rico with Vieques. The Navy exercises were designed to ready the aircraft carrier USS Washington for deployment in the Persian Gulf. During six days of practice, this battleship group-- consisting of 16 ships, 80 combat planes and 15,000 troops- -was supposed to drop 130,000 pounds of bombs in Vieques. But the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico disrupted their plans. PROTESTERS GET THROUGH CORDON As the CNH statement said: "The original announcement by the Navy said that the exercises were to last from Saturday the 24th through Thursday the 29th. That same Saturday anti-Navy activists started massive incursions to the bombing range by sea and by land, walking or riding horses. "The bombardments began on the afternoon of Sunday the 25th, even though there were demonstrators in the area. "The practices ended the afternoon of Tuesday the 27th, after having to confront hundreds of activists who had entered the zone at dawn and after having to confront several fishers' boats who interrupted the military maneuvers, resulting in two military patrol vessels getting stuck in the keys, a moral defeat and an international humiliating embarrassment [for the Pentagon]." Despite the heavy military watch in the shooting range at Camp Garcia, anti-bombing protesters managed to enter the area every day. The single largest incursion was on June 27 by 130 members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. They penetrated the restricted zone at nine different points. Earlier that day five people on horseback joined the incursions. Protester Miguel Gonzalez Rodriguez said: "It's the duty of every Puerto Rican and Vieques resident to go inside and stop the bombing.'' 600 ARRESTED SINCE MAY More than 600 people have been arrested for entering the restricted military zone and more than 89 boats have been turned away in the surrounding waters since May 4. That's when U.S. forces evicted the year-long encampment that prevented the Navy bombardments. Washington, through its federal court in Puerto Rico, is increasing penalties against the demonstrators. A month ago the detained were freed under their own recognizance. Now the courts impose bail--first $500, and lately $1,000--for trespassing. Since most of those arrested refuse to cooperate with the colonial authorities by paying bail, they are being jailed. A big sweep happened during the July 1-2 weekend, after the majority of those charged refused to abide by a June 30 deadline to post bail. Federal marshals had to travel all over Puerto Rico to apprehend the protesters, who were not even hiding. The marshals missed catching one activist who was on a picket line right in front of the federal court. There are so many people in jail or facing hearings that the federal court in Puerto Rico issued a formal request for help to the U.S. Justice Department. It even raised the possibility of transferring other federal prisoners from Puerto Rican to U.S. prisons to make more space for the protesters. A RESPONSE TO 60 YEARS OF VIOLENCE On July 1, U.S. Navy spokesperson Jeff Gordon said five Marines were injured and several military vehicles damaged after two violent confrontations between the Navy and demonstrators. According to the military, a group of youths entered the restricted area by ripping off 40 feet of fence at Camp Garc�a's main gate. They drag ged it down with a rope attached to a pickup truck. Confronted by Marines inside, the youths threw stones and bottles at them. The activists escaped before the Marines could catch them. According to Gordon, a second incident occurred when Navy engineers repairing the torn fence were confronted by another group of demonstrators. They charged the military personnel with more bottles and stones. "This is a horrendous crime," said Gordon. Quite a statement coming from a representative of the most violent armada in the world. To date no group has claimed responsibility for these militant protests, so there is only the Pentagon's one- sided account. But if it's true, it just means that Puerto Ricans have responded with a few stones and bottles in the face of this massive occupying force. The U.S. military has held the people of Vieques hostage for 60 years; displaced them from their land; destroyed their livelihood and their environment; poisoned their waters; given them cancer and other serious illnesses; and denied peace to their children. What are a few rocks and bottles by comparison? The Vieques people's wish to live in peace has been denied by the U.S. military. Every peaceful means that has been used to try and oust the Navy from Vieques has been contemptuously squashed by the United States. The people of Vieques and Puerto Rico have a right to defend themselves, as Malcolm X said, "by any means necessary." - END - (Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *********** sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subject: Cana-Balino: Vieques Statement X-From_: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Jul 12 2000 Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2000 09:58:01 -0600 Subject: Statement of the Carlos Balin~o Institute From: Luis AA Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Viesques Island, Our Frontline against US Imperialism The Carlos Balin~o Institute salutes the heroic Boriquenyos who are at this moment waging a courageous and resolute struggle against the war machine of US imperialism. They demand that the North American war criminals leave immediately and at once from the precious, environmentally-sensitive island of Visques. The amount of damage which has been done already is practically irreversible. The cancer rate is already three times greater than on the main island of Puerto Rico, and it is sure to increase now that is known that as much as 70 lbs. of depleted uranium cartridges from amour-piercing rounds have penetrated the beaches and adjacent ground waters of Viesques. The long-term and short-term effects of radioactive wastes that make up DU rounds have been extensively documented, there is no argument left anymore. It's the certain culprit in most of the Gulf War syndrome cases due to the many tons of DU shells which were expended during the recent wars. This is in itself a monstrous environmental crime against the people of Puerto Rico and the nearby St. Croix, and the other US and British Virgin Caribbean Islands as well, since the wind and water currents will quickly spread the dangerous radioactive dust particles all over there eventually. It is also an environmental threat to flora and fauna of the entire Caribbean Basin. This is the worse of any other army of occupation in the history of the Americas after the European colonization. While one can not condone violence to attain political ends, it is clear that the combative spirit of the people of Puerto Rico will not allow themselves to stand idly by while US imperialism reigns as the greatest threat against the Caribbean environment, against peaceful development and use of the land and seas, against the freedom of the people to live in a.real democracy in that region. This, in view of the fact that it has already been voted upon, in normal and peaceful elections, that the majority of the people of Puerto Rico want the US Navy out of their homeland. They are just and right and doing so, because it is no different than the illegal occupation of the US Navy in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in which the imperialists have long since overstayed themselves, using it as a convenient military base for the Pentagon there. It is time that we made it a true "hardship tour" for them, they must receive the fast boot out the door, our houses can no longer be their houses. Pres. Clinton and presidential candidate Al Gore have been showing their true colors by defending the interests of US imperialism in the Caribbean Basin. They are different from Reagan and Bush in form but not function. Do not think that all the other issues are unrelated, whether it is a billion dollars of weapons to death-squad regimes in Columbia, or a new anti-Communist law against Cuba being passed by the House and Senate. Or sweat-shop labor pools in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, of all the exploited Latin American and Caribbean people who produce the surplus value of the lucrative industries based in the USA. Let us support instead the true representatives of the people of Puerto Rico, which are the socialist and communist groups, the ones who get little notice in the capitalist press when they are fighting for the rights of workers and the indigenous people. ****************************************************** "...onward, to hoist the crimson flag into the wind." Carlos Balino, The Worker's Voice. Havana, 1906. " JC ******************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get a NextCard Visa, in 30 seconds! 1. 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