From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington Post-January 19,2001 Puerto Rico Presses Case to End Vieques Bombing SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Surrounded by religious and political leaders, Gov. Sila Maria Calderon knelt in prayer Thursday in front of the island's Capitol and called on her God to "give us the light and understanding to see and choose the correct path to achieve the longed-for peace in Vieques." Dozens of community leaders joined Calderon, while thousands of other Puerto Ricans observed a silent prayer. "The National Prayer for Peace in Vieques" is the latest in a series of actions meant to pressure the U.S. government to order the Navy off its controversial training ground on the offshore island of Vieques before President Clinton leaves office today. Calderon, armed with preliminary results of a study showing that Navy training could be harming the hearts and other internal organs of Vieques's 9,600 residents, has drawn reaction from President Clinton. The president hasn't ordered a cessation of activities on Vieques, but the White House has ordered the Health and Hu! man Services Department to analyze the study and deliver a preliminary report on its findings to the White House and the secretaries of Navy and defense by the end of February. The Navy also said it is taking the study "very seriously and will give such reports due attention," said spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon. On Friday, Clinton ordered the secretary of defense to find an alternative training site. In a memo, Clinton said that voters in Puerto Rico are likely to reject the referendum that would allow the Navy to use live munitions on Vieques and asked for a report by March 9 on all the training that the Atlantic Fleet will need through May 1, 2003. Calderon said she was pleased with the White House order, saying it shows "the seriousness of the situation and the importance of clarifying it as soon as possible." With the commonwealth Health Department reporting a 26.6 percent higher cancer rate through the 1990s on Vieques than on the main island of Puerto Rico, there have ! long been suspicions that Navy training has been harming the health of Vieques's residents. A number of studies have been undertaken since the April 19, 1999, death of David Sanes Rodriguez in a botched Navy training mission sparked a call for the Navy to end the training it has conducted there for 60 years. Most studies, however, have focused on whether the contamination is affecting the local environment and the civilian population, which is sandwiched between a Navy bombing range on the island's east end and a Navy munitions storage facility on the west. A study released Jan. 10, undertaken by researchers at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Campus, says that vegetation and crops in Vieques civilian areas 10 miles from the bombing range showed signs of heavy contamination by metals including lead, cadmium, magnesium and copper. The study released by Calderon, who was sworn in Jan. 2, focuses on the effects of exposure to shock waves from sonic booms created by Na! vy ship-to-shore shelling. Undertaken by local heart specialists Roberto Torres Aguiar, Carlos Rios and Guillermo Tirado, the study indicates that Vieques residents could be suffering from "vibroacoustic disease," a newly discovered ailment caused by exposure to low-frequency noise. The study showed that among the 50 Vieques fishermen and their families who were examined, 49 showed a thickening of tissues in the pericardium, the heart's outer lining, while 39 showed other heart abnormalities. All had been bathing or swimming in the water during ship-to-shore shelling. The study compared the findings to a control group of 50 fishermen and their families in Ponce, on Puerto Rico's southern coast. They showed 25 with heart concerns, about normal for the group of that size and age. Only one of the Ponce children showed any sign of heart abnormalities. The noise-associated disease is believed to impact internal organs, such as the lungs and intestines, as well as the nervou! s and immune systems. The study's authors cautioned that this was a "pilot" study, and that several other tests would be required. The island's first female governor is perhaps best known for her tough stand on the bombing range run by the Navy, and the Vieques issue is likely to dominate San Juan-Washington dealings during her first months in power. Calderon has clashed with Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, who called on her to commit to an accord on the Navy's future on Vieques brokered by the White House and her predecessor, Pedro Rossello. She has refused. The accord allows the Navy to train with dummy ordnance, and it establishes a referendum in which residents will vote whether they want the Navy to leave by May 1, 2003, or remain indefinitely for an additional $50 million in economic aid. Caderon made campaign pledges that Navy officials say break the accord. When Calderon refused to publicly support the accord last month, Danzig said the Navy would hold off on! a pledge to transfer its western Vieques land holdings by Dec. 31 and to begin spending $40 million in economic development projects on the island. On her first day on the job, Calderon said she would remove the Puerto Rico Police Riot Squad guarding the gate to the base, forces that have kept demonstrators from disrupting military activities. But she said she will replace riot officers with a contingent of regular police. One campaign pledge that undoubtedly would break the accord is enactment of tougher noise regulations to ban Navy ship-to-shore shelling off Vieques, which Calderon said she would do within her first 100 days in office. She cited as justification the health concerns revealed in the new study. But there is also strategic value in attempting to ban ship-to-shore shelling, since Navy officials argue that Vieques's value is that it is the only place its Atlantic Fleet can have a full range of training. "The legislation is ready, ready, ready," Calderon! said, but she declined to say when -- or if -- she would file it. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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