----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <undisclosed-recipients:;> Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 2:23 AM Subject: Vieques, Puerto Rico Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765 (787) 741-0716 Email: <A HREF="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> Two Years and a Referendum R. Rabin In the two years since the death of David Sanes on 19 April, 1999, the struggle of our people for demilitarization has take a gigantic step toward victory. But these moments are crucial. The Navy has intensified its program of public relations with its favorite weapons – money and lies. The referendum is part of their strategy to plant confusion and division. We must work to convert this process into one that is educational and unifying. A bit of history The placing of the cross on Mount David on 21 April, 1999 and the decision that day by Tito de Jesús - our Tito Kayak – to remain in the bombing area, initiated the establishment of the civil disobedience camps that stopped, for more than a year, the most powerful militar force in the history of humanity. A week later, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) organized a small flotilla of fishing boats and dozens of Vieques citizens to go out to Mount David and place fifty white crosses. These crosses reminded us that David was not the only victim of military violence and that the rage that covered over Vieques on that 19th of April responded also to the accumulated indignation of sixty years of mistreatment at the hands of the US Navy. During the year of intense work in the camps in the bombing zone, our people met the many and beautiful faces of Puerto Rican solidarity – faces of students, of union leaders, of pastors and reverends, of priests and bishops, of fishermen, architects, archaeologists and singers, politicians and old folk, of Puerto Ricans in solidarity from New York, Chicago, Boston, Filadelfia, among other places. We also met faces from other countries – Argentina, Santo Domingo, Cuba, Panama, Hawaii, Phillipines, Guam, Okinawa, Corea, Mexico, England, among others – and many politicians and religious people from the United States who confirmed by their presence that Vieques is not alone. By taking over the bombing zone we allowed our scientific advisors to carry out important studies of the environmental damages caused by the Navy and their relations to the health crisis we suffer. With our community in control of the Eastern part of Vieques for the first time in sixty years, thousands of people from Vieques, from the main island and from other places, had the opportunity to see the beauty – and the horrors – that lie behind the military fences. Now more than ever, we knew that Vieques is big, Vieques is more beautiful that we thought and it needs us to stop the massacre of her land, her air and waters. The people forced Rosselló to support the cessation of bombing and the position of "Navy out of Vieques". Although this support did not last long, the results of the Special Commission that he was forced to create, cannot be erased. Documented forever is the environmental destruction, the economic strangulation, the decades of deceit and lies. All of a sudden the whole world understood what Viequenses had screamed out for many years – the US Navy is killing our people. In December of 1999, the main organizations of the Vieques struggle, joined together in the Coordinating Committee for Peace and Justice, set up the Peace and Justice Camp (PJC) with the mission of blocking military traffic at the entrance to Camp Garcia. So it was done until the arrests of May 4th, 2000. During those sixth months, the PJC became the principal meeting place for the community to discuss new "accords" and "offers" and other matters related to the struggle. It was there that the largest number of Viequenses was arrested on May 4th and where the Viequense civil disobedients were prepared for the second stage of actions that began on May 14th. The Coordinating Committee ceased functioning shortly before May 4th. The CRDV took on the responsibility for maintaining the PJC and eventually this important space for protest and community organization became the office and facilities of the CRDV. In addition to serving as a crucial space for protest, the Peace and Justice Camp is used intensively for meetings, workshops on civil disobedience and other topics of organization, to receive and house – at the Peace and Justice Shelter built last year – solidarity delegations from the main island, the US and elsewhere. It is also a communications center that links Vieques’ community with a support network that extends to six continents. While Roselló, Romero and Toledo cried and screamed lies about arms in the camps and our plans to provoke violence, our people demonstrated, before the eyes of the world, an impressive discipline. After the arrests of more than 200 people in the camps in the bombing zone and at the PJC on 4 May, 2000, around one thousand more people have been arrested in civil disobedience actions designed to attract attention to this situation and create obstacles to military maneuvers. Men and women, old folk and young people, Puerto Ricans, Canadians and people from the United States have been arrested and many jailed. The actions continue. They have not succeeded in scaring the people of Vieques-Puerto Rico, not with arrests, not with the Federal Courts. Our struggle has become a positive example for many other communities that suffer the grave problems caused by militarism. During this year the CRDV has been invited to Korea, Okinawa, Mexico, England, the US and India, to share the experiences of our struggle. We continuously receive messages of solidarity and thanks for the inspiration other peoples gain from our struggle. In addition to the protest, the CRDV for many years has worked on the proposal for social and economic development in a Vieques freed from the Navy. As an initiative of the Committee, in July of 1999, the creation of the Technical and Professional Group in Support of Sustainable Development for Vieques was formally announced. For the first time in Puerto Rico´s history, an impressive team of experts in diverse areas of development and planning, from the universities and private practice, work systematically and voluntarily to create guidelines for sustainable development for one community – in this case, Vieques. The electoral victories by Dámaso Serrano as Mayor of Vieques and Sila María Calderón as Governor of Puerto Rico, open more space to further the cause of peace for Vieques. Dámaso´s commitment with the struggle was shown through his work in the Peace and Justice Camp and in the bombing area on the 4th of May, 2000. Radamés Tirado, recently named sub Commissioner of Vieques, is another excellent resource for the struggle. "Rada" and his wife Luz Le Guillou, have been pillars of the Peace and Justice Camp. Radamés was arrested in the Camp on the 4th of May and again during a civil disobedience action organized by the CRDV in October, when nine Viequenses risked their lives in the bombing zone during fifteen hours of intense bombing by NATO ships and planes. We are motivated also by the position of the Governor and other officials of the Puerto Rican government. Sila has remained firm in her support for the immediate and permanent cessation of bombing here. However, we have mentioned consistently that we cannot completely trust the politicians, because history does not permit that. This struggle does not belong to any political party or any particular group. This struggle is the responsibility of all Viequenses, all Puerto Ricans and all of us who believe in peace. We must be attentive and watchfull for the Navy´s attempts to plant discord and create divisions. The Special Operations Force of the Southern Command is located at Roosevelt Roads since last year. Part of their mission is psychological warfare and influencing public opinion. Together with a small group of Navy employees here these military forces have begun to use the most dirty and cowardly methods: anonimous letters attacking the personal lives of community leaders; spreading lies and intrigue among organizations of the struggle; spreading false accusations to create discord among the diverse sectors of our community in solidarity with the struggle. Now comes the referendum as another part of the plan to create confusion and divisions. In February, 2000, the Vieques community organizations prepared a document rejecting the referendum because, among other reasons, "issues of human rights, like the right to live in peace, are not to be decided by referendum; this referendum was designed by and for the Navy which is not the government of Vieques; the option of the people – no more bombing – is not included." It is very important that we convert this process designed by the military to divide and confuse, into a process of education and unity. We support the initiative of the Vieques Women’s Alliance to hold a forum on the 21st of April to discuss and analyze the different ways in which to approach this important issue. Let us find in the creativity of our people the ways to change a tool of oppression for the Navy into a mechanism of liberation for our people. In the face of the Navy’s divisive referendum - the unity of our people! Vieques 15 April, 2001
