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- Original Message -
From: Downwithcapitalism <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 5:16 AM
Subject: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Vieques (con't.)
Associated Press. 29 April 2001. Exercises on Hold for a Day in Vieques
but Protests Continue; 8 Arrested. Excerpts.
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico Federal authorities arrested eight anti-U.S. Navy
protesters and sprayed another group with tear gas on Vieques island
Sunday, hours before the military was to resume bombing exercises that
had been paused for a religious occasion.
The exercises are to resume Monday morning and are expected to last
several more days, Navy Lt. Jeff Gordon said. The Navy had avoided
exercises Sunday as the largely Catholic U.S. territory observed the
ceremony putting Carlos Manuel Rodriguez on the path to sainthood.
Authorities arrested eight people Sunday who allegedly cut through some
fencing around the Navy land to enter the bombing range, Gordon said.
In another area near the Navy's Camp Garcia facility, Navy personnel and
U.S. marshals sprayed tear gas at dozens of protesters who allegedly cut
through fencing and threw rocks at military and federal guards, Gordon
said. The crowd dispersed and there were no arrests in that incident,
Gordon said.
So far, 136 protesters have been arrested since Thursday night for
entering the range in hopes of thwarting the exercises, which began
Friday.
... Gearing up for the resumption of exercises in Vieques, activists
claimed that about 40 protesters were on the Navy bombing range Sunday.
"We're going to keep putting people on the bombing range because we have
demonstrated that we have been more efficient at getting people in there
than the Navy has been at taking them out," said protest leader Carlos
Zenon.
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New York Times. 29 April 2001. Navy Bombing Is Betrayal, Puerto Rico's
Governor Says. Excerpts.
SAN JUAN, P.R. As Sila M. Caldern hopscotched across this island
during her successful campaign for governor last year, she promised
that, if elected, she would end the Navy's bombing runs on the island of
Vieques that have so inflamed the nationalistic passion of Puerto
Ricans. It is a promise that helped make her the first woman to become
governor of this commonwealth, but one she has not been able to keep.
In the last two days, as hundreds of protesters gathered in Vieques,
where the Navy is holding military maneuvers, Governor Caldern remained
at La Fortaleza, the Governor's Mansion here in the capital, largely out
of sight, keeping a frenzied press at bay. But today, in her first
interview since the Navy resumed exercises on Friday, the governor said
she felt as angry and betrayed as fellow Puerto Ricans.
"I'm so sorry it has come to this," she said, sitting in her office in
this 16th century palace. "It has been a very difficult time for us."
While Governor Caldern refrained from attacking the Bush administration
for its unwillingness to stop the military maneuvers, she did not hide
her disappointment, saying that she had believed the Navy would abide by
an accord reached in January. That agreement, between the governor and
Richard Danzig, the secretary of the Navy at the time, called for a halt
to shelling until preliminary findings of a health study of Vieques
could be reviewed by the federal Department of Health and Human
Services.
The study, by a panel of Puerto Rican researchers, showed a high
incidence of cardiac problems among Viequenses... [I]n announcing its
decision two weeks ago to resume training on Vieques, the Pentagon
dismissed the health study and said the more pressing issue was military
readiness.
... [A]fter visiting Vieques and learning about health problems among
its 9,400 residents, Ms. Caldern... recalled meeting with about 300
residents at a community center. When those in the room were asked how
many relatives had cancer, Governor Caldern said, nearly everyone
raised a hand. "You don't have to be a genius to see that something is
happening there," she said. "People are dying."
Opened about 60 years ago, the firing range is the only site in the
Atlantic where simultaneous bombardment from sea, air and land is
possible. To Navy officials, the 900- acre bombing area is
irreplaceable.
SPAM TO FOLLOW
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