15 thoughts on “The Navy will be bombing in Vieques again, January, 2003.”
Fuego naval en Isla Nena desde el 13 de enero
Fuego naval en Isla Nena desde el 13 de enero
Por Mildred Rivera Marrero
El Nuevo Día/28 diciembre,2002
LA MARINA anunció ayer que el 13 de enero comenzará una nueva ronda de prácticas militares que durará un mes, ante lo cual la gobernadora, Sila Calderón, le solicitó al presidente George Bush su intervención para certificar el cese permanente de los bombardeos.
“Rechazo firmemente este nuevo anuncio. Es evidentemente ofensivo para la sensibilidad de nuestro pueblo que se le pida que soporte otra ronda de ejercicios sin ninguna explicación o garantía. Estos nuevos eventos hacen indispensable su intervención personal para asegurar que la Marina honra el compromiso público que usted hizo con el pueblo de Puerto Rico”, le manifestó Calderón a Bush en una carta de dos páginas que dictó desde Estados Unidos. La misiva fue acompañada de otra similar dirigida al jefe de gabinete de Casa Blanca, Andrew Card.
Calderón le indica a Bush que la notificación enviada por la Marina de que bombardeará durante 29 días por aire y mar en la Isla Nena provocará ansiedad y dudas entre la población toda vez que aún no hay una garantía escrita de la salida de la Marina en mayo del 2003.
“Estoy extremadamente decepcionada y preocupada al recibir esta carta antes de recibir una confirmación escrita sobre el cese de los ejercicios”, señaló Calderón, para luego manifestar que estos eventos amenazan “con destruir el delicado balance que hemos logrado entre la seguridad nacional y los derechos civiles”.
Esta nueva ronda de maniobras militares se había discutido previamente, cuando se indicó que faltaba otro periodo más de bombardeos antes de que la Marina saliera de tierra viequense. El anuncio fue hecho mediante una carta enviada por el capitán de la Marina G. H. Cooper al secretario de Estado, Ferdinand Mercado. La notificación indica que sólo se utilizarán bombas inertes en el área de impacto.
CALDERON ENVIO las cartas justo un mes después de enviarle otra al entonces secretario de la Marina, Gordon England, pidiéndole que creara un comité para trabajar con los asuntos de la salida de la Marina antes de que saliera de su cargo para asumir el de subsecretario de Seguridad Nacional. Antes de esa ocasión, Calderón había manifestado confianza en la palabra del Presidente de que la Marina se iría de Vieques en mayo del 2003.
En la nueva comunicación, la Gobernadora le dice al Presidente que recuerde la promesa que le hizo el 9 de enero del 2002 de cumplir con las expresiones públicas hechas en Ginebra. “A base de sus declaraciones públicas y sus expresiones a mí, yo le he asegurado al pueblo de Puerto Rico que las actividades militares en Vieques terminarán, y que su palabra debe ser creída”, le indicó la Gobernadora a Bush.
Bombing Starts once again in Vieques Jan. 13th
Gobernadora repudia inicio de prácticas militares en Vieques
viernes, 27 de diciembre de 2002 SAN JUAN (EFE) – La gobernadora, Sila Calderón, expresó este viernes, su repudio por el anuncio emitido por la Marina de los Estados Unidos de reiniciar los ejercicios militares en Vieques el próximo 13 de enero de 2003, sin haber cumplido con la certificación de un
lugar alterno para la sustitución de las maniobras bélicas.
La Primera Ejecutiva expresó su “indignación” a través de sendas cartas enviadas hoy al presidente de los Estados Unidos George Bush y al jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Andrew Card.
El gobierno de Puerto Rico recibió la notificación oficial de la nueva ronda de ejercicios mediante comunicación escrita emitida por el capitán G. H. Cooper, Oficial del Comando de la Flota del Atlántico de la Marina.
“El pueblo de Puerto Rico repudia el reinicio de los ejercicios militares en la isla de Vieques porque estas prácticas no corresponden a la voluntad y al deseo de paz de todos los viequenses. Este anuncio tiene que ser rechazado,
además, porque llega en un momento de mucho significado para los puertorriqueños como lo es la Navidad y porque la Marina ha incumplido su responsabilidad de certificar los lugares alternos para las prácticas militares”, expresó la Gobernadora.
Calderón sostuvo que su Administración estará vigilante para que estos ejercicios bélicos no provoquen actos de confrontación entre los militares y los residentes de la Isla Nena.
La Marina de los EE.UU. notificó oficialmente hoy al gobierno de Puerto Rico que el próximo 13 de enero se reanudarían las prácticas militares, las que se extenderán por 29 días.
Los ejercicios serán por aire y mar.
La mandataria puertorriqueña expresó también que su gobierno está exigiendo que se ponga por escrito el compromiso contraído de terminar las prácticas, de forma final, en mayo próximo.
“El Presidente George Bush hizo un compromiso con el pueblo de Puerto Rico y nuestro deber es asegurarnos que ese compromiso se cumpla”, sentenció la Gobernadora.
Far More Hospitable Than Vieques, Poland
Far More Hospitable Than Vieques, Poland Cashes In by Renting Battlefields for War Games
Foreign Armies Are Again in the Country, But Now They’re Practicing, Not Invading
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
12/16/02
DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland — The Apache attack helicopters lifted off, in eight groups of five, as troops dressed in camouflage hunkered down and the freezing downdraft from the aircraft hurled bits of turf and mud into the air.
Capt. Tom Bryant missed part of the action. The square-jawed Alabaman was hunting up a trash bin to toss out an onlooker’s discarded apple core. “We aim to leave the place in better shape than we found it,” he said, looking mildly disgusted as he wiped his hands on his fatigues.
That was one goal of Victory Strike III, three weeks of war games in which 5,000 troops from the U.S. Army’s V Corps and a few hundred Poles used attack helicopters and weapons to practice for a possible war with Iraq . Good
hygiene was just one reason Poland was delighted to play host to the training. Some 212 square miles near the German border were cleaner and the government and local suppliers were richer when the troops withdrew from
their drills. “It would be much better if the soldiers stayed permanently,” said Zbigniew Jakomulski, mayor of the town of Drawsko Pomorskie, which hosted the V Corps.
War can’t be counted on for economic benefits, but war games have pumped about $60 million into the Polish economy in the past two years. Per diem warriors from eight countries regularly work out in the former Warsaw Pact
country. Repeat customers, including Italy and Germany, have so far booked 13 maneuvers for next year, which looks to be the busiest yet. The U.S. Army will come back for two Victory Strikes next year.
Poland’s convenient location in the heart of Europe attracted plenty of uninvited armies in its war-ravaged past. Now the country is cashing in, leasing more land and airspace for war practice than any other European member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to which it has belonged
for three years. “Times have changed,” says Col. Klaus Haacke of Germany, which, under the Nazis, invaded Poland in 1939.
The Polish army is accommodating, environmental laws present no problems and there are few pacifists to get in the way. In other words, it is far more hospitable than Vieques, Puerto Rico, an island the U.S. Navy uses as a
practice bombing range, drawing frequent protests. With 120,728 square miles, Poland has the perfect military training terrain: vast flatlands, oozing swamps and rugged mountains, not to mention the frigid Baltic seacoast.
Poland’s waters haven’t been rented by any navies yet, but the Polish Ministry of Defense is trying to drum up interest. “We send marketing materials to all NATO countries — plus nonallied,” says Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski of the Polish Army General Staff Office.
For Victory Strike III, the U.S. government paid $5.6 million to rent training ground and airspace and for supplies and services. Maj. Jeff Harrington, Victory Strike’s chief contracting officer, crisscrossed the region in a rented Ford Mondeo, accompanied by a finance team of three. In six weeks, they spent $565,379 to rent 20 tents for operations centers and a mess hall, $140,000 for gravel for roads and Patriot missile pads, $238,800 for interpreters and $78,400 for kitchen help.
Polish businesses got contracts for gasoline, lumber, forklifts and door-keys. The Lobelia travel agency in Czaplinek landed an $80,000 deal to provide buses to ferry troops around. Widerange Enterprises in Drawsko
Pomorskie cleaned up by supplying 150 chemical toilets. At the Hot Cat, a brothel in Oleszno, business surged.
“We see a 100% increase in business during maneuvers,” said Andrzej, the brothel’s bouncer, who would give only his first name. The U.S. bans its soldiers from the Hot Cat, but the Army’s many local hires, as well as troops from some other NATO countries, aren’t restricted. “The Italians,” Andrzej
said, “they really fill the place.”
Victory Strike III had two men on full-time collateral-damage control. For nearly a month, Craig Walmsley, a U.S. Army environmental engineer, and Salvatore Giangrego of the V Corps’ Maneuver Management Division circled the training fields in their cars, using global positioning systems to record every mashed road shoulder or broken tree, so the Army could pay to fix or replace it. They stopped at helicopter refueling stations to make sure hose joints were strapped to pans of sand to absorb drips.
During night maneuvers, when children flocked to watch the helicopters refuel, Mr. Walmsley tied small flashlights around their necks so pilots could spot them. Mr. Giangrego rerouted soldiers in dirt-speckled Humvees to avoid trenching muddy areas and cautioned drivers to stay off spongy farmland with their 1,000-gallon fuel trucks.
In the more than 40 years that Poland was NATO’s enemy, alliance troops worked out in West Germany, girding against the Soviet threat. Tens of thousands of soldiers and scores of tanks, some weighing 70 tons, regularly tore through the Teutonic countryside, taking out trees, crops and livestock.
“The sidewalks were vaporized,” said Mr. Walmsley. During those years, maneuver damage in Germany cost the U.S. about $30 million a year. In Poland last year, the tab was only about $25,000, thanks to the efforts to leave everything pristine.
War games are a boon to isolated Czaplinek, a wooded burg of 5,000 where a neighbor’s new car is big news. “Meeting another language, people with different skin colors … is very important,” said Piotr Spirin, owner of the Lobelia travel agency. More important to him was this year’s bus contract,
which accounts for half his annual revenue. He got the contract last year, too, and with the profit bought four off-road vehicles and 20 canoes to rent to summer tourists from Germany, which once owned this region.
The U.S. Army always plans a humanitarian project during Victory Strike. This year the 94th Engineers built a new emergency ward for the hospital in Drawsko Pomorskie. Capt. Bryant bounced his SUV into the rubble-strewn
parking lot one day, waving a copy of a local newspaper story at soldiers covered in plaster dust. “Hey guys, here’s a story about you — it’s called ‘Shooting and Building,’ ” he shouted.
The hospital project cost $70,000. The U.S. bought materials locally and hospital maintenance staff helped American soldiers do the work. “We’ve learned a lot from our Polish colleagues,” said Lt. Adrienne Sykes, a crew leader fresh from West Point, as the electricity failed again. Despite such
obstacles, the crew of 32 finished the ward in a month. “We thought this would take seven years,” said Mariusz Brych, the hospital director.
Last year, an Apache helicopter crashed in a stand of trees near the Ziemsko airfield, killing the pilot. The U.S. Army paid the Polish Ministry of Defense $25,000 for 150 broken pine trees, and Warsaw used part of the money to put up a commemorative plaque honoring the pilot on the site. “The support here is phenomenal,” Mr. Giangrego said, pausing on his rounds. This year, “They sent a village priest to bless the Apaches.”
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 18:27:35 EST
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises on Vieques island
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises on Vieques island; governor objects
Fri Dec 27, 6:36 PM ET
By KATY DAIGLE, Associated Press Writer SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico –
The U.S. Navy informed Puerto Rico’s government Friday that it could begin a new round of bombing exercises as soon as Jan. 13 on the outlying island of Vieques.
The latest round of maneuvers could go on for up to 29 days, the Navy said in its letter to the U.S. territory’s government. Like previous military exercises, it could involve ship-to-shore shelling and air-to-ground bombing, although the Navy does not disclose details until maneuvers begin. Gov. Sila Calderon, who opposes the training, sent a letter to President George W. Bush on Friday calling the plan “patently offensive.” Bush has pledged the Navy will leave Vieques by May 2003. Calderon and dozens of U.S. congressional
representatives have urged Bush to put his promise in writing, as concerns mount that the United States could need the island as it prepares for a possible war with Iraq. The U.S. Navy, which now owns about one-third of the
outlying Puerto Rican island, has used the bombing range for six decades to prepare for international conflicts. “I am extremely disappointed and concerned to have received this letter without receiving a written confirmation of the
cessation of exercises,” Calderon wrote to Bush on Friday. A security guard was killed on the range in 1999 by errant Navy bombs, and the military has used only dummy bombs in the maneuvers ever since. The last round of training
was held on the Caribbean island in September. Demonstrators routinely break onto Navy lands to thwart the exercises, saying the maneuvers harm the environment and health of Vieques’ 9,100 residents. The Navy denies that
claims. Earlier this month, a group of about 20 anti-Navy activists set up a protest camp on a barren key off the Vieques bombing range, and vowed to stay and protest any future Navy exercises. Key la Yayi, about 45 minutes by
powerboat from Vieques, is open to the public year-round, except when the Navy is conducting exercises and the area falls under Navy-designated “danger zone.” The Navy, however, is unable to interfere with the protesters since a
May court decision confirmed the land was under Puerto Rican government jurisdiction, and not U.S. Navy.
Viequenses begin new year with civil disobedience
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) prepares for new protests and civil disobedience in response to the official Navy announcement of renewed bombing here beginning January 13th. The community group will hold a series of urgent planning meetings in the coming days. From the Peace and Justice Camp, in front of the entrance to the bombing zone here, the Committee and the community will maintain constant activity and coordinate protests in Vieques, with groups in Puerto Rico and in other countries.
Spokespersons for the Committee urged the Governor to enforce the laws of this country and indicated that bombing should not be allowed since the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board has denied Navy permits for discharge into the waters. According to the Viequenses, the xpressions of indignation from the Governor should be accompanied by concrete action in favor of the immediate cessation of bombing. “The Governor should take the police out of Vieques and end the practice of helping the Navy violate the democratically expressed will of the people in referendum and the recent elections,” suggested Ismael Guadalupe, principal spokesman for the group.
Members of the CRDV demanded the removal of the Puerto Rico Police maritime units from Vieques’ waters as an act in support of civil disobedience. “Neither the Governor, nor the Legislature, not even the Judiciary of Puerto Rico have been able to do what civil disobedience has obtained – paralize the Navy’s maneuvers,” sustained Robert Rabin, another member of the CRDV. “If they cannot stop the military destruction and contamination that is killing our people, they should not put obstacles in the way of the disobedience actions that have had a negative impact for the Navy,” added Rabin.
The committee also held the Navy and other governmental agencies who approved the continued bombing responsible for any harm to the civil disobedients who put their lives in danger by entering into the bombing zone and other restricted Navy lands on Vieques during firing practices.
Those interested in participating in civil disobedience or other protest actions can contact the CRDV at 787 741-0716 or by email: bieke@prdigital.com.
Inician el año con la desobediencia civil
Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Viequenses inician el año con la desobediencia civil
El Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques (CPRDV) se prepara para nuevas acciones de protesta y desobediencia civil ante el anuncio oficial de la Marina del reinicio de bombardeos aquí a partir del 13 de enero. El grupo comunitario celebrará una serie de reuniones de urgencia en los próximos días para planificar las acciones. Desde el Campamento Justicia y Paz, frente a la entrada de la zona de bombardeo, el Comité y la comunidad se mantendrán en constante acción y se coordinarán una serie de protestas tanto en Vieques como en Puerto Rico y otros países.
Portavoces del CPRDV exhortaron a la Gobernadora a hacer valer las leyes de este país y señalan que la Junta de Calidad Ambiental de Puerto Rico no ha otorgado los permisos necesarios a la Marina. Según los viequenses, las expresiones de indignación de la gobernadora deben estar acompañadas de acciones concretas a favor del cese inmediato del bombardeo. “La gobernadora debe retirar la policía de Vieques y terminar la política de usar nuestra policía para ayudar a la Marina a violar la voluntad democráticamente expresada por nuestro pueblo en el referéndum y en las pasadas elecciones,” dijo Ismael Guadalupe, principal portavoz del grupo.
Miembros del CPRDV exigieron el retiro de las unidades marítimas de la policía de aguas viequenses como acto de apoyo a la desobediencia civil. “Ni la Gobernadora, ni la Legislatura ni la rama judicial de Puerto Rico han logrado lo que la desobediencia civil ha podido hacer en varias ocasiones – paralizar las maniobras de la Marina,” sostuvo Robert Rabin, otro integrante del CPRDV. “Si no han sido capaces de parar la destrucción y la contaminación militar que mata a nuestra gente, el gobierno no deben poner obstáculos a la desobediencia que si ha tenido un impacto negativo para la Marina,” añadió Rabín.
El Comité también responsablilizó a la Marina y las otras agencias del gobierno que aprueban el bombardeo aquí por cualquier daño a los desobedientes civiles, quienes arriesgan sus vidas al entrar a la zona de tiro y otras zonas restringidas por la Marina en Vieques durante el bombardeo.
Personas interesadas en participar en las acciones de desobediencia civil u otras formas de protesta pueden comunicarse con el CPRDV vía teléfono al 787 741-0716 o por correo eléctrónico a la dirección: bieke@prdigital.com.
Comptuex 03-2: 13 enero -10 febrero 2003
Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Este es el título ominoso de los próximos ejercicios bélicos con que la Mairna de Guerra de Estados Unidos amenaza a nuestro pueblo en esta época navideña. Pedimos paz y la Marina nos trae guerra. Exigimos justicia y el gobierno de EU, cada día más militarizado, nos impone una dictadura naval. Nuestro alcalde y los demás oficiales electos por el pueblo, los lideres religiosos, sindicales, estudiantiles del país gritan por el fin del bombardeo y la Marina nos demuestra la arrogancia que la ha convertido en el enemigo de la humanidad. La inmensa mayoría del pueblo viequense ha votado – en las urnas, en el mar, contra la verja militar, en la zona de bombardeo – a favor del cese inmediato de las prácticas bélicas. Y la Marina insiste con su actividad asesina contra nuestros recursos naturales, nuestro ambiente, nuestra salud. En algún momento de los próximos dos meses, aviones de combate, submarinos y buques de guerra nos asecharán de nuevo – y nuestro pueblo responderá en defensa deL derecho de vivir en paz.
Durante tres años de intensa lucha y acción de desobediencia civil, miles de personas han caminado por las peligrosas zonas contaminadas y minadas de explosivos en la parte este de Vieques. Desobedientes civiles han viajado a las tierras restringidas a pie, a caballo y en bote, bajo condiciones dificilísimas y peligrosas. Son muchos los que han visto las bombas pasarles por encima durante las maniobras. Hombres y mujeres, jovenes y personas ya entrada en edad, puertorriqueños, americanos de diversas partes de las Américas y personas de otros hemisferios han arriesgado sus vidas como escudos humanos durante estos años de valentía y sacrifico por Vieques. Algunos dicen que hemos tenido mucha suerte en este proceso, en que nadie ha resultado gravemente herido o muerto. Otros dice que no es suerte, sino la mano de Dios que ha tocado esta lucha gloriosa de David vs. Goliát.
Aprovechamos este momento para advertirle a la Marina y responsabilizar a los oficiales militares y políticos que dirigen este proceso genocida, por cualquier daño que sufre nuestros desobedientes durante estas próximas acciones en enero-febrero. Los que han estado en la zona de tiro durante el bombardeo puede atestiguar al mal tino de los marinos y de los pilotos militares. Los arrecifes, las lagunas, los pelícanos y las ballenas también podrían dar testimonio sobre el efecto mortal de estas prácticas – y de las fallas al blanco, como ocurrió el 19 de abril de 1999. Nuestra gente estará en la zona de tiro cuando cañonean. Nuestra gente estará en la zona de tiro cuando bombardean de aviones. Nuestra gente estarán andando y trabajando la desobediencia en los caminos militares mientras patrullan en estas próximas maniobras. Habran familias viequenses enteras en el Campamento Justicia y Paz, en el Campamento Milivy y en el Campamento Luisa Guadalupe. En el Monte Carmelo, habrá acción constante. En lanchas nuestros hombres del mar estarán “pescando la dignidad”.
Ustedes también pueden participar en esta histórica lucha por la paz, por el amor y por el fin del militarismo en este lugar sagrado y mágico que llamamos, Vieques. Personas interesadas en participar en acciones de desobediencia civil aquí o en otros lugares, pueden llamarnos al Campamento Justicia y Paz (787) 741-0716, o por este email) para orientacíon. Manifestaciones en apoyo de Vieques en los Estados Unidos son de gran impacto. Podrán unirse con amigos, familiares o miembros de su congregación, escuela o lugar de trabajo para celebrar un piquete frente a una oficina o lugar simbólico del poder militar de EU o en cualquier espacio público donde podrán ayudar a enfocar la atención del pueblo a nuestra lucha.
Donativos de materiales directamente relacionados con las acciones de desobediencia aquí (ropa de camuflaje o negra, teléfonos celulares con minutos activos, brújulas, paquetes de comida seca) u otros materiales para los trabajos de apoyo en la oficina del CPRDV o del Campamento Justicia y Paz, serán grandmente agradecidos. Los gastos de mantener al CJP funcionando 24 horas al día durante los 29 días de maniobras anunciadas para enero, son enormes. Cualquier donativo al CPRDV se puede enviar a nuestra dirección postal (CPRDV Apartado 1424 Vieques, PR 00765) o depositar directamente a la cuenta del Comité en el Banco Popular de Puerto Rico # 112 868231).
Aquí nos preparamos para celebrar la Despedida del Año con una gran fiesta para la lucha organizada por los compañeros Dennis Rivera – Unión 1199 de Nueva York – y Wilda Rodríguez, representante de la organización de apoyo – Stop the Bombing. Gozaremos, bailaremos, comeremos y beberemos la noche de la despedida… y luego celebraremos el Día de los Reyes Magos. Los días 11 y 12 de enero, estaremos todos participando en la Caminata por la Paz y la Vida desde Fajardo hasta San Juan. Pero pueden estar seguros que una parte de nuestros pensares y sentires estará constantemente enfocada hacia las acciones de protesta, de denuncia y de desobediencia civil que celebraremos a partir del 13 de enero.
Les invitamos a que celebren con nosotros el inicio de este nuevo año con actos de amor y en contra de la violencia, con acciones por la paz y en contra de la guerra. No a la guerra en Vieques! No a la guerra en Iraq! No a la guerra en Palestina-Israel! PAZ, PAZ, PAZ!!!
January 13 Protest Navy bombing practice
Vieques Support Campaign
January 13 Protest Navy bombing practice of Vieques!
All out Monday, January 13, 2003 – 4:30 p.m., Times Square,
New York City. Protest the U.S. Navy announced resumption of bombing practices in Vieques, Puerto Rico. These planned
bombing rehearsals scheduled to begin on January 13 will last
a period of 29 days, adding to the destruction already caused by U.S. military activity in Vieques.
The Committee for the Rescue & Development of Vieques is
calling on peace loving people everywhere to engage in actions of support. Using the pretense of fighting “terrorism,” U.S. arrogance in the Middle East has intensified while its intentions to continue defying the wishes of the Puerto Rican people is becoming more apparent.
Since the early 1940’s, U.S. wars have been practiced on
Vieques, Puerto Rico. The people there have suffered the
economic, health and environmental consequences of
bombings and military maneuvers, in which depleted uranium
and other deadly substances have been used.
The abuses committed against the people of Vieques by the
Navy must stop as well as every preparation for war the U.S.
government makes against Iraq.
Now more than ever, the people of Vieques must be supported in their effort to stop the bombing of their island home – a first stage of the war on Iraq. The devastation and death the U.S. military has caused in Vieques is a glimps of what the U.S. will bring upon Iraq and many other countries if Pentagon war preparations are not halted.
The U.S. Navy must leave Vieques, begin a process of
decontamination, issue reparations and return the land to the people. Enougn is enough! Join others on January 13th to
demand an end to injustice.
Bring your signs, noisemakers and spirit. Let the world know
that the U.S. Navy bombing practice in Vieques amounts to U.S. terrorism. Vieques will not be used to commit another war of genocide on the people of Iraq.
For more information on the January 13th protest in New York City, contact the Vieques Support Campaign at (212)677-0619 or
Viequenses walk for peace and life
9 January, 2003
Viequenses walk for peace and life
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) participates in the coordination of the Walk for Peace and Life to be held Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January, from Fajardo to the Capitol in San Juan, as part of the actions in favor of ending bombing on the island municipality. A large number of Viequenses will travel to Fajardo on the Saturday morning ferry to begin the march that will include participants from several Vieques community organizations and support groups from the main island.
The announcement of new bombing increases the importance of the march for those who struggle to end the US Navy presence on Vieques. Spokespersons for the CRDV mentioned that during the week end, additional volunteers will be recruited for civil disobedience acts that will take place to deter bombing scheduled to last 29 days starting next Monday. In addition to the CRDV, the Vieques Women´s Alliance, the Catholic Church, the Municipal Government, the Yayi Key Collective and other civic, cultural and sports groups from the “Baby Island” participate in the organization of the event.
Father Nelson López, parish priest of Vieques will be principal speaker at the activity that will end on Sunday at the north side of the Capitol building, in front of the Hill of Winds. Mayor Dámaso Serrano will be the other key speaker at the rally that will include participation of Puerto Rican artists, political, religious and labor leaders in solidarity with the Vieques cause. “At this critical moment of the struggle, holding a mass action with ample participation of the diverse ideological sectors of the country, strengthens our movement for peace that has, over the past three years, forced two Puerto Rican governors and two US presidents to support the cessation of bombing here,” said Nilda Medina, spokesperson for the CRDV.
The Viequenses received with cautious optimism recent reports from the Pentagon about cessation of bombing in May. However, community leaders reiterated that the struggle for peace includes, in addition to demilitarization, the decontamination, return of lands to the people and sustainable development for a Vieques freed from the Navy.
Comunicado de Prensa
Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST)
Apartado 22699 Estación UPR San Juan PR 00931-2699
Tel/Fax: (787) 771-4921
12 de enero de 2003
Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores prepara dos nuevas brigadas mientras cumplen cárcel desobedientes de septiembre. Durante la semana pasada entraron a la cárcel tres de los cuatro desobedientes arrestados en las maniobras del pasado septiembre, como parte de la segunda brigada del Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST). Sus nombres son Mariel Torres Lara, Ricardo Santos Ortiz y
Andrés Santos Ortiz. En esta brigada también participó Norma Ortiz Guzmán, quien cumplió 40 días de cárcel inmediatamente después de ser arrestada. Los cuatro desobedientes también fueron sentenciados a un año de probatoria.
En el día de hoy, domingo 12 de enero de 2003, Mariel Torres Lara salió de la Cárcel Federal. Los hermanos Santos Ortiz terminarán su sentencia de 7 días mañana lunes 13 de enero. Esta brigada, que entró a los terrenos restringidos el 11 de septiembre de 2002, tenía los objetivos de detener el tiro y salir sin ser arrestados. A pesar de la intensa vigilancia de cientos de Alguaciles Federales, Policías Militares y de otras agencias represivas, la brigada se mantuvo por 5 días dentro de la zona de tiro. Durante esa maniobra otra brigada
organizada por el MST logró detener el bombardeo y salir sin ser arrestados.
Mañana lunes 13 de enero comienza una nueva ronda de maniobras que se extenderá durante 29 días. El Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores, como ha hecho en maniobras anteriores, se propone organizar dos brigadas con el objetivo de entrar, detener las maniobras y salir sin ser arrestados.
Luis Ángel Torres, portavoz del MST, indicó que “las brigadas del MST están listas para incursionar en los terrenos de la Marina para tratar de detener el tiro. A pesar de la supuesta certificación de que detendrán los bombardeos en mayo del 2003, no podemos bajar la guardia, es importante hacer todos los esfuerzos posibles para detener la maniobra que comienza ahora para llevarle un claro mensaje a la Marina de que esta lucha no se detendrá hasta que logremos sacarla
definitivamente de Vieques”.
“No podemos confiar en las declaraciones de que la marina va a terminar los bombardeos, ellos le han mentido al pueblo de Vieques anteriormente y esta puede ser otra de sus mentiras” añadió Torres.
Luis Ángel Torres
Portavoz
RE: Comunicado de Prensa
Look, Puerto Ricans shouldn’t be complaining about the bombing because the U.S. government gives millions of dollars a year for that country to survive. The people would be eating dirt if it wasn’t for the U.S., so shut your mouths and be happy you’re not a Communist country.
IGNORANT FELLOW AMERICAN
Firstly, the U.S. rents that facility to the tune of 75 million a year, none of which any Puerto Rican or Viequense ever sees. What they get is the shellshock and war syndromes we knew from Vietnam. Then the environmental destruction and pollution is deleterious to the health of the people of Vieques. Then there is the destruction of the fisheries and the disruption of the only form of livelihood the Viequenses have had–fishing. The U.S. Navy is a menace to the people and environment of Vieques–period, there is no other way of looking at it. Go to the island and tell me that the Viequenses have benefitted by our naval presence. Only an ignorant person, or someone unwilling to look at the truth would say they have.
You are so ignorant and hostile that it’s truly maddening. As Heinrich Heine once said, and it applies aptly to you, “Before stupidity, even the Gods are helpless.”
How dare you post this?
Eat dirt? How dare you? Comments such as this make it only too clear that the American presence in Puerto Rico must end.
Navy drops 200,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716 Fax 741-0358 Email:
26 January, 2003
Press Release
Navy drops 200,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques in two weeks of practices
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) denounces the continued destruction and contamination caused by intense US Navy bombing during the first two weeks of war exercises here. According to sources close to the maneuvers, jets and warships have launched more than 200,000 pounds of proyectiles at Vieques from 13 January to present. Over the past several days, residents of the island complained of intense explosions and low overflights by jets in the Santa Maria, Bravos de Boston, Villa Borinquen and Monte Carmelo sectors. The CRDV received reports that a large number of projectiles missed their targets, ending up in lagoons, beaches and in the ocean.
The scientific studies indicate that each bomb dropped on the pulverized soil of the impact area, lifts into the air particles of heavy metals, uranium oxide and other military toxics that are air transported by the breeze to the civilian area, thereby increasing the number of our people who get sick and die. For this reason, the civil disobedience will continue to create obstacles to the bombing and defend the right of the people of Vieques to live in peace. Eighteen civil disobedients have been arrested so far in this round of maneuvers, adding to the more than a thousand arrested during these three years of intense struggle here. Health professionals in Vieques noted an exaggerated increase in colds and repiratorios problems in the local population since the beginning of these practices.
Spokespersons for the CRDV described as ‚ “unnecessarily abusive and cruel‚” the current bombings that dramatically multiply the amount of contaminants that soon will have to be removed when the bombing range is closed in May, according to the recent certification by the Department of the Navy and the Congress. “This is like putting salt on a wound, just to add to the suffering of our people,” said Nilda Medina, spokeswoman for the community group. According to the Viequenses, 100 tons of additional metals and new military toxics represent a serious threat to the environment and the health of the civilian population.
Leaders of the Vieques struggle said the present maneuvers are preparations for a US attack against the people of Irak and they reject the use of Vieques for this aggression that will result in the massacre of thousands of children and other innocent victims of militarism.
Viequenses mark end of maneuvers
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
Viequenses mark end of maneuvers with renewed commitment to continue the struggle “The struggle has not ended yet and we cannot celebrate,” said leaders of the struggle for peace on Vieques.
The Viequense organizations that work to end the military presence on the island municipality will hold a Peace Caravan this Sunday, February 9th, beginning at 11:30 AM at Muñoz Rivera Street and ending at the Peace and Justice Camp in front on the entrance to the bombing zone here. Father Nelson López, Vieques parish priest, convince a planning meeting with representatives of the diverse community groups. There will be a cautious celebration of the end of the current maneuvers that will have lasted for 29 days and that were paralyzed on several occasions by civil disobedience actions.
The Viequenses will use the caravan to protest the intense bombing over the past days and to reaffirm the committment to struggle for an end to the bombing, decontamination and the return of the lands to our people. During the activity, there will be special mention of and a call for solidarity with the civil disobedients jailed at Federal Prison in Puerto Rico.
As symbols of the caravan, a coffin will be buried together with sixty years of Navy agression; people will hand over to military personnel at the gate to Camp García, bombs, bullets and other military artefacts that form part of the landscape of a Vieques under Navy control; a group of children will release white doves as symbols of the justice and peace the people of Vieques hope to experience once the military occupation of the island is ended.
The organizers of the caravan warn people not to lower the guard and to remain firm if the Navy attempts to bomb again before the first of May. “We cannot trust the Navy because they have lied and betrayed the people of Vieques for decades,” said Father Nelson. “It is our duty to continue the struggle for peace, for life, for the good of our people,” added the parrish priest and Vieques civil disobedient.
Among the organizations convening the caravan are the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques; Father Nelson of the Catholic Church; the Vieques Womens’ Alliance; Millivy Camp; the Yayi Key Collective and Monte Carmelo.
Fuego naval en Isla Nena desde el 13 de enero
Fuego naval en Isla Nena desde el 13 de enero
Por Mildred Rivera Marrero
El Nuevo Día/28 diciembre,2002
LA MARINA anunció ayer que el 13 de enero comenzará una nueva ronda de prácticas militares que durará un mes, ante lo cual la gobernadora, Sila Calderón, le solicitó al presidente George Bush su intervención para certificar el cese permanente de los bombardeos.
“Rechazo firmemente este nuevo anuncio. Es evidentemente ofensivo para la sensibilidad de nuestro pueblo que se le pida que soporte otra ronda de ejercicios sin ninguna explicación o garantía. Estos nuevos eventos hacen indispensable su intervención personal para asegurar que la Marina honra el compromiso público que usted hizo con el pueblo de Puerto Rico”, le manifestó Calderón a Bush en una carta de dos páginas que dictó desde Estados Unidos. La misiva fue acompañada de otra similar dirigida al jefe de gabinete de Casa Blanca, Andrew Card.
Calderón le indica a Bush que la notificación enviada por la Marina de que bombardeará durante 29 días por aire y mar en la Isla Nena provocará ansiedad y dudas entre la población toda vez que aún no hay una garantía escrita de la salida de la Marina en mayo del 2003.
“Estoy extremadamente decepcionada y preocupada al recibir esta carta antes de recibir una confirmación escrita sobre el cese de los ejercicios”, señaló Calderón, para luego manifestar que estos eventos amenazan “con destruir el delicado balance que hemos logrado entre la seguridad nacional y los derechos civiles”.
Esta nueva ronda de maniobras militares se había discutido previamente, cuando se indicó que faltaba otro periodo más de bombardeos antes de que la Marina saliera de tierra viequense. El anuncio fue hecho mediante una carta enviada por el capitán de la Marina G. H. Cooper al secretario de Estado, Ferdinand Mercado. La notificación indica que sólo se utilizarán bombas inertes en el área de impacto.
CALDERON ENVIO las cartas justo un mes después de enviarle otra al entonces secretario de la Marina, Gordon England, pidiéndole que creara un comité para trabajar con los asuntos de la salida de la Marina antes de que saliera de su cargo para asumir el de subsecretario de Seguridad Nacional. Antes de esa ocasión, Calderón había manifestado confianza en la palabra del Presidente de que la Marina se iría de Vieques en mayo del 2003.
En la nueva comunicación, la Gobernadora le dice al Presidente que recuerde la promesa que le hizo el 9 de enero del 2002 de cumplir con las expresiones públicas hechas en Ginebra. “A base de sus declaraciones públicas y sus expresiones a mí, yo le he asegurado al pueblo de Puerto Rico que las actividades militares en Vieques terminarán, y que su palabra debe ser creída”, le indicó la Gobernadora a Bush.
Esta información es cortesía del:
Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño
Comité de Nueva York (212) 330-8258
Visite la página de internet del PIP
http://www.independencia.net
Bombing Starts once again in Vieques Jan. 13th
Gobernadora repudia inicio de prácticas militares en Vieques
viernes, 27 de diciembre de 2002 SAN JUAN (EFE) – La gobernadora, Sila Calderón, expresó este viernes, su repudio por el anuncio emitido por la Marina de los Estados Unidos de reiniciar los ejercicios militares en Vieques el próximo 13 de enero de 2003, sin haber cumplido con la certificación de un
lugar alterno para la sustitución de las maniobras bélicas.
La Primera Ejecutiva expresó su “indignación” a través de sendas cartas enviadas hoy al presidente de los Estados Unidos George Bush y al jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Andrew Card.
El gobierno de Puerto Rico recibió la notificación oficial de la nueva ronda de ejercicios mediante comunicación escrita emitida por el capitán G. H. Cooper, Oficial del Comando de la Flota del Atlántico de la Marina.
“El pueblo de Puerto Rico repudia el reinicio de los ejercicios militares en la isla de Vieques porque estas prácticas no corresponden a la voluntad y al deseo de paz de todos los viequenses. Este anuncio tiene que ser rechazado,
además, porque llega en un momento de mucho significado para los puertorriqueños como lo es la Navidad y porque la Marina ha incumplido su responsabilidad de certificar los lugares alternos para las prácticas militares”, expresó la Gobernadora.
Calderón sostuvo que su Administración estará vigilante para que estos ejercicios bélicos no provoquen actos de confrontación entre los militares y los residentes de la Isla Nena.
La Marina de los EE.UU. notificó oficialmente hoy al gobierno de Puerto Rico que el próximo 13 de enero se reanudarían las prácticas militares, las que se extenderán por 29 días.
Los ejercicios serán por aire y mar.
La mandataria puertorriqueña expresó también que su gobierno está exigiendo que se ponga por escrito el compromiso contraído de terminar las prácticas, de forma final, en mayo próximo.
“El Presidente George Bush hizo un compromiso con el pueblo de Puerto Rico y nuestro deber es asegurarnos que ese compromiso se cumpla”, sentenció la Gobernadora.
Far More Hospitable Than Vieques, Poland
Far More Hospitable Than Vieques, Poland Cashes In by Renting Battlefields for War Games
Foreign Armies Are Again in the Country, But Now They’re Practicing, Not Invading
By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
12/16/02
DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland — The Apache attack helicopters lifted off, in eight groups of five, as troops dressed in camouflage hunkered down and the freezing downdraft from the aircraft hurled bits of turf and mud into the air.
Capt. Tom Bryant missed part of the action. The square-jawed Alabaman was hunting up a trash bin to toss out an onlooker’s discarded apple core. “We aim to leave the place in better shape than we found it,” he said, looking mildly disgusted as he wiped his hands on his fatigues.
That was one goal of Victory Strike III, three weeks of war games in which 5,000 troops from the U.S. Army’s V Corps and a few hundred Poles used attack helicopters and weapons to practice for a possible war with Iraq . Good
hygiene was just one reason Poland was delighted to play host to the training. Some 212 square miles near the German border were cleaner and the government and local suppliers were richer when the troops withdrew from
their drills. “It would be much better if the soldiers stayed permanently,” said Zbigniew Jakomulski, mayor of the town of Drawsko Pomorskie, which hosted the V Corps.
War can’t be counted on for economic benefits, but war games have pumped about $60 million into the Polish economy in the past two years. Per diem warriors from eight countries regularly work out in the former Warsaw Pact
country. Repeat customers, including Italy and Germany, have so far booked 13 maneuvers for next year, which looks to be the busiest yet. The U.S. Army will come back for two Victory Strikes next year.
Poland’s convenient location in the heart of Europe attracted plenty of uninvited armies in its war-ravaged past. Now the country is cashing in, leasing more land and airspace for war practice than any other European member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to which it has belonged
for three years. “Times have changed,” says Col. Klaus Haacke of Germany, which, under the Nazis, invaded Poland in 1939.
The Polish army is accommodating, environmental laws present no problems and there are few pacifists to get in the way. In other words, it is far more hospitable than Vieques, Puerto Rico, an island the U.S. Navy uses as a
practice bombing range, drawing frequent protests. With 120,728 square miles, Poland has the perfect military training terrain: vast flatlands, oozing swamps and rugged mountains, not to mention the frigid Baltic seacoast.
Poland’s waters haven’t been rented by any navies yet, but the Polish Ministry of Defense is trying to drum up interest. “We send marketing materials to all NATO countries — plus nonallied,” says Col. Zdzislaw Gnatowski of the Polish Army General Staff Office.
For Victory Strike III, the U.S. government paid $5.6 million to rent training ground and airspace and for supplies and services. Maj. Jeff Harrington, Victory Strike’s chief contracting officer, crisscrossed the region in a rented Ford Mondeo, accompanied by a finance team of three. In six weeks, they spent $565,379 to rent 20 tents for operations centers and a mess hall, $140,000 for gravel for roads and Patriot missile pads, $238,800 for interpreters and $78,400 for kitchen help.
Polish businesses got contracts for gasoline, lumber, forklifts and door-keys. The Lobelia travel agency in Czaplinek landed an $80,000 deal to provide buses to ferry troops around. Widerange Enterprises in Drawsko
Pomorskie cleaned up by supplying 150 chemical toilets. At the Hot Cat, a brothel in Oleszno, business surged.
“We see a 100% increase in business during maneuvers,” said Andrzej, the brothel’s bouncer, who would give only his first name. The U.S. bans its soldiers from the Hot Cat, but the Army’s many local hires, as well as troops from some other NATO countries, aren’t restricted. “The Italians,” Andrzej
said, “they really fill the place.”
Victory Strike III had two men on full-time collateral-damage control. For nearly a month, Craig Walmsley, a U.S. Army environmental engineer, and Salvatore Giangrego of the V Corps’ Maneuver Management Division circled the training fields in their cars, using global positioning systems to record every mashed road shoulder or broken tree, so the Army could pay to fix or replace it. They stopped at helicopter refueling stations to make sure hose joints were strapped to pans of sand to absorb drips.
During night maneuvers, when children flocked to watch the helicopters refuel, Mr. Walmsley tied small flashlights around their necks so pilots could spot them. Mr. Giangrego rerouted soldiers in dirt-speckled Humvees to avoid trenching muddy areas and cautioned drivers to stay off spongy farmland with their 1,000-gallon fuel trucks.
In the more than 40 years that Poland was NATO’s enemy, alliance troops worked out in West Germany, girding against the Soviet threat. Tens of thousands of soldiers and scores of tanks, some weighing 70 tons, regularly tore through the Teutonic countryside, taking out trees, crops and livestock.
“The sidewalks were vaporized,” said Mr. Walmsley. During those years, maneuver damage in Germany cost the U.S. about $30 million a year. In Poland last year, the tab was only about $25,000, thanks to the efforts to leave everything pristine.
War games are a boon to isolated Czaplinek, a wooded burg of 5,000 where a neighbor’s new car is big news. “Meeting another language, people with different skin colors … is very important,” said Piotr Spirin, owner of the Lobelia travel agency. More important to him was this year’s bus contract,
which accounts for half his annual revenue. He got the contract last year, too, and with the profit bought four off-road vehicles and 20 canoes to rent to summer tourists from Germany, which once owned this region.
The U.S. Army always plans a humanitarian project during Victory Strike. This year the 94th Engineers built a new emergency ward for the hospital in Drawsko Pomorskie. Capt. Bryant bounced his SUV into the rubble-strewn
parking lot one day, waving a copy of a local newspaper story at soldiers covered in plaster dust. “Hey guys, here’s a story about you — it’s called ‘Shooting and Building,’ ” he shouted.
The hospital project cost $70,000. The U.S. bought materials locally and hospital maintenance staff helped American soldiers do the work. “We’ve learned a lot from our Polish colleagues,” said Lt. Adrienne Sykes, a crew leader fresh from West Point, as the electricity failed again. Despite such
obstacles, the crew of 32 finished the ward in a month. “We thought this would take seven years,” said Mariusz Brych, the hospital director.
Last year, an Apache helicopter crashed in a stand of trees near the Ziemsko airfield, killing the pilot. The U.S. Army paid the Polish Ministry of Defense $25,000 for 150 broken pine trees, and Warsaw used part of the money to put up a commemorative plaque honoring the pilot on the site. “The support here is phenomenal,” Mr. Giangrego said, pausing on his rounds. This year, “They sent a village priest to bless the Apaches.”
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 18:27:35 EST
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises on Vieques island
U.S. Navy announces date of bombing exercises on Vieques island; governor objects
Fri Dec 27, 6:36 PM ET
By KATY DAIGLE, Associated Press Writer SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico –
The U.S. Navy informed Puerto Rico’s government Friday that it could begin a new round of bombing exercises as soon as Jan. 13 on the outlying island of Vieques.
The latest round of maneuvers could go on for up to 29 days, the Navy said in its letter to the U.S. territory’s government. Like previous military exercises, it could involve ship-to-shore shelling and air-to-ground bombing, although the Navy does not disclose details until maneuvers begin. Gov. Sila Calderon, who opposes the training, sent a letter to President George W. Bush on Friday calling the plan “patently offensive.” Bush has pledged the Navy will leave Vieques by May 2003. Calderon and dozens of U.S. congressional
representatives have urged Bush to put his promise in writing, as concerns mount that the United States could need the island as it prepares for a possible war with Iraq. The U.S. Navy, which now owns about one-third of the
outlying Puerto Rican island, has used the bombing range for six decades to prepare for international conflicts. “I am extremely disappointed and concerned to have received this letter without receiving a written confirmation of the
cessation of exercises,” Calderon wrote to Bush on Friday. A security guard was killed on the range in 1999 by errant Navy bombs, and the military has used only dummy bombs in the maneuvers ever since. The last round of training
was held on the Caribbean island in September. Demonstrators routinely break onto Navy lands to thwart the exercises, saying the maneuvers harm the environment and health of Vieques’ 9,100 residents. The Navy denies that
claims. Earlier this month, a group of about 20 anti-Navy activists set up a protest camp on a barren key off the Vieques bombing range, and vowed to stay and protest any future Navy exercises. Key la Yayi, about 45 minutes by
powerboat from Vieques, is open to the public year-round, except when the Navy is conducting exercises and the area falls under Navy-designated “danger zone.” The Navy, however, is unable to interfere with the protesters since a
May court decision confirmed the land was under Puerto Rican government jurisdiction, and not U.S. Navy.
Viequenses begin new year with civil disobedience
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
PO Box 1424
Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716
E mail: bieke@prdigital.com
29 December 2002
Press Release
Viequenses begin new year with civil disobedience
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) prepares for new protests and civil disobedience in response to the official Navy announcement of renewed bombing here beginning January 13th. The community group will hold a series of urgent planning meetings in the coming days. From the Peace and Justice Camp, in front of the entrance to the bombing zone here, the Committee and the community will maintain constant activity and coordinate protests in Vieques, with groups in Puerto Rico and in other countries.
Spokespersons for the Committee urged the Governor to enforce the laws of this country and indicated that bombing should not be allowed since the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board has denied Navy permits for discharge into the waters. According to the Viequenses, the xpressions of indignation from the Governor should be accompanied by concrete action in favor of the immediate cessation of bombing. “The Governor should take the police out of Vieques and end the practice of helping the Navy violate the democratically expressed will of the people in referendum and the recent elections,” suggested Ismael Guadalupe, principal spokesman for the group.
Members of the CRDV demanded the removal of the Puerto Rico Police maritime units from Vieques’ waters as an act in support of civil disobedience. “Neither the Governor, nor the Legislature, not even the Judiciary of Puerto Rico have been able to do what civil disobedience has obtained – paralize the Navy’s maneuvers,” sustained Robert Rabin, another member of the CRDV. “If they cannot stop the military destruction and contamination that is killing our people, they should not put obstacles in the way of the disobedience actions that have had a negative impact for the Navy,” added Rabin.
The committee also held the Navy and other governmental agencies who approved the continued bombing responsible for any harm to the civil disobedients who put their lives in danger by entering into the bombing zone and other restricted Navy lands on Vieques during firing practices.
Those interested in participating in civil disobedience or other protest actions can contact the CRDV at 787 741-0716 or by email: bieke@prdigital.com.
Inician el año con la desobediencia civil
Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Apartado 1424
Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716 Fax (787) 741-0358
E mail: bieke@prdigital.com
28 de diciembre de 2002
Comunicado de Prensa
Viequenses inician el año con la desobediencia civil
El Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques (CPRDV) se prepara para nuevas acciones de protesta y desobediencia civil ante el anuncio oficial de la Marina del reinicio de bombardeos aquí a partir del 13 de enero. El grupo comunitario celebrará una serie de reuniones de urgencia en los próximos días para planificar las acciones. Desde el Campamento Justicia y Paz, frente a la entrada de la zona de bombardeo, el Comité y la comunidad se mantendrán en constante acción y se coordinarán una serie de protestas tanto en Vieques como en Puerto Rico y otros países.
Portavoces del CPRDV exhortaron a la Gobernadora a hacer valer las leyes de este país y señalan que la Junta de Calidad Ambiental de Puerto Rico no ha otorgado los permisos necesarios a la Marina. Según los viequenses, las expresiones de indignación de la gobernadora deben estar acompañadas de acciones concretas a favor del cese inmediato del bombardeo. “La gobernadora debe retirar la policía de Vieques y terminar la política de usar nuestra policía para ayudar a la Marina a violar la voluntad democráticamente expresada por nuestro pueblo en el referéndum y en las pasadas elecciones,” dijo Ismael Guadalupe, principal portavoz del grupo.
Miembros del CPRDV exigieron el retiro de las unidades marítimas de la policía de aguas viequenses como acto de apoyo a la desobediencia civil. “Ni la Gobernadora, ni la Legislatura ni la rama judicial de Puerto Rico han logrado lo que la desobediencia civil ha podido hacer en varias ocasiones – paralizar las maniobras de la Marina,” sostuvo Robert Rabin, otro integrante del CPRDV. “Si no han sido capaces de parar la destrucción y la contaminación militar que mata a nuestra gente, el gobierno no deben poner obstáculos a la desobediencia que si ha tenido un impacto negativo para la Marina,” añadió Rabín.
El Comité también responsablilizó a la Marina y las otras agencias del gobierno que aprueban el bombardeo aquí por cualquier daño a los desobedientes civiles, quienes arriesgan sus vidas al entrar a la zona de tiro y otras zonas restringidas por la Marina en Vieques durante el bombardeo.
Personas interesadas en participar en las acciones de desobediencia civil u otras formas de protesta pueden comunicarse con el CPRDV vía teléfono al 787 741-0716 o por correo eléctrónico a la dirección: bieke@prdigital.com.
Comptuex 03-2: 13 enero -10 febrero 2003
Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Apartado 1424
Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
(787)741-0716
Fax (787)741-0358
bieke@prdigital.com
31 de diciembre de 2002
Comptuex 03-2: 13 enero -10 febrero 2003
Este es el título ominoso de los próximos ejercicios bélicos con que la Mairna de Guerra de Estados Unidos amenaza a nuestro pueblo en esta época navideña. Pedimos paz y la Marina nos trae guerra. Exigimos justicia y el gobierno de EU, cada día más militarizado, nos impone una dictadura naval. Nuestro alcalde y los demás oficiales electos por el pueblo, los lideres religiosos, sindicales, estudiantiles del país gritan por el fin del bombardeo y la Marina nos demuestra la arrogancia que la ha convertido en el enemigo de la humanidad. La inmensa mayoría del pueblo viequense ha votado – en las urnas, en el mar, contra la verja militar, en la zona de bombardeo – a favor del cese inmediato de las prácticas bélicas. Y la Marina insiste con su actividad asesina contra nuestros recursos naturales, nuestro ambiente, nuestra salud. En algún momento de los próximos dos meses, aviones de combate, submarinos y buques de guerra nos asecharán de nuevo – y nuestro pueblo responderá en defensa deL derecho de vivir en paz.
Durante tres años de intensa lucha y acción de desobediencia civil, miles de personas han caminado por las peligrosas zonas contaminadas y minadas de explosivos en la parte este de Vieques. Desobedientes civiles han viajado a las tierras restringidas a pie, a caballo y en bote, bajo condiciones dificilísimas y peligrosas. Son muchos los que han visto las bombas pasarles por encima durante las maniobras. Hombres y mujeres, jovenes y personas ya entrada en edad, puertorriqueños, americanos de diversas partes de las Américas y personas de otros hemisferios han arriesgado sus vidas como escudos humanos durante estos años de valentía y sacrifico por Vieques. Algunos dicen que hemos tenido mucha suerte en este proceso, en que nadie ha resultado gravemente herido o muerto. Otros dice que no es suerte, sino la mano de Dios que ha tocado esta lucha gloriosa de David vs. Goliát.
Aprovechamos este momento para advertirle a la Marina y responsabilizar a los oficiales militares y políticos que dirigen este proceso genocida, por cualquier daño que sufre nuestros desobedientes durante estas próximas acciones en enero-febrero. Los que han estado en la zona de tiro durante el bombardeo puede atestiguar al mal tino de los marinos y de los pilotos militares. Los arrecifes, las lagunas, los pelícanos y las ballenas también podrían dar testimonio sobre el efecto mortal de estas prácticas – y de las fallas al blanco, como ocurrió el 19 de abril de 1999. Nuestra gente estará en la zona de tiro cuando cañonean. Nuestra gente estará en la zona de tiro cuando bombardean de aviones. Nuestra gente estarán andando y trabajando la desobediencia en los caminos militares mientras patrullan en estas próximas maniobras. Habran familias viequenses enteras en el Campamento Justicia y Paz, en el Campamento Milivy y en el Campamento Luisa Guadalupe. En el Monte Carmelo, habrá acción constante. En lanchas nuestros hombres del mar estarán “pescando la dignidad”.
Ustedes también pueden participar en esta histórica lucha por la paz, por el amor y por el fin del militarismo en este lugar sagrado y mágico que llamamos, Vieques. Personas interesadas en participar en acciones de desobediencia civil aquí o en otros lugares, pueden llamarnos al Campamento Justicia y Paz (787) 741-0716, o por este email) para orientacíon. Manifestaciones en apoyo de Vieques en los Estados Unidos son de gran impacto. Podrán unirse con amigos, familiares o miembros de su congregación, escuela o lugar de trabajo para celebrar un piquete frente a una oficina o lugar simbólico del poder militar de EU o en cualquier espacio público donde podrán ayudar a enfocar la atención del pueblo a nuestra lucha.
Donativos de materiales directamente relacionados con las acciones de desobediencia aquí (ropa de camuflaje o negra, teléfonos celulares con minutos activos, brújulas, paquetes de comida seca) u otros materiales para los trabajos de apoyo en la oficina del CPRDV o del Campamento Justicia y Paz, serán grandmente agradecidos. Los gastos de mantener al CJP funcionando 24 horas al día durante los 29 días de maniobras anunciadas para enero, son enormes. Cualquier donativo al CPRDV se puede enviar a nuestra dirección postal (CPRDV Apartado 1424 Vieques, PR 00765) o depositar directamente a la cuenta del Comité en el Banco Popular de Puerto Rico # 112 868231).
Aquí nos preparamos para celebrar la Despedida del Año con una gran fiesta para la lucha organizada por los compañeros Dennis Rivera – Unión 1199 de Nueva York – y Wilda Rodríguez, representante de la organización de apoyo – Stop the Bombing. Gozaremos, bailaremos, comeremos y beberemos la noche de la despedida… y luego celebraremos el Día de los Reyes Magos. Los días 11 y 12 de enero, estaremos todos participando en la Caminata por la Paz y la Vida desde Fajardo hasta San Juan. Pero pueden estar seguros que una parte de nuestros pensares y sentires estará constantemente enfocada hacia las acciones de protesta, de denuncia y de desobediencia civil que celebraremos a partir del 13 de enero.
Les invitamos a que celebren con nosotros el inicio de este nuevo año con actos de amor y en contra de la violencia, con acciones por la paz y en contra de la guerra. No a la guerra en Vieques! No a la guerra en Iraq! No a la guerra en Palestina-Israel! PAZ, PAZ, PAZ!!!
January 13 Protest Navy bombing practice
Vieques Support Campaign
http://www.viequessupport.org
E-mail mail@viequessupport.org
NO TO RACISM & IMPERIALIST WAR!
U.S. NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES & ALL OF PUERTO RICO!
Urgent Call To Action:
January 13 Protest Navy bombing practice of Vieques!
All out Monday, January 13, 2003 – 4:30 p.m., Times Square,
New York City. Protest the U.S. Navy announced resumption of bombing practices in Vieques, Puerto Rico. These planned
bombing rehearsals scheduled to begin on January 13 will last
a period of 29 days, adding to the destruction already caused by U.S. military activity in Vieques.
The Committee for the Rescue & Development of Vieques is
calling on peace loving people everywhere to engage in actions of support. Using the pretense of fighting “terrorism,” U.S. arrogance in the Middle East has intensified while its intentions to continue defying the wishes of the Puerto Rican people is becoming more apparent.
Since the early 1940’s, U.S. wars have been practiced on
Vieques, Puerto Rico. The people there have suffered the
economic, health and environmental consequences of
bombings and military maneuvers, in which depleted uranium
and other deadly substances have been used.
The abuses committed against the people of Vieques by the
Navy must stop as well as every preparation for war the U.S.
government makes against Iraq.
Now more than ever, the people of Vieques must be supported in their effort to stop the bombing of their island home – a first stage of the war on Iraq. The devastation and death the U.S. military has caused in Vieques is a glimps of what the U.S. will bring upon Iraq and many other countries if Pentagon war preparations are not halted.
The U.S. Navy must leave Vieques, begin a process of
decontamination, issue reparations and return the land to the people. Enougn is enough! Join others on January 13th to
demand an end to injustice.
Bring your signs, noisemakers and spirit. Let the world know
that the U.S. Navy bombing practice in Vieques amounts to U.S. terrorism. Vieques will not be used to commit another war of genocide on the people of Iraq.
For more information on the January 13th protest in New York City, contact the Vieques Support Campaign at (212)677-0619 or
(212)601-4751 or by e-mail at mail@viequessupport.org
From: Vieques Support Campaign –
Viequenses walk for peace and life
9 January, 2003
Viequenses walk for peace and life
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) participates in the coordination of the Walk for Peace and Life to be held Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 January, from Fajardo to the Capitol in San Juan, as part of the actions in favor of ending bombing on the island municipality. A large number of Viequenses will travel to Fajardo on the Saturday morning ferry to begin the march that will include participants from several Vieques community organizations and support groups from the main island.
The announcement of new bombing increases the importance of the march for those who struggle to end the US Navy presence on Vieques. Spokespersons for the CRDV mentioned that during the week end, additional volunteers will be recruited for civil disobedience acts that will take place to deter bombing scheduled to last 29 days starting next Monday. In addition to the CRDV, the Vieques Women´s Alliance, the Catholic Church, the Municipal Government, the Yayi Key Collective and other civic, cultural and sports groups from the “Baby Island” participate in the organization of the event.
Father Nelson López, parish priest of Vieques will be principal speaker at the activity that will end on Sunday at the north side of the Capitol building, in front of the Hill of Winds. Mayor Dámaso Serrano will be the other key speaker at the rally that will include participation of Puerto Rican artists, political, religious and labor leaders in solidarity with the Vieques cause. “At this critical moment of the struggle, holding a mass action with ample participation of the diverse ideological sectors of the country, strengthens our movement for peace that has, over the past three years, forced two Puerto Rican governors and two US presidents to support the cessation of bombing here,” said Nilda Medina, spokesperson for the CRDV.
The Viequenses received with cautious optimism recent reports from the Pentagon about cessation of bombing in May. However, community leaders reiterated that the struggle for peace includes, in addition to demilitarization, the decontamination, return of lands to the people and sustainable development for a Vieques freed from the Navy.
Comunicado de Prensa
Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST)
Apartado 22699 Estación UPR San Juan PR 00931-2699
Tel/Fax: (787) 771-4921
12 de enero de 2003
Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores prepara dos nuevas brigadas mientras cumplen cárcel desobedientes de septiembre. Durante la semana pasada entraron a la cárcel tres de los cuatro desobedientes arrestados en las maniobras del pasado septiembre, como parte de la segunda brigada del Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST). Sus nombres son Mariel Torres Lara, Ricardo Santos Ortiz y
Andrés Santos Ortiz. En esta brigada también participó Norma Ortiz Guzmán, quien cumplió 40 días de cárcel inmediatamente después de ser arrestada. Los cuatro desobedientes también fueron sentenciados a un año de probatoria.
En el día de hoy, domingo 12 de enero de 2003, Mariel Torres Lara salió de la Cárcel Federal. Los hermanos Santos Ortiz terminarán su sentencia de 7 días mañana lunes 13 de enero. Esta brigada, que entró a los terrenos restringidos el 11 de septiembre de 2002, tenía los objetivos de detener el tiro y salir sin ser arrestados. A pesar de la intensa vigilancia de cientos de Alguaciles Federales, Policías Militares y de otras agencias represivas, la brigada se mantuvo por 5 días dentro de la zona de tiro. Durante esa maniobra otra brigada
organizada por el MST logró detener el bombardeo y salir sin ser arrestados.
Mañana lunes 13 de enero comienza una nueva ronda de maniobras que se extenderá durante 29 días. El Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores, como ha hecho en maniobras anteriores, se propone organizar dos brigadas con el objetivo de entrar, detener las maniobras y salir sin ser arrestados.
Luis Ángel Torres, portavoz del MST, indicó que “las brigadas del MST están listas para incursionar en los terrenos de la Marina para tratar de detener el tiro. A pesar de la supuesta certificación de que detendrán los bombardeos en mayo del 2003, no podemos bajar la guardia, es importante hacer todos los esfuerzos posibles para detener la maniobra que comienza ahora para llevarle un claro mensaje a la Marina de que esta lucha no se detendrá hasta que logremos sacarla
definitivamente de Vieques”.
“No podemos confiar en las declaraciones de que la marina va a terminar los bombardeos, ellos le han mentido al pueblo de Vieques anteriormente y esta puede ser otra de sus mentiras” añadió Torres.
Luis Ángel Torres
Portavoz
RE: Comunicado de Prensa
Look, Puerto Ricans shouldn’t be complaining about the bombing because the U.S. government gives millions of dollars a year for that country to survive. The people would be eating dirt if it wasn’t for the U.S., so shut your mouths and be happy you’re not a Communist country.
IGNORANT FELLOW AMERICAN
Firstly, the U.S. rents that facility to the tune of 75 million a year, none of which any Puerto Rican or Viequense ever sees. What they get is the shellshock and war syndromes we knew from Vietnam. Then the environmental destruction and pollution is deleterious to the health of the people of Vieques. Then there is the destruction of the fisheries and the disruption of the only form of livelihood the Viequenses have had–fishing. The U.S. Navy is a menace to the people and environment of Vieques–period, there is no other way of looking at it. Go to the island and tell me that the Viequenses have benefitted by our naval presence. Only an ignorant person, or someone unwilling to look at the truth would say they have.
You are so ignorant and hostile that it’s truly maddening. As Heinrich Heine once said, and it applies aptly to you, “Before stupidity, even the Gods are helpless.”
How dare you post this?
Eat dirt? How dare you? Comments such as this make it only too clear that the American presence in Puerto Rico must end.
Navy drops 200,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716 Fax 741-0358 Email:
26 January, 2003
Press Release
Navy drops 200,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques in two weeks of practices
The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) denounces the continued destruction and contamination caused by intense US Navy bombing during the first two weeks of war exercises here. According to sources close to the maneuvers, jets and warships have launched more than 200,000 pounds of proyectiles at Vieques from 13 January to present. Over the past several days, residents of the island complained of intense explosions and low overflights by jets in the Santa Maria, Bravos de Boston, Villa Borinquen and Monte Carmelo sectors. The CRDV received reports that a large number of projectiles missed their targets, ending up in lagoons, beaches and in the ocean.
The scientific studies indicate that each bomb dropped on the pulverized soil of the impact area, lifts into the air particles of heavy metals, uranium oxide and other military toxics that are air transported by the breeze to the civilian area, thereby increasing the number of our people who get sick and die. For this reason, the civil disobedience will continue to create obstacles to the bombing and defend the right of the people of Vieques to live in peace. Eighteen civil disobedients have been arrested so far in this round of maneuvers, adding to the more than a thousand arrested during these three years of intense struggle here. Health professionals in Vieques noted an exaggerated increase in colds and repiratorios problems in the local population since the beginning of these practices.
Spokespersons for the CRDV described as ‚ “unnecessarily abusive and cruel‚” the current bombings that dramatically multiply the amount of contaminants that soon will have to be removed when the bombing range is closed in May, according to the recent certification by the Department of the Navy and the Congress. “This is like putting salt on a wound, just to add to the suffering of our people,” said Nilda Medina, spokeswoman for the community group. According to the Viequenses, 100 tons of additional metals and new military toxics represent a serious threat to the environment and the health of the civilian population.
Leaders of the Vieques struggle said the present maneuvers are preparations for a US attack against the people of Irak and they reject the use of Vieques for this aggression that will result in the massacre of thousands of children and other innocent victims of militarism.
Viequenses mark end of maneuvers
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
PO Box 1424
Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716
E mail: bieke@prdigital.com
7 February, 2003 Press Release
Viequenses mark end of maneuvers with renewed commitment to continue the struggle “The struggle has not ended yet and we cannot celebrate,” said leaders of the struggle for peace on Vieques.
The Viequense organizations that work to end the military presence on the island municipality will hold a Peace Caravan this Sunday, February 9th, beginning at 11:30 AM at Muñoz Rivera Street and ending at the Peace and Justice Camp in front on the entrance to the bombing zone here. Father Nelson López, Vieques parish priest, convince a planning meeting with representatives of the diverse community groups. There will be a cautious celebration of the end of the current maneuvers that will have lasted for 29 days and that were paralyzed on several occasions by civil disobedience actions.
The Viequenses will use the caravan to protest the intense bombing over the past days and to reaffirm the committment to struggle for an end to the bombing, decontamination and the return of the lands to our people. During the activity, there will be special mention of and a call for solidarity with the civil disobedients jailed at Federal Prison in Puerto Rico.
As symbols of the caravan, a coffin will be buried together with sixty years of Navy agression; people will hand over to military personnel at the gate to Camp García, bombs, bullets and other military artefacts that form part of the landscape of a Vieques under Navy control; a group of children will release white doves as symbols of the justice and peace the people of Vieques hope to experience once the military occupation of the island is ended.
The organizers of the caravan warn people not to lower the guard and to remain firm if the Navy attempts to bomb again before the first of May. “We cannot trust the Navy because they have lied and betrayed the people of Vieques for decades,” said Father Nelson. “It is our duty to continue the struggle for peace, for life, for the good of our people,” added the parrish priest and Vieques civil disobedient.
Among the organizations convening the caravan are the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques; Father Nelson of the Catholic Church; the Vieques Womens’ Alliance; Millivy Camp; the Yayi Key Collective and Monte Carmelo.
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