[CPEO-IRF] "Aníbal abandoned Vieques..."

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The following article from the July 28, 2006 edition of
El Nuevo Día was translated and circulated by R. Rabin/Comité Pro 
Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques


Aníbal abandoned Vieques...

José E. Rivera Santana
Ex-director of the Master Plan for Sustainable Development for Vieques 
and Culebra

Probably ill advised, the Governor of Puerto Rico will become the First 
Executive who lost the opportunity to do for Vieques (and for Culebra as 
well) what no other governor had done.  Everything was in his favor: 
laws, plans and structures created especially for its implementation.

Unexplainably, Acevedo Vilá closes the Office of Commissioner for 
Vieques and Culebra.  With that he tossed overboard the consensus 
achieved among political parties, the communities of both islands and 
representative sectors of civilian society, embodied in the 
recommendations of the Special Commission on Vieques named by then 
governor, Pedro Roselló.

That commission recognized the importance of creating the office as a 
necesarry instrument to deal with the documented inefficiency of public 
agencies at the central level.  Later on, ex governor, Sila M. Calderón, 
widened the scope of the project to include the island municipality of 
Culebra.

In 2002 Law 153 is approved, declaring Vieques and Culebra "Special 
Development Zones" and ordering the preparation of a Development Plan. 
That plan, known as the Master Plan for Sustainable Development of 
Vieques and Culebra, was commissioned, prepared and approved in December 
of 2004.

The implementation of the Master Plan remained in the hands of the 
Interagency Group created by Law 153 and made up of several agencies 
under the direction of the Department of Economic and Commercial 
Development (DECD).  From its creation until December 2004, the 
Interagency Group was directed by the Secretary of DECD, then Milton 
Segarra and by the commissioner of Vieques and Culebra, Dr. Juan Fernández.

With the election of Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, the two island municipalities 
lost their priority status.  As we mentioned, the Commissioner’s Office 
was closed and direction of the Interagency Group was given to lower 
echelon functionaries.  In effect, from January 2005 to now, this group 
has had three different directors.  Meanwhile, the Viequenses and 
Culebrenses perceive, correctly, that Aníbal has abandoned them.


--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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