Vieques Update

[Robert Rabin <bieke@tropicweb.net>]

Warm and fraternal greetings from the Island of Vieques, Puerto Rico. 
Here´s a recent article on the situation here.

En Solidaridad,

Robert Rabin


The Battle of Vieques Continues
  
      
The arrival this year of elements of the Southern Command to Puerto Rico
will produce a noticeable increase in military activity and in related
serious problems.  For more than 50 years the people of Vieques have been
affected by bombing and other activities of the U.S. military forces and
those of other countries who "rent" the U.S. Navy facilities on the island
of Vieques, PR.  That is why the people vigorously protested 2 years ago
the news of the transfer of the Southern Command to Puerto Rico.
       
In a press release on August 2, 1997, the Committee for the Rescue and
Development of Vieques opposed the decision to locate some elements of the
Southern Command in PR because "it will mean an increase in war activities
on Vieques and it will constitute an attack on the efforts of the community
to get back the 33,000 acres of land (3/4 of the land mass of Vieques)
controlled by the US Navy since the decade of the 1940's".  In the same
communiqué the Viequenses stated that "the horrible consequences of the
more than 50 years of military presence, both for the people and for the
environment of our "little island," forces us to oppose this increase in
the militarization of PR."
      
In the form of a notice to the Puerto Ricans on the "big island", the
leaders of the Vieques struggle explained that "the presence of the U.S.
Navy has not brought any benefit whatsoever, either economic or social, to
the inhabitants;  that the 6 decades of military presence on Vieques have
been characterized by continual confrontations between the military and
civilians, the strangulation of the local economy, the forced emigration of
thousands of Viequenses, and an ecological disaster with grave consequences
for the environment and the health of our people."  Dr. Rafael Rivera
Castano, member of the Executive Board of the Committee for the Rescue and
Development of Vieques, stated in the communique that Vieques suffers from
a higher than 50% unemployment rate, that 72% of the population live below
the poverty level, and that there are an alarming number of cases of cancer
and respiratory illnesses.
      
These concerns of the Viequenses have been confirmed with the publication
of the Environmental Assessment for the Relocation of the Special
Operations of the Southern command and Selected U.S. Army elements from the
Republic of Panama to U.S. Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, PR and Other
Locations. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Tetra Tech,
Dec., 1998)  The name of Vieques-- along with other places in Puerto Rico
which will feel the effects of this military move-appears in the document
before the introduction and figures prominently throughout the text of more
than 200 pages.
         
In the section entitled Environmental Consequences, the document states
that on Vieques the activities of these special operations forces will
result in direct adverse effects both on the air quality and the noise
level caused by military vehicles, planes, and helicopters.  In addition,
the arms and explosives used by the Special Operations Command, South (SOC
South) will cause an increase in air and noise pollution.  The soil of
Vieques will also suffer an increase in damages caused by the military
activity.  According to the Environmental Assessment of SOC South,
maneuvers and training with live ammunition will have a direct adverse
impact on the vegetation and the soil, increasing the problem of erosion in
the affected areas.  In the same section of the report, they describe the
direct adverse effects they expect on biological resources.  (Do they
include us, the people?!)  It states that helicopter flights- identified in
the document as the principal source of the increase in air pollution
caused by emissions of volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide-the
movement of land troops and the use of live ammunition, will "disturb" the
vegetation and the wild life of the island.
     
The Environmental Assessment concerning the relocation of SOC South
describes in Section 3.0 the multiple tasks of its operations.  The Special
Operations Forces (SOF), the document states, "are specialized military
units designed to carry out a great variety of missions in support of
national policy, both in peace time and wartime.  Missions of the SOF units
include direct actions; strategic reconnaissance; unconventional warfare
(military or paramilitary operations in enemy territory in support of
forces fighting against an established government); internal defense of
foreign countries (organization, training and assistance to military and
paramilitary forces of a host country); civil affairs (relations between
the military and the civil authorities); psychological operations
(influencing public opinion); contra-terrorism; and more.

The Southern Command, and its various elements, is related historically to
U.S. military intervention in the internal affairs of the countries of
Latin America and the Caribbean.  The Southern command, in coordination
with the CIA, other military forces in the White House, is in charge of
maintaining in power those governments who respond to the economic and
political interests of the U.S.  Anyone who dares to defend the interests
of his own country or who is perceived in Washington as a threat for any
reason, gets a visit from the Southern Command.  In 1973 President Salvador
Allende, elected by the Chilean people, was assassinated by Chilean
military forces-organized, trained, equipped and aided by Special
Operations Command South.  The most horrendous dictators of the Americas,
Pinochet, the Duvaliers, Trujillo, Batista and the Somoas, to name a
few-were kept in power with the support of the Southern Command, or by
similar military forces.  The U.S. interventions in Cuba (1961), Santo
Domingo (1965), Granada (1983)and Panama (1989) form part of a long history
of the kind of military operations which the Southern command will now
carryout from Vieques.
     
These documents themselves justify the concerns of the Vieques community. 
There will be more bombing, more practice with different types of weapons;
more noise of helicopters, planes and explosions;  more pollution of water,
air and land; more destruction of the biology and the geology of the
island;  more restrictions on local fishermen; more destruction of fish
traps, and fishgin grounds, more deaths of sea turtles, manatees, whales,
more military vehicles in the streets of Vieques, more confrontations
between military and civilians, more cancer among our people.
    
 In these times when the struggle against the military presence on our
"little island" is heating up again, with the serious situation of cancer,
the economic crisis brought on by the closing of General Electric, the
construction of ROTHR radar on the island, we can be sure that the training
and the practices of the Special Operations Forces of the Southern Command
on Vieques will spread out beyond the barbed wire fences of the base.  For
years "psychological operations" (propaganda) have been used against the
struggling people of Vieques.  Now, however, we will have the specialists
in those practices right here in our own back yard.  We can be sure that
among the next missions of the Southern Command there will be one with the
name: THE BATTLE OF VIEQUES.

Written by Robert Rabin
Member of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of  Vieques
March, 1999