[CPEO-MEF] Vieques Report

[bieke@coqui.net]

Apartado 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765

Tel. (787) 741-0716 Fax (787) 741-0358 Email bieke@coqui.net

Report from the Peace and Justice Camp

12 February, 2001



The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) 
continuesits preparations for actions against the next military maneuvers
scheduled for March. On Sunday, February 4th, we met with Juan Camacho
and Alejandro Torres, of the National Hostosiano Congress, to discuss
nature of the military exercises currently in progress and their
implications for our struggle. On 10 February, Ismael Guadalupe (CRDV)
traveled to Mayaguez to participate in a meeting with the Coordinating
Committee All Puerto Rico with to inform about actions being planned.
The following day at the Peace and Justice Camp (PJC), 25 Puerto Rico
labor leaders met with CRDV members to discuss participation in upcoming
civil disobedience and protest actions.

Recently, we have taken presentations about military contamination to =
the Santa Maria, Monte Santo and Esperanza neighborhoods. In addition
to presentations by environmental scientists Jorge Fernandez Porto and
Lirio Marques on military contamination and related health problems,
an active dialogue on improving community organization and the
importance of integrating everyone into the multiple tasks of the
struggle takes place at these meetings.

In mid January we received a visit from a group of students from the
School of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, in solidarity
with the people of Vieques. On the 18th we participated in a
teleconference with members of Vermont for Vieques and representatives
of that state's congresspeople, about strategies in support of the
Vieques cause. On January 22, Admiral Kevin Green wrote to the Governor
of Puerto Rico, asking for more police security due to alleged acts of
violence by protesters. A few days earlier, military police sprayed
pepper gas at members of the Luisa Guadalupe Camp without any
provocation. Luckily, two BBC reporters filmed the incident and local
police officers were present when Navy personnel sprayed gas on a
peacefull meeting at the camp. The following day, police superintendent
Pierre Vivoni discredited the Admirals allegations, after visiting
Vieques to speak with police and leaders of the protest.

On the 23rd or January the first of three commissions was set up to
determine the criteria for distribution of 15thousand of the 20 thousand
dollars donated to the CRDV by the Major League Baseball Players
Association, initiative of Puerto Rican player, Carlos Delgado. Our
committee decided to separate 5thousand for operations of the CRDV and
Peace and Justice Camp; 5 thousand for health needs; 5 thousand for
educational projects; and 5 thousand for sports programs.

The Health Commission includes Dr. Rafael Rivera Castano (CRDV),
Viequense epidemiologist, Petrin Rodriguez (nurse at Vieques Hospital)
and Carmen Valencia of the Viequense Women's Alliance. The Education
Commission includes two retired teachers - Nilida Tirado and Luz
Leguillou -, Social Worker Gladys Rivera (Women's Alliance) and Eva
Torres, Assistant Superintendent of Schools on Vieques.

During the last week of January, 27 members of the Christian Peacemakers 
Teams (CPT), pacifists in solidarity with Vieques from eight states inthe 
US and several Canadians, arrived for a weeklong stay. On the 28, 
weparticipated in the meeting with the Professional and Technical Group in 
Support of Sustainable Development on Vieques to discuss a possible 
economic development program for a Free Vieques. This team of Puerto Rican 
professionals was created as an initiative of the CRDV in July of 1999, to 
coordinate efforts in this area.

Thursday, February 1st, the nine Viequenses who entered the bombing zone 
last October, were tried in Federal Court in San Juan by judge Perez
Gimenez, who sentenced all of us to one year probation.

The vigil at the Peace and Justice Camp on Saturday, 3 February, was a
poetry reading by several of Puerto Rico=B4s most important poets of the
group, Guajana with the solidarity music of singer-song writer, Zoraida
Santiago. Zoraida and Quique Benet, of the group, From the Valley (of
Lajas) to Vieques, brought for the camp a sound system paid for with
funds collected at the recent concert in San Juan - An Urgent Song for
Vieques.

On 8 February, Mary Ventura and Margarita Santos, both members of the
PJC, were sentenced to one year probation for their participation, as
part of a group of women from the Camp, in a civil disobedience action
in the bombing zone this past June 1st.





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