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Navy leaves, but not without one last bombardment and imprisonment of resisters.
Declaration by Civil Disobedients Jailed during the January, 2003 Maneuvers:
We, civil disobedients, arrested and jailed for peace on Vieques, wish to declare the following:
1. Our concerns about the Transition Commission created by the government of Sila Calderón. We believe that all decisions about lands currently occupied by the Navy and the U.S. government, must be made with ample and genuine participation of the Viequense people. Those decisions must respond to the people of Vieques and not the interests of local or foreign millionaires.
2. The struggle for the return of the lands, decontamination and development of our lands continues, despite the certification of cessation of military practices by May first of 2003.
3. We reaffirm our belief in Civil Disobedience as a method of struggle, that at this point should be enriched with other strategies.
4. Our struggle, as part of the movement for Peace on Vieques, will not be shaken by sentences imposed by the Federal Court that functions as the right arm of the Navy.
FUERA LA MARINA! NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES!
Civil disobedience and other types of nonviolent resistance were unable to stop the U.S. war against Iraq. But there is no doubt that a community-based campaign of persistent nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience has driven the U.S. Navy and allied invaders from the shores of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Two men now remain in federal prison following the final bombardment of Vieques after 60 years of war practice. Letters of support can still reach Israel Medina Colón (120 days) and Ismael Guadalupe Torres (140 days) in prison at the address on page 3. The two are members of a brigade of Movimiento Socialista de Trabajadores (MST -Socialist Workers Movement) activists, one of five groups arrested between January 18 and 23, inside the Navy’s bombing range that occupies the eastern third of Puerto Rico’s Isla Niña.
On the eve of the last Vieques war games, January 10, Admiral Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, wrote to Congress that “Physical security at Vieques is becoming ever more difficult and costly to maintain, given the civil unrest which accompanies the Navy’s presence.”
Marine Commandant Gen. James L. Jones bluntly complained that “some in Puerto Rico have demonstrated an appalling hostility” to sailors and Marines stationed in the last U.S. colony.
Despite the Navy’s certified promise to leave by May, 2003, the islanders’ resistance was undiminished to the end.
Responding to the Navy announcement, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) wrote that the “determination by the Secretary of the Navy also certifies the effectiveness of civil disobedience and the consistent denunciation and protests by all sectors of Puerto Rican society in favor of peace for Vieques. It is a testimony to the power of an organized community that is committed to a peaceful but militant struggle, and to the perseverance of the Vieques community - not for years, but for decades. The organized groups here have contributed during more than half a century, to a level of consciousness and spirit of struggle that has made it possible for this ‘tiny’ community, with enormous solidarity and massive support from all of Puerto Rico, to paralyze the most powerful military force in the history of humanity. The certification [of closing the bombing range] is evidence of the power of a people organized and in the streets, of fishermen in the sea, of women and men, youth and elders, people from all ideological sectors - political as well as religious - a community united and committed to justice and peace...
“Let’s be very clear about this situation - the decision by the Navy does not change our plans: struggle, struggle, and struggle until we erase the last vestiges of the military presence in Vieques; to begin the reconstruction of a Vieques in peace, instead of a Vieques besieged by war. Tomorrow [January 13] the Navy begins its next - and probably last - round of bombing here and we will begin our next campaign of protest and civil disobedience. During the past couple of days, thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets of the main island to express their determination to continue with this struggle until peace is achieved.”
Three members of another MST brigade arrested in September 2002 each spent a week in prison early in January. Mariel Torres Lara and brothers Ricardo and Andrés Santos Ortiz had occupied the bombing range for five days before their arrest.
As they came out of jail, the MST announced two more brigades were prepared to disrupt the war games just getting underway. “We cannot believe in the declarations that the Navy will stop the bombing, they have lied to the people of Vieques before and this could be another one of their lies,” declared Luis Angel Torres.
The Puerto Rican Independence Party was represented by another brigade, while the CRDV and the Vieques Youth United prepared two more action groups.
One of the MST brigades was already on the range when military maneuvers began on January 13. Three members of the Pablo Soto Brigade were arrested the next day, then denied bail until their conviction for trespass and sentencing on January 30 by Federal Judge José Fusté. Pharmacy tech Angel Quiles and university student Javier Sterling were sentenced to and served 60 days in jail. As noted above, Israel Medina Colón, president of the Law School Student Council of the University of Puerto Rico, got 120 days.
On January 18, five members of the Puerto Rican Independence Party - Luis A. Amely Martínez, Francisco Bartolomei Crespo, Edwin Vargas Becerril, Abraham Ayala Ortiz, and Angel Rubén Santiago Aponte - were arrested interfering with the bombing and shelling. They were released after 7-9 days.
Seven members of the Minerva Bermúdez and Martin Luther King brigades, organized by CRDV and Vieques Youth United, were arrested in the bombing zone January 22. Six refused bail, remaining in prison until their trial on February 3. Magistrate Aida Delgado convicted all and immediately imposed the following prison sentences: Ismael Guadalupe Torres, 140 days; Gustavo Dávila Cardona, 40 days; Leonardo Estrada Ferrer, 60 days; Orlando Soto Morales, 40 days; and Grego Marcano Vázquez, 60 days.
Three members of the second MST brigade - Néstor de Jesús, Martín Castro Avila, and César Pacheco Rodríguez were arrested January 23, released on bail, and served 30 day sentences beginning in mid-February.
Also in late January, brothers Cacimar and Pedro Zenón, and Regalado Miró were convicted and sentenced to four months in prison for resistance activity in April 2002. All three are free on bond and appealing the sentence.
Sources close to the military reported to the CRDV that more than 100 tons of ordnance was unloaded on the island range in the last exercises, a further toxic assault that will need to be cleaned up.
“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. 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 illness and mortality rates.
Leaders of the Vieques struggle said the maneuvers were preparations for a U.S. attack against the people of Iraq 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.”
For more information, contact the CRDV, POB 1424, Vieques, PR 00765, (787)741-0716, bieke@prdigital.com
Letters of support should be individually addressed and sent to Israel Medina Colón #25857-069, and Ismael Guadalupe Torres #21644-069, MDC Guaynabo, POB 2147, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00922-2147.
In a note to their email list, the CRDV made this comment that applies even beyond Vieques: “A letter to a civil disobedient imprisoned is an important way of contributing to this process that works for peace on Vieques. A solidarity letter received in jail fortifies the spirit in the face of military aggression that continues in jail. Write to our prisoners for peace.”
