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Puerto Rico Update
#30, Summer 2000 Chronology of Civil Disobedience in Vieques: May-July May 4 - More than 200 protestors at peaceful civil disobedience camps in Vieques are removed by federal marshals and detained, but not charged. May 10 - Independence Party (PIP) leader Rubén Berríos re-enters the target area, accompanied by the PIP’s ecological advisor, Jorge Fernández Porto. They are arrested and brought before a magistrate in San Juan. Charges are filed and the two independentistas are released without bail. May 13 - 55 protesters evade U.S. troops guarding the Navy area in Vieques and enter the firing range. Among the leading activists in this action is Ismael Guadalupe, leader of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. May 27 - More than 250 Viequenses and friends from the main island, participate in the Saturday Night Vigil at the gate to Camp García. Memorial Day, May 29-30 - Viequense Veterans United for Peace, turn in their war medals at the Veterans Monument at the Capitol building in San Juan, as part of a protest ceremony organized by the Puerto Rico chapter of Veterans for Peace. May 31 - Serious concerns for the health of their families and the high incidence of cancer in Vieques motivate a delegation of Viequense women to enter the U.S. Navy restricted zone just before dawn. June 1 - U.S. Navy guards arrest 31 people who sail small boats to Vieques. Among those detained are members of the Vieques Women's Alliance and Lolita Lebron, 80, a Nationalist Party member who served 20 years in federal prison for participating in the 1954 armed attack on the U.S. Congress. June 2 - U.S. Navy guards arrest 27 people who enter the firing range in their continued acts of civil disobedience. June 3 - At least ten people remain hiding in the firing range. June 9 - Fourteen protesters against the military presence on Vieques enter the restricted zone of Camp García. The group, composed of Puerto Rican professionals, arrive at a target area used for light artillery practice, where they write messages on the structures and place several Puerto Rican flags. At 6:45 the next morning, arrests of members of the group begin. June 10 - Military security agents detain 14 people Saturday morning for trespassing on the U.S. Navy bombing range on Vieques. June 11 - University professor and lawyer, Dr. Arsenio Suárez Franceshci is arrested at 4:00 PM when he enters the US Navy's restricted zone. Suárez Franceshci says shortly before entering Navy land that his civil disobedience action is in solidarity with Rubén Berriós (PIP), who will be tried for a similar action in the Federal Court in San Juan the following day. June 16 - 37 Puerto Rican professionals, including university professors, publicists, sports writers and union leaders, entered into the Navy's restricted area to denounce the Navy's presence and intention to continue bombing. The group participates earlier in a special vigil at Peace and Justice Camp, before entering into military zone and are arrested around 3:00 in the morning. After being transferred to Roosevelt Roads, the group is released in the afternoon. June 17 - Early in the morning approximately 55 people enter the restricted firing zone. Those arrested include a group of 19 medical doctors who read a letter to military personnel urging them to leave the area because it is contaminated and dangerous to their health. June 21 - A group of around twenty protestors penetrated early in the morning, the US Navy's bombing range on Vieques, where they will serve as human shields to block the resumption of bombing on the island. The group is guided by a Viequense with much experience in the resistance against the US Navy presence and activities on the island municipality. A protest is held in front of the federal courthouse in Puerto Rico. June 22 - A group of 47 people led by Carlos Ventura, president of the Vieques Fishermen Association enter the restricted firing zone and are arrested. June 24 - Hundreds of people from the main island and a larger number of Viequenses participate in several protest activities. Forty-one protesters enter the restricted firing zone in anticipation of renewed bombing by the Navy. June 25 - At 3:00 a.m. federal agents and military police arrest 36 people who had penetrated the US Navy´s restricted area on Vieques. The protesters entered the previous night to denounce the Navy's plan to drop 130,000 pounds of bombs on Vieques in the following days. That afternoon at 2 p.m. ships begin shooting shells at the range. These are the first major exercises since a fatal accident prompted a year-long occupation of the range. June 26 - The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques calls for organizations and individuals in solidarity with the cause of Peace for Vieques to travel to the island to participate in protests and actions of civil disobedience to denounce the US Navy bombing here. About 100 activists from the Puerto Rican Independence Party leave the main island of Puerto Rico for Vieques, vowing to trespass onto the range. June 27 - Guards detain at least 162 protesters who invade the bombing range in an effort to disrupt the bombing exercises. Within a couple of hours, the Navy resumes shelling from warships. Early in the morning a group of five fishing boats led by activist Carlos Zenon makes its way toward the restricted firing zone but is intercepted by a Navy patrol. July 2 - Federal agents begin to arrest 122 Independence Party members who had been arrested in Vieques but who refused to put up bail pending trial. Meanwhile, protester Tito Kayak - in federal prison since June 26 - is placed in solitary confinement after undertaking a fast. July 4 - Sixteen people, mostly law students from the University of Puerto Rico, are arrested after entering the Navy restricted zone in Vieques. Military personnel and Puerto Rican police use pepper spray against those arrested and others supporting them. Eight thousand march for Vieques in Ponce. ...and more to follow... Fellowship of Reconciliation ©2001 Fellowship of Reconciliation |