Puerto Rico Update Archives

U.S. Solidarity for Vieques, Puerto Rico

by Julina Bastidas-Bonilla

Federal Marshalls and Marines invaded the civil disobedience camps in Vieques, Puerto Rico on May 4, removing more than 200 peaceful protesters. The camps consisted of groups and individuals from across political and religious lines from Puerto Rico, Vieques, and the United States and had brought more than a year of peace from the continued bombing by the U.S. Navy.

Within hours of the arrests, protesters throughout the U.S. mobilized to show support for the people of Vieques. In downtown San Francisco, members and friends of the Bay Area's Vieques Solidarity Coalition held a rally on the afternoon of May 4, denouncing the arrests, while 16 protesters peacefully occupied a U.S. Navy recruitment office just blocks away. The protesters were arrested, cited for trespassing, and released to a crowd of supporters gathered outside of the police precinct.

In Boston a group of Harvard students camped outside the JFK Federal Building and were joined by over 100 protesters. The crowd marched and waved Puerto Rican flags, and a group camped out for several days and nights. In Philadelphia 15 protesters committed civil disobedience at the Navy recruiting office and were arrested. Demonstrations also took place in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Minnesota, Connecticut, Illinois and New Hampshire, according to Flavio Cumpiano of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques.

During recent months, the city councils of New York City, Boston, Springfield, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, Berkeley, California, and the Hawaiian House of Representatives also displayed unprecedented support, passing resolutions calling for the U.S. Navy's withdrawal from Vieques.

Support from youth in the United States has resulted in events dedicated to the struggle against the U.S. Navy in Vieques. Hip Hop fundraisers for Vieques have been held in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

The date after the camps in Vieques were removed, eight Vieques activists interrupted the Yankee-Oriole baseball game at Yankee Stadium, dashing across the field during the fifth inning carrying Puerto Rican flags and a "U.S. Navy Out of Vieques" sign. This act of civil disobedience brought national attention and condemned the U.S. invasion of the island of Vieques.

More than a million Puerto Ricans reside in New York City and the city hosts the largest parade in the United States. This year's Puerto Rican parade on June 10 was dedicated to Vieques and drew more than a million spectators with a special delegation from Vieques, Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rican activist and Dartmouth student Hector Rosario, who took part in the Yankee Stadium civil disobedience, held a fast in front of the White House June 14 - 20 to urge President Clinton to meet with community leaders from Vieques. Hector's plea went unheeded as the U.S. Navy announced its plans to begin bombing the island the following week.

Lawsuits and Leaders
In addition to action in the streets, activists also took to the courts. Following a similar action by the Bar Association in Puerto Rico, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other lawyers filed a letter of intent in May to sue the Navy for an end to bombing and environmental cleanup in Vieques. Plaintiffs in the suit will include the Committee for the Defense and Rescue of Vieques, Alliance of Vieques Women, and other Vieques groups and individuals, and the U.S. organizations Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Fellowship of Reconciliation, and SEIU Local 1199, which is helping to finance the suit.

Kennedy, the NRDC and the Pace University Law Clinic are suing for violations of major environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Endangered Species Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Ocean Dumping Act, while the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, based in New York, will file a civil rights claim for discrimination against the people of Vieques. "The reason the Navy is dropping bombs on Vieques is because the Navy likes to drop bombs," Kennedy said. "There is no military reason."

Solidarity for the people of Vieques came from U.S. religious communities as well. More than 50 national religious leaders signed a letter on June 28 to President Clinton. Initiated by the Fellowship of Reconciliation's Puerto Rico Campaign, the letter calls on the President to order an end to bombing in Vieques and to meet with leaders of the island and Puerto Rican religious leaders. Signers of the letter included leaders of the National Council of Churches and the American Baptist, Catholic, United Methodist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Unitarian Universalist, Buddhist, Quaker, and UCC faiths, as well as leaders of virtually all religious faiths in Puerto Rico.

President Clinton's coordinator of Puerto Rican Affairs Jeffrey Farrow told the FOR that the White House is preparing a response to the letter, but it had not come by press time.

Suggested Action:

• Call or write to the White House and demand the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from Vieques.
• Write: President William J. Clinton, President of the Untied States, The White House, Washington, D.C. 200500.
• Call the White House Comment Line and demand the bombing of Vieques cease, that the island be demilitarized, and the U.S. Government fund the clean up of the environment - (202) 456-1111.
• Contact the Fellowship of Reconciliation to connect with a group supporting Vieques in your area.

Sources: AP 5/19; 5/29/00; AFP 5/5/00; Harvard Crimson 5/8/00; letter of intent to sue, 5/16/00; letter to Pres. Clinton 6/28/00.

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