Vieques March for Cleanup

In the last Puerto Rico Update, we asked how much the environmental cleanup of Vieques will cost, and what resources the navy is dedicating to the job. Assistant Secretary of the Navy H.T. Johnson testified before Congress in March that $8 million has been budgeted in the next year for “range assessments and initial clearing actions” on the former bombing range in eastern Vieques. “Beaches and the live impact area will be high priorities,” he said, estimating a cleanup cost of $76 million in Fiscal Year 2006 “and beyond.” 

This cleanup cost, however, is “based on the land uses designated in the statute” approved by Congress for ceasing naval bombing on Vieques. Those land uses are for a “wildlife refuge” and “wilderness area” – that is, very limited human use, and thus limited human exposure.

Vieques residents challenged this assumption on April 17, when 200 people entered the former bombing range, now controlled by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and still barred to the public. With dozens of police officers present, the march went to the old Observation Post, where Vieques resident David Sanes Rodríguez was killed by two 500-pound bombs on April 19, 1999, setting off the movement that led to the navy’s departure. There, the group planted an iron cross in memory of Sanes and buried a capsule, to be re-opened when the land is returned to the people of Vieques.

The very same day, the Korean Defense Ministry announced that the U.S. Air Force will cease training at a similar bombing range by August 2005. Once called “the Korean Vieques,” the Maeh-yang-ri bombing range had caused deaths from off-target bombs and a severe environmental and health crisis. Green Korea United stated that the closure is the result of widespread nonviolent protest by Maeh-yang-ri villagers and Korean civil society.

Roosevelt Roads Closes

On March 31, the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in eastern Puerto Rico officially closed, largely as a result of the success of the movement to stop the U.S. Navy from bombing in Vieques, training that was closely connected to Roosevelt Roads.

“This is a beautiful afternoon for the people of Ceiba and Naguabo [towns adjacent to the base],” said Dály Avila, president of the Ceiba Pro-Development Alliance. But Avila said that the plans proposed by Puerto Rico’s Local Redevelopment Authority will benefit big developers with big hotel complexes. The 8,600-acre base includes 42 miles of coastline, nine deep-water piers, over 1,300 buildings and an extensive airport.