New London Day

                        Hundreds protest Navy's test island

                        Puerto Rican activists bring voices to Sub Base

                        By Robert Westervelt

                                Published on 3/5/00

                        Groton  More than 200 Puerto Rican activists

                        demonstrated outside the main entrance of the U.S. Naval

                        Submarine Base on Saturday to protest the U.S. Navy military

                        exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

                        The protesters are opposing a plan by President Clinton that would

                        allow live-fire training exercises and inert bombings on part of the

                        tiny Caribbean island.

                        The U.S. Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques and has conducted

                        live-fire training exercises there since 1941. The exercises were

                        suspended after a bomb dropped by a Marine Corps jet killed a

                        civilian security guard last year.

                        The U.S. is overlooking the fact that to clean that island it would

                        cost billions of dollars, said Rafael Rodriguez, a spokesperson for

                        the group All Connecticut With Vieques, which organized

                        Saturdays protest. What price can you put on human life and how

                        much is your life worth?

                        Last month, nearly 85,000 people in San Juan demonstrated against

                        the military training exercises on Vieques.

                        The island will hold a referendum next year to determine whether the

                        Navy can continue the military operations. The government has

                        offered the island millions of dollars in economic development

                        initiatives to entice Vieques more than 9,000 voters to approve the

                        referendum.

                        But for protester Alma Maya, of Bridgeport, no amount of money

                        could convince her the military training should continue.

                        Its like bombing the island of Marthas Vineyard, she said.

                        Theyre trying to blackmail the people there, but the peace,

                        prosperity and the quality of life is worth more than any dollar

                        amount offered by the government.

                        The Navy, she said, should find uninhabited islands on which to

                        conduct exercises.

                        The protesters outside of the base on Saturday came from as far

                        away as New Jersey, New York City and Massachusetts.

                        Holding colorful signs, waving the Puerto Rican flag and chanting

                        No More Bombing in Vieques and Navy Stay Away, they

                        marched peacefully along the sidewalk in front of the base, under the

                        watchful eye of base security and Groton Town police.

                        Luz Rivera, a Vieques native who traveled here with a caravan of

                        other demonstrators from Manhattan, said the demonstrators are

                        concerned about potential health and environmental problems that

                        plague the island.

                        Were not anti-American. Were fighting for human rights, she

                        said. Hell has come to my paradise and my people are now being

                        held hostage.

                        Rivera, 50, who came to live in the U.S. when she was 12, said she

                        remembers Navy helicopter pilots flying low over her small town.

                        Since she has left the island, Rivera said she has family and friends

                        who have gotten cancer, which she attributes to the bombings.

                        Although some of the Navys bombing exercises involve the use of

                        depleted uranium, Lt. Jeff Gorden, a public affairs officer for the

                        U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command located in Roosevelt Roads,

                        Puerto Rico, said there is no link between cancer and the bombing

                        exercises.

                        The Navy, Gorden said, is forming an economic development team

                        to begin infrastructure improvements on the island.

                        If we win the referendum there would be some obvious economic

                        incentives for the people here, Gorden said. Building an artificial

                        reef, renovating the pier here and funding a cancer study is just some

                        of the ways we are continuing to build a positive relationship here.

                        The U.S. recently returned 110 acres on Vieques to the government

                        of Puerto Rico in a plan to expand the islands airport and spur

                        economic development. Another 8,200 acres used by the Navy on

                        the western end of the island will be returned to Puerto Rico by the

                        end of the year under a plan announced by the White House in

                        January to seek $40 million from Congress for improvements on

                        Vieques and another $50 million in aid if residents approve future

                        live training there.

                        The Navy will not announce a date to resume training until the Puerto

                        Rican government removes about 30 protesters who are camping on

                        the bombing range.