U.S. to Mediate in Puerto Rico-Navy Flap

Eager to ease a political and national security headache, the Clinton administration has decided to mediate the fate of a Puerto Rican island that has served as a Navy bombing range for 50 years, administration sources said Friday.

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Rudy F. de Leon has been selected to act as go-between with Puerto Rican officials, who are demanding that the bombing stop and have pressed Vice President Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a likely New York Senate candidate, to side with them.

The Pentagon’s top uniformed officers are urging that the live-fire range remain open, saying it is the only East Coast site where the Navy and Marine Corps can sharpen their skills.

A presidential panel led by a de Leon deputy, Assistant Defense Secretary Francis M. Rush, is expected to recommend that the Navy leave the island in five years but meanwhile continue bombing for about 130 days a year, rather than the current 180 days, sources familiar with the report say.

The release of the panel’s report, expected Monday, has been delayed while the administration has tried to resolve the issue.

The four members of the panel also will be asked to help mediate the dispute, the sources said, even though Puerto Rican leaders object to the panel’s expected recommendations.

De Leon’s efforts to mediate a resolution could heighten the suspicions of Pentagon officials and some members of Congress that politics, not national security, is driving the administration’s actions on Vieques.

President Clinton met with the House Hispanic Caucus this week and said he favors a solution to ensure the safety of the 9,300 Vieques residents, while also meeting the Navy’s training needs, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting. Those views echo a letter Clinton wrote last month to Sen. John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee.

Whether an agreement can be reached is uncertain because the Navy and Puerto Rican officials are far apart. Puerto Rico has long complained about the noise and environmental damage from the bombing. That resentment turned to rage in April, when a bomb accidentally killed a Puerto Rican security guard.

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig agreed to suspend the bombing until the panel issued its report. Since then, dozens of protesters have camped out on the closed bombing range.

Vieques also will be a topic next week at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Witnesses are scheduled to include members of the Rush panel, Gov. Pedro Rossello of Puerto Rico and Carlos Romero-Barcelo, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate.

Rossello, a top fund-raiser for Gore, said this summer that the vice president has sided with Puerto Rican officials who want the Navy to leave, although Gore aides said he wants a solution acceptable to both sides.

Congressional lawmakers and city officials in New York, where Puerto Ricans make up a sizable voting bloc, have been urging Hillary Clinton to oppose the Navy bombing. The first lady has said only that she is awaiting the Rush panel’s report.