Navy Prepares for FBI-Led Raid on Puerto Rico Island

Two Navy ships headed toward the Caribbean on Friday in anticipation of an FBI-led operation to remove Puerto Rican protesters from a bombing range on the island of Vieques, government officials said.

No military forces are to be used in the removal operation, which is being planned by the Justice Department in collaboration with the FBI and the Coast Guard. The removal could start Monday.

The amphibious warships Bataan and Nashville were picking up a contingent of 1,000 Marines from Morehead City, N.C., en route to Puerto Rico. The two ships left their home port of Norfolk, Va., Thursday evening, officials said, and could be in the vicinity of Vieques by Sunday.

If the removal of the protesters goes forward, the Marines would secure the perimeter of the bombing range after the protesters are gone, government officials said, speaking on condition that they not be identified.

Navy officials had no comment on the operation.

The protesters, watching television and playing dominoes while waiting for the Marines to show up, said they weren’t afraid.

“A thousand Marines is nothing. They could put 10,000 Marines in there and they wouldn’t stop the protests. They can’t stop it,” said Pablo Hernandez, a 73-year-old Korean War veteran whose hat sported a pin with the Puerto Rican flag saying, “Esta es mi nacion” (This is my nation).

Added Luis Acevedo: “If they take out 100 people, 200 people will come. If they take out 200, 500 will come. We have much support. They’re not going to have enough room in the prisons for all the people.”

The Chicago-based Pastors for Peace, a charity group, said Friday that it will send a delegation to Vieques today to set up camp alongside a church-run tent camp of protesters. “Our faith calls us to civil disobedience,” said its executive director, the Rev. Lucius Walker Jr.

In Vieques, Mayor Manuela Santiago exhorted protesters not to resist arrest and to avoid violence.

“I don’t want anybody in Vieques to receive any injury or blow from resisting the forces that are going to dislodge them,” she said in an interview with WAPA radio.

In San Juan, Gov. Pedro Rossello refused comment. “Ask the Navy,” he responded to reporters’ repeated questions about a raid.

White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart was asked about the possibility of a violent confrontation with the protesters, who have camped out on the bombing range for a year to block the Navy’s use of it. They usually number only a couple of dozen, but on weekends their numbers swell to several dozen.

Lockhart would say only that the White House expects Puerto Rico to live up to its agreement to allow the Navy to resume using the range. President Clinton made a deal with Puerto Rico on Jan. 31 that provided an extra $40 million in aid to Vieques, so long as the protesters left and the Navy was allowed back.

“We have reached an agreement, now sometime ago, and I’m just not going to speculate on, you know, any law enforcement aspect of it,” Lockhart said.

Federal marshals and FBI agents are expected to join forces in next week’s removal operation, the officials said. Puerto Rican police have been assigned to provide crowd control in the vicinity of the range.

While most of the several dozen protesters who are camped out on the bombing range say they won’t resist arrest, they do say other demonstrators will replace them. Some promise to scatter into the hills.

They’ve occupied the range since April 19, 1999, when errant bombs from a Marine Corps jet killed civilian guard David Sanes Rodriguez.

On Thursday, shortly before the Bataan and Nashville got underway, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said U.S. officials were consulting with Puerto Rican authorities on the Vieques issue, but he would not comment further.