Bombing by Navy Begins on Vieques

The thud of military shelling returned to Vieques Island on Sunday as the Navy began training even as protesters vowed to invade the range to stop the largest exercise since a fatal accident prompted a yearlong occupation of its range.

About 2 p.m., ships began shooting inert shells at the range, Navy spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon said. The exercises are scheduled to continue today and Tuesday, although they could continue through July 2 if necessary, he said.

Gordon said that notices were posted Saturday night and broadcast to mariners by the U.S. Coast Guard Sunday morning. The advisories were seven pages long and reports that bombing was to begin today could have been due to a misinterpretation of the lengthy notice, he said.

“The Navy did notify the public in Vieques in an appropriate manner today,” Gordon said Sunday.

Sandra Reyes, a 32-year-old painter who lives in sight of the range, said her children came running into the house screaming after the start of the exercises.

“My house is shaking, the doors shake, things on the table shake, my eardrums hurt,” Reyes said. “We all feel very frustrated, impotent, violated and harassed.”

She said three or four shells were hitting the range about every 15 minutes.

The Navy detained 38 people Sunday who had entered the range Saturday night after three ships from the battle group George Washington appeared on the horizon. Eight people remained in custody Sunday because they refused to identify themselves, Navy spokesman Robert Nelson said.

Protesters said 41 people had slipped into the range on foot, indicating that three were still there. Activist Jose Rivera Santana said even more protesters had entered by horse, but he wouldn’t say exactly how many.

“The Navy doesn’t respect us and we have to put ourselves at the front line,” said environmental activist Alberto de Jesus. De Jesus said he was considering entering the range by boat.

The vice president of Puerto Rico’s Independence Party, Fernando Martin, said he and other party leaders would enter the range in the next two days. Party president and prominent Vieques activist Ruben Berrios would not be joining the group, though, because he would be attending a Washington summit Wednesday on Puerto Rico’s status.

Vieques activist Carlos Ventura said he would meet with religious, union and political leaders to arrange a peaceful demonstration on the small island at an undetermined time and place.

The April 1999 killing of a civilian guard on the range united Puerto Ricans as never before to demand the Navy end its six-decade-long bombing of Vieques, a 21-mile-long island off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. President Clinton has ordered the Navy to use only inert ordnance on the island.