U.S. Lawmaker Joins Puerto Rico Protest

A U.S. congressman on Wednesday joined religious leaders and dozens of other protesters threatened with arrest for refusing to vacate a Navy bombing range.

“In the final count, we are going to win peace for Vieques,” Puerto Rican-born Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told demonstrators on the shrapnel-littered range. He arrived by boat early Wednesday at the range on the remote east end of the island.

About 50 people have lived in scattered protest camps here for more than a year, hoping to force the U.S. military to end its bombing operations. The Navy insists that the range, which it has been using since 1941, is vital to national security because it is the only place the Atlantic Fleet can conduct simultaneous air, sea and amphibious training using live munitions. The range has been used to prepare for every U.S. conflict since World War II.

A raid by federal agents to clear the protesters has been expected for days.

Leaders of local churches met Wednesday with Adm. Kevin Green to discuss the crisis. The archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Gonzalez Nieves, told reporters afterward that the two sides had agreed to talk again today, but that Green had given no guarantees there would not be arrests Wednesday night.

But any such action could draw more protesters to this tiny island east of Puerto Rico--and could mean political repercussions for the Clinton administration and Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Senate candidate in New York. A statement from the first lady Wednesday said that “a small, inhabited island should not be used for target practice. I urge the Pentagon to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this situation.”

Reports that two Navy warships and a contingent of FBI agents and federal marshals were in place to clear the illegally camped protesters have raised anxieties here and ignited a surge in nationalist sentiments in Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth of 3.9 million residents.

Among those who have seized the issue of the Vieques range and staked out primitive encampments on the white sand beaches are church groups, leftist political organizations, university students and environmentalists. Public opinion polls indicate that support for ending the bombing cuts across political lines.

“The time for the end of all bombing here has come,” said Fernando Martin, vice president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. “And the ugly truth is that this range is obsolete and has been of marginal value to the Navy for some time.”

Indeed, most naval exercises that take place here are conducted offshore. The blue-green Caribbean waters are used extensively for ship-to-ship firing practice and tactical training in submarine warfare. But military officials insist that target bombing and strafing runs over land also are necessary to maintain military preparedness--and that no other such East Coast ranges are available or suitable.

Nonetheless, the Clinton administration did make a deal in January with Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello that would allow the Navy to use dummy bombs on the range for three more years in exchange for $40 million and a referendum allowing Vieques residents to vote on the resumption of live fire.

The protesters began occupying the range in April 1999 after a civilian guard was killed in an accidental bombing.

In the camps, the daily reports that arrests are imminent seem to have increased the discomfort of hot nights and primitive living conditions. Most protesters--as well as a large contingent of Puerto Rican and mainland U.S. news media gathered for the showdown--sleep in tents on the beach and have learned to do without hot food or cold drinks. Sandy sandwiches, warm drinking water and 85-degree heat are the norm.

Since there is no public access to the 900-acre weapons range, all supplies have to be ferried in from Vieques’ two towns--Isabel Segunda and Esperanza--down the coast, about 40 minutes away by small boat.

During the day, reporters and photographers find shade under the beach-side sea grape trees, swap rumors gleaned during intermittent cell phone connections and gather for impromptu philosophical discourse with former Puerto Rican Sen. Ruben Berrios. Next week, Berrios will mark the one-year anniversary of his occupation of the bombing range.

“What we have begun here cannot be stopped,” said the 60-year-old Berrios. He resigned his Senate seat in hopes that his protest would inspire Puerto Ricans to reassess the “colonial mentality” bred during the 101 years since the island was seized by the U.S. in the Spanish-American War.

“For one of the few times in our history, the Puerto Rican people are united on this issue,” Berrios said. “We want the bombing stopped, of course. But the bombing is also a metaphor for the abuse of colonialism in its worst form.

“It has not yet translated into votes,” Berrios added. “But our people are understanding that political persecution and receiving $1.2 billion a year in food coupons is the antithesis of liberty.”