Puerto Rico Mayors Lobby at  Winter Meeting on Island Bombing Issue; Settlement Agreed

By Justin O'Brian

While Puerto Rico’s Mayors lobbied last week in Washington at the Conference Winter Meeting for recognition of the plight of the Puerto Rico’s off-shore municipality of Vieques, negotiations were underway between the Navy and Puerto Rican officials mediated by the White House. Negotiations concluded Jan 31st with a settlement between President Clinton, the U.S. Navy and Puerto Rican authorities which moves significantly to reduce tensions between the naval authorities and Puerto Rico where Vieques has become a galvanizing cause for Puerto Ricans of all political persuasions.

During the Conference’s winter meeting attended by several Puerto Rican Mayors, Carolina Mayor Jose Aponte sponsored literature distributed at Friday’s closing plenary session outlining the many grievances affecting the people and municipality. Vieques has been subjected to bombing and shelling exercises with live ammunition for nearly 60 years. Fully two-thirds of the small island is utilized by the Navy, leaving the 9,300 resident US citizens to live in the remaining area of 10,000 acres. Meanwhile, San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon held a press conference at the National Press Club during the Winter Meeting reiterating her position that the termination of naval exercises on Vieques was a moral imperative.

During the Closing Plenary Luncheon of the Winter Meeting on Friday, Conference President Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb described the present situation and reiterated the Conference’s support of policy opposing further Navy bombing on Vieques. The issue has galvanized Puerto Rican politicians of all political persuasions and has received widespread national publicity.

The effects of the bombing and shelling exercises have been to destroy prospects for economic and municipal development in Vieques, combined with environmental damage. Unemployment rates are nearly 30 percent. The Navy recently admitted that 263 depleted uranium shells were dropped on the island in February 1999, giving rise to greater health concerns where cancer rates already exceed that of the larger Puerto Rican population by 27 percent. Of the 263 projectiles only 56 were retrieved. Critically, in April 1999, an errant bombing run caused the instant fatality of civilian David Sanes who was employed as a guard on the periphery of the bombing range.

In solidarity with Puerto Rico’s mayors The U.S. Conference of Mayors wrote to President Clinton following the Conference’s Urban Water Summit in Carolina, Puerto Rico in October of last year. Host San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon and the Mayors of Puerto Rico brought the plight of Vieques to the fore during the Summit. The Conference has long-standing policy on the issue dating from 1970 when the neighboring island-municipality of Culebra was suffering the same indifferent treatment by naval authorities under almost exactly the same circumstances. The exercises were later terminated on Culebra, only to resume on Vieques.

After the Urban Water Summit Conference President Mayor Wellington E. Webb of Denver participated with Puerto Rican and mainland mayors in a San Juan City Hall press conference during which he pledged support for the position of Mayor Calderon and the Mayors of Puerto Rico on the issue. Mayor Webb later sent a letter to President Clinton on behalf of the Conference urging an end to the bombing exercises.

The decades of ill-treatment of Vieques and particularly the death of Sanes, has caused many civic and activist groups to stage civil protests both outside and on the bombing range acting as human shields to thwart any resumption of the exercises. The settlement combines a $40 million aid package and a resumption of exercises using inert or non-explosive bombs with a referendum by the residents of Vieques on a continuation of the live-fire exercises. Dependent upon the result of the referendum agreeing with further live-fire bombing and shelling exercises, the devastated municipality would receive a further $50 million in aid.