Postings Archive Folder 6

9 & 29 December, 2000


[Congratulations! if you've gotten this far. A lot to slog through, but fascinating and exciting, what's transpiring. Anyway, as of this writing, I've been re-designing, renovating and updating this Website. At one point I had ceased posting the messages I'd been receiving. I figured, it's taking up more and more server space (not to mention my hard drive!) and if anyone is truly interested and concerned they could just get on the E-mailing list and receive them themselves (if you'd like to, just click on: bieke@coqui.net and ask to be placed on their mailing list.) But as I was catching up on my reading I just couldn't resist many of the postings, so I've just been formatting them right along! And I'll probably keep doing so, although I'm being a little selective, skipping one here and there, posting those that stand out a bit from the rest.

Peace –Daniel

17 March, 2001 (yeah, I'm WAY behind.)]
Committee for the Rescue and Develoment of Vieques

Report from the Peace and Justice Camp

December 9, 2000

Warm greetings from the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) at the Peace and Justice Camp (PJC). In this post-election, pre-Christmas period, we offer a brief summary of recent actions taken by the CRDV, efforts by our community and individuals and solidarity groups related to the Vieques cause in Puerto Rico and abroad.

After the elections of November 7, work has continued steadily. During November, several members of the CRDV travelled to the US, Europe and Asia, on missions to spread the word about the situation of our struggle. We participated in the International Conference on Military Contamination in San Diego, California, where Vieques was one of the main topics. We were present at the International Conference on Depleted Uranium Weapons in Manchester, England; a young woman from Vieques represented the CRDV at the civil disobedience acts in Fort Benning, Georgia, at the entrance to the School of the Americas; delegates from our committee travelled to Cuba and Okinawa to present the Vieques case before other international forums.

Just before the elections, Americo Boshetti and his group COLINDANCIAS, offered a concert during the vigil on the 4th of November, here at the PJC. Americo and all the other musicians in solidarity with Vieques provide an inspiration that helps our community continue on this arduous struggle. THANKS, Americo, Roy, Tito, Zoraida, Noel, Danny, Tony Mapeyé and so many other dignified representatives of the musical class of this country that consistently say PRESENTE! here on the firing line.

The CRDV is meeting to analize the implications of the elections and to delineate strategies within this new political context. We were very happy by the election by a super majority of Dámaso Serrano (PPD) for mayor in Vieques and Sila for Governor. Both are committed with the struggle of our people. However, our responsibility as a community organization is 1) maintain pressure against the Navy through protest and civil desobedience acts, continue with the process of international divulgation and education and organization in Vieques and 2) support the recent elected officials in their efforts vis a vis the Navy in Vieques, while pressuring them to be loyal to their commitment of working with the community organizations in the struggle. We can not rest, thinking that the politicians are going to solve the situation. THIS STRUGGLE IS OF THE PEOPLE, AND WITH OR WITHOUT THE HELP OF THE POLITICIAN, WE WILL DRIVE OUT THE NAVY FROM VIEQUES. Obviously, is preferable to count with the support of those whose task is the defense of the rights of our community.

The 3rd of November, two new resources for our struggle were presented. In San Juan, the new edition of the book, "La batalla de Vieques" (The battle of Vieques), of our comrade Arturo Meléndez, was presented. The same night in Vieques, the new documentary, Vieques ­ a full-length film, of the puertorican filmmaker, William Nemcik, was premièred. (Both resources can be ordered from the CRDV using our e-mail address.)

The vigil of November 11 was dedicated to the memory of Angel Rodríguez Cristóbal, martyr of the Vieques struggle. Angel Rodríguez Cristóbal, from Ciales, Puerto Rico, and member of the Socialist League under the command of Comandante Juan Antonio Corretjer, was arrested during a civil desobedience act in Camp García on May 19, 1979. Around twenty other persons were arrested that day, including Ismal Guadalupe ­ who was comdemned to six months in the federal prison of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - and Monsignor Antulio Parrilla (RIP). Angel was sent to the federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, were he was brutally murdered in his cell on November 11, 1979. This past November 11, -and every year on that date ­ we pay tribute to Angel with a protest against the military presence and a special vigil at the PJC.

On November 14, representatives of the Vieques community participated in the public hearings about the Land Use Plan that the Planning Board, with the Navy, would want to aprove before the change in government administration. The Planning Board and the Navy coordinate their efforts to allow the military continuos interference on such vital issues as socio-economic planning and how to support the Navy in their plan to "hand over" the land on the west part of the island without doing the necessary environmental restoration. With the help of the Technical and Professional Support Group for the Sustainable Development of Vieques, we were able to effectively participate in the hearings, leaving clear the people¹s demand for genuine community participation in the decision making about the future use of the lands to be rescued from the Navy.

From Texas arrived, in the middle of November, a delegation of Artists and Activist in Solidarity with Vieques, that stayed some days at the PJC Lodging. The comrade Lourdes Pérez (extraordinary singer) lead the team that included poets, flautist, chicano-texan activists and native leaders of that zone in the US. In addition to their participation at the vigil of November 25, the texans with Vieques recorded a series of interviews with fishermen, women, youth persons and leaders of the community organization in struggle.

El Texas group was the most recent to use the facilities of the PJC lodgings. This multi-use structure was built during the past months with the objective of offering lodging to the solidarity groups that visit us from Isla Grande or abroad. Built under the direction of artesan, carpenter, singer-author and Guerrillero, Noel Hernández, the Lodging has been used for a great number of meetings, workshops, and to lodge dozens of people in the past three months that have come to participate in protest and civil desobedience acts.

PEACE AND JUSTICE LODGING. WE ASK FOR ECONOMIC HELP TO FABRICATE FURNITURE AND THE INSTALATION OF ELECTRICITY.

This past weekend, the Mountain Festival was celebrated in Aibonito and dedicated ­ as so many activities throughout Puerto Rico during this past year and a half ­ to the struggle of the Vieques people. Comrade Myrta Sanes (sister of deceased David Sanes), represented the PJC during the festival.

Recent threats

The Navy continues its public relations plan design to improve its image before the community and to discredit the argument against its present here. Through their spokespersons in the community ­ ex-PNP candidate for mayor, Juana Rivera Guishard and a pair of other pro-Navy fanatics ­ the military try to promote a student exchange between Vieques and the school at the Roosevelt Roads naval base in Ceiba. Great indignation was produced among viequense teachers, who in great majority oppose the military presence, when Mrs. Rivera Guishard, High School teacher, took a group of viequense students to Roosevelt Roads two weeks ago so that the military could take pictures with them in a ceremony related to AIDS.

A generalized bad feeling exists now between teachers, students, parents and even school directors here because of the delivery of five used pianos by the Navy. The delivery of these pianos, without the authorization of the school directors, was coordinated by the Navy public relations official, with last name Negrón, the music teacher in Vieques, with last name Calderón, and a super pro-Navy teacher, with last name Rosa. However, it is worth to quote a recent press release from CRDV about this issue:

Spokepersons of CRDV denounce as hypocritical and deceiving the "help" to the schools, that forms part of the Navy¹s public relations project to gain the sympathy of the people. "One day they are distributing pianos and next day they are shooting with bombs. We are tired of this wolf a charity dress. We denounce the position of the Governor, Pedro Rosselló and the Mayor of Vieques, Manuela Santiago, of approving the continous use of Vieques for the Navy exercises," said Nilda Medina, of the Peace and Justice Camp.

The Navy continues, desperately, looking for a way to change the position of our community that rejects by absolute majority, that they continue their military maneuvers here. The Navy officers are so arrogant that they believe that with old pianos, trips to Roosevelt Roads, a pair of temporary jobs and with a lot of repression, they can erase sixty years of abuse and violations of the dignity of this Nation.

To contradict the arguments and scientific information about the great dangers to the health that cause the military contamination, the Navy has solicited help from the Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). According to the testimony of persons that have suffered in their own flesh the machinations and deceptions of this federal agency, as was the case of the Ex-Residents of Ciudad Cristiana (Humacao, Puerto Rico) and the histories of the interventions of the ATSDR in communities in Puerto Rico and the United States, ATSDR carry out incomplete studies, manipulated and distorted and, in almost all cases, have exonerated the contaminating industry or agency of being the originator of the devastation of the health of the community.

We already know what to expect of this agency in Vieques. The Rear Admiral Kevin Green has already announced publicly that the ATSDR will exonerate the Navy of being the cause of any health problem that can affict the Vieques community.

And to try to divide the defenders of Vieques on Isla Grande from the fighters on Isla Nena, the federal district attorney¹s office invented a strategy that gives a privileged treatment to the viequenses with pending legal cases due to civil desobedience acts. We quote from a press release on this theme:

Lawyers of the viequenses arrested for protest acts in the Navy¹s restricted zone in Vieques, informed to their clients about an offer to file the viequense cases while the desobedients from Isla Granfe and from abroad face the judicial processes with fines.

"The Attorney¹s office and the Navy want to separate the viequenses from the rest of the Puerto Ricans. We are not going to allow that. We will not accept any special and different treatment that divide us from the Puerto Ricans of the Isla Grande. Vieques is Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico is Vieques." So declared Ismael Guadalupe, spokeperson of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, main community organization of the struggle for the desmilitarization of the Isla Nena.

Unanimously, the Viequenses reaffirm their strong solidarity with the civil desobedients from the Isla Grande that have made sacrifices in defense of the cause of Vieques. Without exception, the arrested from Vieques indicated their rejection to the offer to be acquitted without the people from the Isla Grande receiving the same treatment.

"When we entered the restricted zone on August 7 with the comrades of Isla Grande, we entered together. When we leave this, we will leave all together from the same door. We will not negotiate neither with the Navy nor with the Federal Court. If they want to file the cases, it must be the cases of all the Puerto Ricans ­ from Isla Grande and the Puerto Ricans that live in Vieques," expressed Norma Torres, that convoked the entrance of 31 women from Vieques and the Isla Grande the past month of August.

(FOTO) Part of the fifty viequense civil desobedients that met at the Peace and Justice Lodging to analyze and then reject the divisory offer of the federal attorney¹s office.

Comrades. As you can see, we continue strong in the struggle, with a high sense of dignity and historic responsibility before this and the next generations. The people of Vieques do not surrender, do not give up, and we are not seated waiting a miracle from politicians from Puerto Rico or Washington. Our faith is deposited in our people ­ with our women, young persons, fishermen, teachers, grandparents, with our religious, community and labor leaders, with the good people in solidarity from the Isla Grande, in the United States and from many parts of the world. This struggle will be won in the sea, in the streets, against the military fence, in the courts, in the jails, and with the supreme sacrifice if needed. We hope that our elected officials ­ and in particular those whose campaigs supported the immediate and permanent cease of military activity here ­ also walk with us and take their direction from the people.

(Foto) The grandson of Comrade Helen Navarron, of the CRDV, as so many other viequense children, participate actively in the vigils and other activities in the PJC.

The Navy has in calendar for the months of January to March a series of exercises here with a battle group from the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise. We also have a calendar of exercises ­ the exercise of the defense of the dignity, the exercise of the historic role of the heroic people of giving example to the world of a struggle of courage and sacrifice in defense of the natural and inalienable right of living in peace.

In struggle, in solidarity,

Robert Rabin, CRDV

¡FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!

Special Note: This report and recent press releases were prepared on our new laptop computer, donated to the CRDV por the wonderful people in solidarity with Vieques from Vermont. MOUNTAINS OF THANKS TO MANUEL O`NEIL AND THE VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE AT GODDARD COLLEGE AND OTHERS FROM VERMONT!!

Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques

29 December, 2000

Press Release

Christmas Caravan for Peace vs. Navy in Vieques

On Saturday, December 30th, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) will hold a "parranda" for peace, or a "pazrranda" (parranda is a typical Puerto Rico Christmas caravan of singers and musicians who go from house to house), moving through Vieques barrios to celebrate Christmas and to keep alive the spirit of struggle with the threat of new military maneuvers in January.

The "Pazrranda" will begin at 6PM at the Peace and Justice Camp in front of the entrance to the Navy base of Camp García and end up in the same place around 8PM with a huge party and protest. Viequense merchants will roast two pigs for the fiesta in solidarity with the CRDV that directs the struggle in this area during the past year and a half.

"We will take the message of Christmas cheer to the neighborhoods and urge our people to continue the struggle to end military activities here," expressed Nilda Medina, one of the coordinators of the Peace and Justice Camp. "We will sing Christmas songs and songs of protest. We will celebrate this year of intense struggle as we prepare to continue our work to get the U.S. Navy out of Vieques," stated the Viequense leader.

Spokesmen for the CRDV talk of a series of civil disobedience and protest actions being planned with solidarity organizations on the main island of Puerto Rico and in the exterior, to take place during upcoming Navy exercises on the island municipality.

Contact: Robert Rabin, CRDV 787 741-0716

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