US Navy vs. Puerto Rico

In April 1999, a Marine pilot dropped a bomb on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, killing a civilian security guard and triggering a call for the US to leave the island it had used as a bombing range for 58 years [see Fall '99 EIJ].

Outraged Puerto Ricans - citizens, journalists, church leaders and politicians - insisted that the US Navy clear out of Vieques and pay reparations to the island's residents.

The White House offered a compromise: It would bomb Vieques only 90 days a year, and it would use "dummy" bombs. The 9,300 residents of Vieques rejected the offer and local activists occupied the site, setting up tents inside the bombing range.

(Without its Caribbean bombing range, the Atlantic Fleet was forced to steam across the Atlantic to polish its military prowess by lobbing bombs and artillery shells at the coast of Scotland.)

On February 1, the White House pressured Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Rossello to accept a more generous compromise: The Navy would resume its mock attacks on Vieques using concrete-filled dummy bombs and, in exchange, every individual living on the island would receive $4300.

At some future point, the White House suggested, the Viequans would be allowed to vote on ending the military exercises permanently. But there was a sinister (and very anti-democratic) proviso: The White House promised that the Viequans would receive another $50 million if they voted to allow the Navy to resume the bombing. Defense Secretary William Cohen proclaimed that this vote-buying ploy honored the "legitimate concerns of the people of Vieques."

Protestors occupying the Navy bombing range vigorously rejected the offer and have refused to leave their camps.

Meanwhile, a survey of Vieques' coral reefs conducted by University of Georgia Ecology Professor James Porter discovered that the waters surrounding Vieques are littered with unexploded artillery shells, live bombs and the hulks of two bullet-riddled vessels that were intentionally sunk 10-12 years ago. The ships may contain as many as 1200 barrels of liquid and solid wastes. Many of the aging barrels are corroded and leaking.

Porter also examined holes in the reef that islanders attribute to bombing. The Navy has always insisted that the gaps were caused by hurricanes. Porter's team of divers found that these holes were, in fact, bomb craters embedded with chunks of metallic shrapnel.

Last June 16, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques filed a Freedom of Information Act request for Navy documents related to Vieques. After an 8-month delay, the Navy complied. One of the most shocking disclosures was that, in February 1999, the Navy had attacked the island with depleted uranium (DU) shells.

Doug Rokke, former director of the Pentagon's Depleted Uranium Project, denounced the use of DU weapons as a violation of Pentagon rules. Rokke declared that the "contamination caused by deliberate US Navy actions" in Vieques "is a crime against humanity and must be immediately corrected."