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NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER
Protest Camps Grow On Vieques
Puerto Ricans risk arrest to end U.S. Navy bombing
by Paul Jeffrey
March 10, 2000
Copyright © 2000 NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER PUBLISHING CO.;
BELL & HOWELL INFORMATION AND LEARNING CO. All Rights Reserved.
Serving the new parish on Vieques is much like working in any
other parish for Fr. Juan Luis Negron. He gets up in the morning,
sweeps out the parsonage, reads a bit, eats breakfast with some
nuns, and then watches the neighborhood arrive for Mass. As the
celebration finishes, the one big difference becomes evident -
the closing hymn is drowned out by the noise of a U.S. Navy helicopter
that hovers low overhead videotaping the scene.
That's church life today on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques
, for almost six decades a playground for Navy and Marine pilots
practicing the bombing runs they would carry out elsewhere in
the world. Today, however, the bombing range is filled not with
the sounds of war, but with the sounds of people singing and
hammers pounding. A protest camp is becoming a small, bustling
town, and the church is in the middle of it.
Shortly after a wayward bomb killed a civilian security guard
last April, Puerto Ricans from all over the U.S. colony came to
the bombing range and set up "resistance encampments,"
determined to use their physical presence to prevent the renewal
of bombing. The Navy refrained from removing them from the off-limits
zone, perhaps believing that with time that they would tire and
go away. Yet the number of people risking arrest by trespassing
on Navy territory has grown steadily.
'Option for peace'
By late February, 14 distinct civil disobedience camps had
been set up, including a Protestant camp established in November,
and a camp built in February sponsored by the Catholic diocese
of Caguas, Puerto Rico .
"I came here as part of my commitment as a man of faith,"
said Negron, rector of the Catholic seminary in Caguas. "We
in the diocese have made an option for peace in Vieques , and
we have to act out that option in concrete forms. So we've come
here to work for peace, and to defend life, both the life of the
environment and of the human beings who are threatened here."
Negron said he wasn't worried about trespassing on the Navy
bombing range. "When there is an unjust law that violates
the laws of the reign of God, then we Christians can disobey that
law," Negron said.
The Catholic camp includes several tents, including one sporting
a sign reading "Parsonage." A two-room wooden structure
contains the kitchen and storage area. The complex is staffed
round the clock by volunteers chosen and trained by the Caguas
diocese, whose bishop, Alvaro Corrada del Rio, has become a leading
proponent of civil disobedience. The island of Vieques is part
of the Caguas diocese.
According to Feliciano Rodriguez, a priest in Caguas who coordinates
the Catholic presence, participants are given at least six hours
of training in nonviolence and are fully briefed on relevant church
teachings. "Civil disobedience for us means discipline and
training, or else it becomes simple protest," Rodriguez said.
"People know we're there to pray and work for peace."
To date the diocese has received requests to participate from
over 300 people, but has accepted only a third of those. According
to Sr. Lavinia Ortiz, of the Carmelites of Vedruna, who train
lay people in biblical studies for the diocese of Caguas, anyone
with a background in political parties is automatically disqualified
from participating in the church camp. "We want people who
are peaceful and not conflictive," she told NCR.
Ortiz, who took her turn at civil disobedience in mid-February,
said the presence of so many protesters on the bombing range,
especially from the church, had given the people of Vieques "a
space to breathe. They feel understood and supported. As a result,
they feel more interior peace in the middle of so much struggle.
When you feel accompanied, although you have many problems, you
experience new strength and peace."
Both Corrada del Rio and Archbishop Roberto GonzAlez of San
Juan, Puerto Rico , have visited the restricted zone, lending
their support to the protest.
Should arrests occur, both will try to make their way to the
camps to join the ranks of those taken to jail. Protestant leaders
will be doing the same. Puerto Rican Methodists have a plan to
fly Bishop Juan Vera onto Vieques should the Navy block sea transit.
Such commitment by church leaders is helping to turn the tide
against the Navy. Ismael Guadalupe, president of the Committee
for the Rescue and Development of Vieques , claimed that the "participation
of new sectors of the population, especially the churches, has
allowed us to break down the wall of lies. Now the people are
hearing what we've been saying for a long time, and realizing
it's true, no matter how many times they called us communists
or crazy people. Sooner or later the truth has to triumph, and
today on Vieques the truth is winning."
According to Robert Rabin, director of a museum housed in an
old Spanish fort on Vieques , "The participation of the churches
in this struggle has been fundamental in making clear that this
is not just a political issue, but rather a violation of human
rights, an abuse of the people and environment of Vieques by the
Navy."
Rabin said that islanders have for years "received important
manifestations of solidarity from church organizations in Puerto
Rico , the United States and elsewhere. We have a drawer full
of resolutions from different ecumenical and religious organizations,
dating from the '70s until now. But this is a very different moment.
It's no longer just resolutions, but people from the churches
coming to Vieques willing to work at ground level, to stay in
the resistance camps."
The two church-sponsored camps on the bombing range "are
right now the most important weapon that the people of Vieques
have against the military plans to resume bombing. If it had not
been for those two camps being set up, the Navy might have already
come in and arrested the small number of other people," Rabin
said. "Yet there are now Catholic priests and Methodist and
Baptist ministers, men and women, out there on the bombing range.
That has created a very difficult situation for the U.S. government
and Navy. It's going to be very difficult for [U.S. Attorney General]
Janet Reno to sign an order for the arrest of a bishop or archbishop."
The church leaders' prominent role in the Vieques struggle
became evident in the first weeks of the new millennium when they
had a public showdown with Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossell6. The
governor, who last year promised that "not one more bomb"
would fall on Vieques , changed his mind at the beginning of the
year and agreed to a Clinton administration proposal that would
allow renewed bombing on Vieques this year. Under the plan, residents
of the island would be offered a plebiscite next year in which
they could choose between indefinite continued bombing or limiting
further bombing to three years. Church leaders were upset by the
absence of an option that would cancel all further bombing, and
because the referendum wouldn't be held until months after the
Navy was allowed to resume bombing.
When religious leaders announced a march for Puerto Ricans
to publicly reject the Clinton-Rossel16 deal, the governor was
furious and called on church members to disobey their bishops
and stay at home.
"This is a situation where we need religious disobedience
because church leaders have stepped out of their environment,
they've exceeded their authority and are assuming roles in our
democratic society that are designated through popular vote, "
RosseIlo declared. "None of them have been elected by the
people. Therefore, none of the faithful have to follow their orders
in affairs like this which correspond to the entire society and
not just to the church."
Undeterred by the public spat, the bishops went ahead with
the march, and more than 100,000 people took to the streets of
San Juan Feb. 21, walking in silence while waving white flags.
Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo called it the biggest public
demonstration in the country's history.
"The U.S. Navy has to abandon the island," said Corrada
del Rio. "It was demonstrated today that the people of Vieques
can count on tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who are not going
to abandon them."
According to Vera, the Methodist bishop, the massive turnout
"sends a clear message to President Clinton that political
decisions are not written in stone and can thus be changed. We
want him to reconsider his decision and not renew bombing on Vieques
, whether with live munitions or inert bombs. We don't want one
more bomb to fall on Vieques ."
Meeting the day after the march, church leaders wrote President
Clinton, asking for a meeting to discuss Vieques "in a conciliatory
manner."
Invitation to repentance
They also invited Gov. RosseIlo to public repentance for his
position on Vieques . "He will know, in his wisdom and prudence,
what he has to say," Vera said during a Feb. 23 news conference
at Gonzalez's residence.
The turnout for the march, along with the steady growth of
resistance camps on the bombing range, leaves the Navy with no
apparent good options. It could lose the battle if it drags the
protesters off, inevitably provoking a long, drawn out series
of arrests as replacements flock to the island. And some campers,
Puerto Rican Vietnam veterans, say they won't go as easily as
the church-sponsored protesters.
The Navy could also lose the battle if it lets the protesters
remain. Every day the Navy doesn't bomb, the island belies the
Navy's claim that the facility is essential for combat readiness.
In early February, the Navy announced it was moving exercises
scheduled for March on Vieques to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.
Many observers believe that if bombing doesn't resume soon,
it may be delayed even more to avoid getting the issue tangled
up in U.S. electoral politics. Some speculate that resumption
of bombing could cost Hillary Clinton Puerto Rican votes in her
New York race for the Senate.
While Puerto Ricans speculate about what the Navy will do,
the
aggressive public witness of Corrada del Rio and Gonzalez has
left some of their colleagues exasperated. Although the Puerto
Rican Episcopal Conference issued a statement in early December
declaring "immoral" the Navy's practices on Vieques
and supporting civil disobedience as long as it was nonviolent
and truly a last resort in the struggle against the Navy, the
showdown with Rosse116 provoked murmurs of discontent from some
other bishops.
The Permanent Commission of the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference
issued a Feb. 13 communiqué claiming "many faithful
are confused when confronted by the diverse and at times contradictory
declarations ... about the problem of Vieques ." Released
by Bishop Ulises Casiano Vargas of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico , president
of the bishops' conference, the declaration said church leaders
getting involved in "temporal matters" should remember
the statement about rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's.
Corrada del Rio expressed dismay at Casiano's statement. "We
lament that the entire Episcopal conference was not consulted
ahead of time about this declaration, above all when it is known
that in the Catholic church, the jurisdiction over an affair of
a parish corresponds exclusively to the bishop of the place,"
Corrada stated.
The public role of Methodist Bishop Vera and other Protestant
leaders has also provoked protest from some conservative evangelicals.
Gustavo Filpi, president of the International Council of Independent
Christian Churches, claimed that the role of the churches "is
to pray, to cry out to God for this to be resolved in peace. That's
the role of the church, not to walk around with little white flags
nor dress up politicians in church robes."
Yet the widespread consensus around Vieques has brought even
many conservatives into the movement to end the bombing. According
to Angel Luis Gutierrez, a Baptist pastor, the church in Puerto
Rico "has the responsibility of saving the U.S. Navy because
it finds itself in sin. The church has to say to the Navy what
our Lord said to the woman caught in adultery: 'Go away and sin
no more."'
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