Vieques Protest Victory-Bound

hen movie stars, ministers and politicians start lining up to get arrested in support of a cause, it's a sure sign that cause is heading to victory.

This was true of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, of the peace movement during the Vietnam War and of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement.

It is equally true today of the movement to end nearly 60 years of Navy bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.

Ruben Berrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, is arrested yesterday inside the Navy’s Camp Garcia on Vieques.

The list of those arrested for trying to block bombing exercises over the weekend grew to 138 by late yesterday. That pushed the number of those arrested protesting the Vieques bombing situation since last May to more than 600.

That number is sure to grow now that the Navy has announced plans to continue exercises tomorrow to make up for interruptions caused by protests, and now that the Rev. Al Sharpton and other New York activists are heading to Vieques.

About 40 demonstrators trying to act as human shields were said to be hiding in the underbrush within the target area. Among them are the mayor of Vieques and Ruben Berrios, president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party.

Arrestee Roll Call

Among those who have been arrested in Vieques protests are several celebrities from the mainland.

Some, like actor Edward James Olmos, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez and New York union leader Dennis Rivera, were locked up by federal marshals over the weekend. Some remained in jail as of late yesterday. Olmos and Kennedy were reported released last night.

Those from Puerto Rico represent every part of island society. They include Sen. Norma Burgos, a former Puerto Rico secretary of state and now vice president of the island's pro-statehood party; Danny Rivera, one of the island's legendary singers, and Jose Aponte, mayor of the town of Carolina and president of the Puerto Rican mayors' association.

"This isn't about celebrity stunts," Lt. Jeff Gordon, the Navy's spokesman in Puerto Rico, said yesterday. "The Navy has been the victim of a huge disinformation campaign for the past two years."

Gordon discounted allegations from Puerto Rico Gov. Sila Maria Calderon that the bombing has harmed the health of the 9,400 residents of Vieques.

"None of the health and human rights arguments of the Navy's opponents have any scientific basis to them," he said.

Gordon got especially angry when I asked him about two sunken Navy barges discovered off the coast of Vieques by Prof. James Porter, a University of Georgia marine scientist.

The barges are filled with hundreds of 55-gallon drums, and Porter has reported evidence of toxic contamination to the reefs of Vieques, which contain some of the most pristine coral in the Caribbean.

In addition, Porter found numerous unexploded bombs on the sea floor that were leaking toxic materials, and thousands of metal fragments embedded in the reefs. Tissue samples his team took from the coral reefs revealed TNT concentrations of 600 parts per million, Porter told me yesterday.

The report criticizes even the "inert" bombs and shells the Navy is using, because of the potential for those bombs to land on the sunken barges or to detonate unexploded bombs along the coral reefs.

Buried Report

Porter's report was never made public by former Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello; once Rossello made a deal with former President Bill Clinton to end live bombing on Vieques, the report was quietly buried.

Calderon learned of the Porter report last month and immediately went public with it.

But Gordon said Porter's findings were "overblown."

He confirmed the barges were used as targets for Navy planes and ships, then sunk decades ago. Their hulls were jammed with 55-gallon drums filled with sand to keep them submerged, he explained.

The Navy spokesman noted that Porter found damage in "less than 1% of the coral around Vieques."

No matter how many Puerto Ricans protest, or how many scientists question its record, the Navy refuses to accept its loss of Vieques.

E-mail: jgonzalez@edit.nydailynews.com

Original Publication Date: 5/1/01

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