wfn.org | First mission agency delegation visits Vieques

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 21, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-32-71B{680}
  
By United Methodist News Service

The first of a series of delegations from the United Methodist Board of
Global Ministries visited the Puerto Rican island of Vieques Dec. 17-20 to
express support for the people there.

For months, Puerto Ricans have actively protested the U.S. Navy's use of
two-thirds of the island for training with live ammunition. Last April, two
bombs from a Navy attack jet went astray, killing an island resident.

Bishop Juan Vera Mendez, leader of the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico, told
United Methodist News Service on Dec. 20 that the protest has intensified in
the past few weeks. "The population (of Vieques) has mobilized itself at the
entrance of Camp Garcia," he explained through a translator.

Although President Clinton has proposed to close the Navy base within five
years and give residents a $40 million aid package, the bishop and others
consider the proposal unacceptable and demand immediate closure.

The peaceful demonstration has blocked vehicles from entering the camp. Vera
Mendez participated in a Dec. 18 ceremony in which the international flag
for peace was raised at the camp. He also joined the Board of Global
Ministries delegation staying in one of the 10 camps that have been
established by religious groups, political parties, labor unions, teachers
and others in the restricted area of Vieques.

Joan Chapin, a board director from Caro, Mich., led the delegation, which
also included her husband John; the Rev. German Acevedo-Delgado, a board
executive; and Don Reasoner, a board missionary. The Methodist Church of
Puerto Rico has two congregations on the island, including one that just
celebrated its 97th anniversary.

While the escalating protests are new, the situation in Vieques is not. The
U.S. Navy has conducted target practice on the island - seven miles off
Puerto Rico - since 1941. Vera Mendez said the Methodist Church of Puerto
Rico first expressed its support of the people of Vieques in 1968 and noted
that since 1972 the United Methodist General Conference has passed
resolutions about the island. General Conference is the only body that can
speak officially for the entire denomination.

The current resolution, first adopted in 1980, states that the 1996 General
Conference "expresses its solidarity with the people of Vieques in their
most ardent desire that the United States Navy cease its military activity
that adversely affects the citizens of Vieques, and that the United States
Navy repair whatever damages it has caused the people of Vieques."

Specifically, the bishop explained, the people of Vieques and Puerto Rico
want the Clinton Administration to permanently stop all bombing on the site;
clean up the island's contaminated soil and water; establish a firm date to
withdraw from the island; and compensate residents adversely affected by the
Navy's presence over the years.

Until those goals are achieved, he said, the protests will continue. At the
religious camp in the restrict area, the plan is to bring in a new group of
protesters every four days. Vera Mendez urged United Methodists from outside
Puerto Rico to join their brothers and sisters at the camp.

According to the Rev. Randolph Nugent, the Board of Global Ministries' top
executive, the board will continue to send protesters to Vieques over the
next few months. The United Methodist campaign -- involving Global
Ministries, the Council of Bishops, the Board of Church and Society and
local congregations -- also will focus on letter writing, lobbying Congress
and the Clinton Administration and the issuing of a pastoral letter by the
bishops.

Nugent called the Navy's presence on Vieques "an assault on the environment
and an assault on the physical wellbeing of the island's 9,000 residents."

The Council of Bishops passed a resolution about Vieques last May, calling
on the Navy to "cease its military activities, repair whatever damages it
has caused and transfer all the land that is currently occupied to the
Puerto Rican government." It also sent a delegation to Vieques in June at
the request of Vera Mendez. 

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United Methodist News Service
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