wfn.org | Presbyterian elder in Puerto Rico faces trespassing charge

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Note #6138 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

2-August-2000
00275

Presbyterian elder in Puerto Rico faces trespassing charge

"He is in jail because he is a Presbyterian," synod executive says

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Presbyterian elder in Puerto Rico will be tried
tomorrow in federal court for trespassing on property where the U.S. Navy
conducts bombing practice and stores military explosives.
	Jose Morot, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Hormigueros, Puerto
Rico, was arrested with 134 others protesting Navy test bombings on the
small Caribbean island of Vieques, which is between Puerto Rico and the U.S.
Virgin Islands, only eight miles from Puerto Rico's southeastern coast.
	Trespassing on federal property is a misdemeanor.
	According to the Puerto Rican daily newspaper, "El Nuevo Dia," Morot, like
most of those arrested, refused to post bail after his arrest. Demonstrators
aligned with the Party for Puerto Rican Independence turn down bail as a way
of further protesting Puerto Rico's status as a U.S. territory.
	 Morot is scheduled to appear before a federal judge tomorrow.
	"He is there (in jail) because he is a Presbyterian, and Presbyterians
believe in the peace movement, disarmament and the environment," said the
Rev. Harry F.  Del Valle, the executive of the Synod of Puerto Rico, who
said he will attend the hearing. "What the U.S. Navy is doing is destroying
the island, the environment . . . a possible future on the island."
	Vieques is home to about 9,000 people. It has dozens of secluded beaches,
corals reefs and lagoons that are the nesting and gathering places of 123
species of birds.
	Since the U.S. government appropriated the island in the 1940s, it has been
the focus of sporadic protests. The Navy uses 72 percent of the island as a
training ground. In 1947, a U.S. Department of the Interior plan to forcibly
relocate Vieques residents to Saint Croix was defeated. Organized opposition
escalated in 1979 when fishermen and other protesters began interfering with
Navy maneuvers to dramatize their opposition to the Navy's destruction of
the environment and restrictions on fishing.
	Protesters also blocked an attempt to evict residents of a barrio on
Vieques in 1989.
	According to "El Nuevo Dia," the newspaper, some of those who crossed into
the restricted area last month are being sentenced to time served, while
others have been ordered to do community service work, given a year's
probation and fined as much as $1,000.
	Sources in Puerto Rico say the Party for Puerto Rican Independence advisors
protesters to refuse to pay their fines — which will probably bring more
arrests. Party officials did not return repeated phone calls from the
Presbyterian News Service.
	Fernando Rodriguez, a commissioned lay pastor at Morot's church, said the
congregation will help raise money for Morot if he is fined and wishes to
pay it.
	Morot is also running for municipal office in Hormigueros.
	Del Valle said Morot is the first Presbyterian arrested at the military
site, although Presbyterian opposition to the maneuvers has been visible for
some time; he said the General Assembly has opposed the bombings. Del Valle
said the Synod of Puerto Rico contributed $5,000 for the construction of an
ecumenical chapel in the restricted area -- which was promptly demolished by
the military.
	"But people continue to go there," added De Valle, who has protested at the
site himself.  "Exercises begin on Aug. 3 . . . so (the protesting) is
beginning again."
	The executive said it is hard to separate the protests at Vieques from the
movement for Puerto Rican independence, because many who want the U.S. Navy
out of Vieques also believe the United States should relinquish Puerto Rico
-- though few are willing to be jailed to make the point.
	"We are a colony," he explained.

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