wfn.org | Second Presbyterian protester jailed in Puerto Rico

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Note #6148 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

10-August-2000
00285

Second Presbyterian protester jailed in Puerto Rico

Executive says synod has voted to support anti-Navy demonstrators

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Another Presbyterian has been arrested for trespassing on
a U.S. Navy firing range on a tiny Caribbean island off the coast of Puerto
Rico.
	The Rev. Luis Acevedo Lebron is the second member of the Synod of Puerto
Rico to be jailed for trespassing on federal property. He is one of a
swelling group of demonstrators who are practicing civil disobedience to
protest the Navy's use of Vieques as a firing range and a storehouse for
military explosives.
	Acevedo is being held in a federal jail in San Juan with demonstrators who
refuse to pay bail to the U.S. government because they do not acknowledge
U.S. jurisdiction in Puerto Rico.
	Jose Morot, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Hormigueros, Puerto
Rico, who was arrested on Vieques last month, recently was sentenced to one
year of environmental service to the community and ordered to pay a $1,000
fine. He spent 29 days in jail while refusing to post bail.
	"We intend to support Luis in his initiative," said the Rev. Elva Irizorry,
the synod's associate executive for mission, who said the synod has voted to
support Presbyterians who protest the U.S. Navy presence in a civil and
non-violent way. "I don't have specific names here, but I do know that other
sisters and brothers in our churches are planning to go to the restricted
area in Vieques . . . but there is no one organized movement in the
Presbyterian Church to go there as a large group."
	The U.S. government took possession of more than 72 percent of the island
in the 1940s for use as a training ground. Sporadic protests have erupted
there ever since. In 1947, a U.S. Department of the Interior plan to
forcibly relocate the island's residents to Saint Croix was defeated. In
1979, fishermen began interfering with Navy maneuvers to dramatize their
opposition to the Navy presence.
	The protests escalated last year when a civilian guard was killed.
	Although the U.S. Navy's public information officer did not respond to
repeated telephone calls from the Presbyterian News Service, a Navy site on
the Internet outlines the military's position on Vieques, contending that
allegations that the Navy is harming the environment and the health and
safety of its residents are unfair.
	It says residents of Vieques "have never been in danger" from training
activities conducted at the weapons range, which is nearly eight miles from
the nearest town. A small-weapons range is the only location on the island
where bombs and naval gunfire are used in training, according to the Navy's
Web page. It says, Vieques is one of 56 live-fire ranges used by the
Department of Defense, and residents of other U.S. communities live closer
to target zones than Vieques' residents.
	The Navy claims that no civilians "off the range" ever have been killed or
endangered.
	The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has issued several
statements on Vieques. Just two months ago, in Long Beach, Calif., the 212th
General Assembly called upon Presbyterians to support all nonviolent efforts
to pressure the Navy to "permanently stop all military training and bombing
on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico."
	Vieques is at the center of a political debate in Puerto Rico -- where some
want independence, some want to remain a U.S. territory, and still others
are pushing for statehood.
	Acevedo and Morot are both aligned with a minority political party in
Puerto Rico called the Party for Puerto Rican Independence, a social
democratic group.
	Because Presbyterians in Puerto Rico fall across the entire political
spectrum, the synod has not taken a stance on independence or statehood,
according to Irizorry. But she said Vieques is one issue on which
churchgoers agree: "All of the political parties want the Navy out of
Vieques. . . . This is more broad than a issue of political parties. It
involves human rights, environmental justice and economic and social
justice."

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