wfn.org | Minister returns to work after arrest on Vieques

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 23, 2001 News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202) 546-87227Washington
10-32-71B{362}

By United Methodist News Service

When a United Methodist minister returned to Puerto Rico this summer, he
visited his parents -- and he made a point of getting arrested on Vieques as
a way of protesting the U.S. Navy's use of the island for target practice.

The Rev. German Acevedo-Delgado, an assistant general secretary with the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and former executive director of
MARCHA, the denomination's Hispanic caucus, said he was following in the
tradition of the prophets who called on governments to change their sinful
behavior. "Sinful" is the word he uses to describe the Navy's actions on the
Puerto Rican island. 

"What they are doing - putting in danger the population by creating all
these health hazards and destroying the environment - it is something that
needs to be opposed from a religious perspective," he said.

Since 1980, the United Methodist Church's top legislative assembly has been
on record as opposing the Navy's use of the island for bombing practice. In
addition, the General Conference has called on the Navy to clean up the
environment on Vieques. Resolutions on the issue have also been passed by
the Board of Global Ministries and the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico,
Acevedo-Delgado noted. 

"Anyone knows that the byproducts of all that bombing are chemical agents
that produce cancers," he said. "There's no question about that."

He was arrested and detained in a federal prison Aug. 3-8. He will have to
return to Puerto Rico, which is a U.S. territory, for trial. 

Acevedo-Delgado, an ordained member of the North New Jersey Conference since
1990, said many people are involved in the civil disobedience on Vieques for
civil rights, environmental or political reasons, but he feels the need to
join with those who are there because of a religious perspective.

Last year, he was one of many protesters who camped out on the Vieques
target range to prevent the Navy from resuming its bombing practice.
Opposition to the Navy's use of the island had grown following the death of
a civilian employee, killed by a stray bomb in April 1999. 

On May 4, 2000, federal authorities removed the protesters. Acevedo-Delgado
was detained for about seven hours but was not formally charged. 

During his most recent trip to Vieques, Acevedo-Delgado entered Camp Garcia
through a hole in the fence with eight other people, including the Rev. Lucy
Rosario, a Methodist pastor serving on the island, and three former
presidents of the Puerto Rican bar association. It was nearly midnight on
Aug. 2, Acevedo-Delgado recalled. Various members of the group became
separated during the following hours, but by early afternoon all had been
found and arrested on the base.

"The objective of the group was to spend at least 10 to 12 hours inside the
base to protest the Navy bombing of Vieques and ignoring the will of the
majority of its people," Acevedo-Delgado explained. "This will was expressed
on the July 29 referendum, where 70 percent of the voters favored the
immediate and permanent withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from Vieques."

Acevedo-Delgado was taken to the detention center on the base, where he was
processed first by the Navy and then by federal marshals. He and the other
members of his group were transported by boat to another island and the
federal prison in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. After more questioning, searching,
photographing and fingerprinting, the prisoners' personal possessions were
taken and they were issued prison clothing. It was about 1 a.m. Saturday by
the time Acevedo-Delgado was put in a cell. 

On Sunday evening, he was able to lead a Bible study sitting on a hallway
floor. The authorities had refused to allow a chapel service.

On Monday, Aug. 6, almost 40 prisoners who had been arrested for civil
disobedience in Vieques were taken to federal court in Hato Rey for
arraignment. Acevedo-Delgado's bail was set at $3,000, and he was told a 30
percent deposit would allow his release. He and Rosario posted bail the
following day through arrangements that had been made before their arrests,
but they weren't released until the next morning. 

"I spent most of the day on Friday trying to get all my belongings back from
the Navy," Acevedo-Delgado said in a report to the board. "Finally, at 7
p.m., I had all my stuff, with the exception of the $60 I had and two rolls
of film." On Saturday, he returned to Vieques and preached on Sunday evening
at the Isabel II Methodist Church. 

He was back in New Jersey on Aug. 13, but the uncertainty of the trial lies
ahead. A great deal depends on which judge is assigned for people like
himself charged with a first offense on Vieques, he said. Sentences have
ranged from time already served to four months for a local mayor who is
considered a leader in encouraging others to go on the base.

Morale was high in jail, Acevedo-Delgado noted, probably because there were
so many people from various churches participating in the civil obedience.
Four Catholics, including a priest and a nun, had been brought to the
detention center on Vieques the same afternoon his group was in custody
there, and as he was leaving the prison the following week, the executive
secretary of the Bible Society in Puerto Rico had just arrived in jail. 

"When I left, I told him, 'Well, now you're in charge of the religious
activities here in the unit," Acevedo-Delgado said.

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United Methodist News Service
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