wfn.org | NCCCUSA Human Rights Award in Puerto Rico

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

130NCC12/11/98                             FOR 
IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1998 "MAURICIO AMILCAR LOPEZ" HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD TO BE 
PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE OF THE ISLAND OF VIEQUES, 
PUERTO RICO
***PRESS CONFERENCE IN SAN JUAN TO BE HELD DEC. 16, 11 
a.m.***

 NEW YORK, Dec. 11 ---- Mere days after Puerto 
Ricans will cast ballots in a United States-backed 
plebiscite about the future status of the commonwealth, 
the National Council of Churches (NCC) will give an 
annual human rights award to the people of the island 
of Vieques, Puerto Rico to recognize their long 
struggle for dignity in the face of U.S. Navy 
occupation.

 Four people who are symbols of the struggle, 
including leaders of local Vieques fishermen's, women's 
and development organizations, will be honored at a 
ceremony at the Fuerte Conde de Mirasol Museum in 
Vieques on Thursday, Dec. 17.  Local and international 
religious and human rights leaders will be on hand, 
including Dr. Carlos Reina, Former President of 
Honduras and current President of the Central American 
Parliament.  Dr. Reina was the recipient of the 1996 
Mauricio Lopez Award.  A press conference will be held 
at the Bar Association in Santurce on Wednesday, Dec. 
16 at 11 a.m. and a 7 p.m. worship service will be at 
the Episcopal Cathedral in Santurce.

 "While we do not want to intervene in the internal 
politics of Puerto Rico, we decided to give this award 
to the people of Vieques to affirm their right to 
defend their way of life," said the Rev. Oscar Bolioli, 
Director of the NCC's Latin American and the Caribbean 
Office.  "It seemed fitting in this year, the 
centennial of the U.S. invasion in Puerto Rico, to 
honor a group of fishermen who have confronted a big 
power peacefully in order to defend their livelihood 
and their natural resources."

 Since 1940, the U.S. Navy has carried out military 
exercises and test shellings on Vieques, occupying up 
to 26,000 of the 33,000 acres on the island.  "Local 
inhabitants say that at one time, they counted 3,000 
craters on the island left by the U.S. Navy," Rev. 
Bolioli said.  "They like to say that Vieques has more 
craters than the moon."  These shellings have greatly 
disrupted the local fishing industry.

 About 70 percent of the island's 8,200 inhabitants 
live under the poverty level and 50 percent are 
jobless, Rev. Bolioli explained.  There is also concern 
because the cancer rate is 52 percent higher on the 
island than in the rest of Puerto Rico.  

 The NCC's Committee on the Caribbean and Latin 
America (CCLA) created the award in 1995 to recognize 
people carrying out exceptional work for justice in 
Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Reina was the 
first recipient in 1996 and Argentine Methodist Bishop 
Federico Pagura was the 1997 recipient.  Mauricio 
Lopez, for whom the award was named in 1996, was a 
leader and martyr of the ecumenical movement in the 
region who was kidnapped and assassinated by a military 
commando in Argentina.

 The NCC is comprised of 35 Protestant and Orthodox 
communions with a combined membership of nearly 52 
million people.
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