wfn.org | A Journey To Vieques: An Island Besieged

[news@ELCA.ORG]

 April 12, 2001

A JOURNEY TO VIEQUES: AN ISLAND BESIEGED
By Melissa O. Ramirez

01-FE-01-MR
     For 60 years bombs have cascaded from war planes sending clouds
of dust and smoke toward nearby gardens, playgrounds, homes, schools
and stores on Vieques, a small island east of Puerto Rico.  Classroom
activity has often been interrupted when children, crouched under
their desks in fear, hear the thunder of bombs exploding on the U.S.
Navy's training ground just a few miles away.
     The U.S. Navy has controlled more than 70 percent of Vieques
since World War II.  The U.S. government "expropriated" about 26,000
acres out of the total 33,000 and built military installations for
bombing practice and storage of military explosives.   The east coast
of Vieques serves as a target range for combined air-ground-sea
military exercises.  The west coast houses an ammunition depot.  The
people of Vieques are confined to live on the middle portion of the
21 mile by four mile island.
     "We want to live in peace.  Fuera la Marina de Vieques (Navy
leave Vieques)," said Myrta Sanes, a resident of Vieques.
     Sanes' words echo the strong sentiments of more than 9,000
residents of Vieques -- U.S. citizens -- engaged in a struggle to
defend their human rights, to regain control over their own economy
and social growth, and to better their health, education and
environment.
     "We do not want one more bomb.   Too many people here live with
fear," Sanes told a delegation of church leaders and staff of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) from across the United
States, and clergy and lay leaders of the ELCA Caribbean Synod, with
offices in Dorado, Puerto Rico, on March 23.  The delegation visited
Vieques and Puerto Rico on March 22-24 to learn more about life
there.
     In April 1999, Sanes' brother, David Rodriquez Sanes, a Puerto
Rican guard working for the U.S. Navy --  was killed in a bombing
accident on Vieques.  Since then the people of Vieques and Puerto
Rico have called for the removal of the U.S. Navy on Vieques not only
as a result of the accident but because of the damage caused to the
environment.  Many on the island believe uranium, lead, mercury and
other contaminates released during the Navy's war exercises have
poisoned their bodies.
     The destruction of the land and human resources on Vieques is a
violation of human rights, said the Rev. Marysol Diaz Feliciano,
Iglesia Evangelica Luterana San Marcos, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, in an
interview.
     "This is about protecting the dignity and livelihood of the
people on Vieques.  It is not about politics; it is about peace and
justice.  It is also an issue of ethics and morality, health and
peace of mind for people.  The U.S. Navy must clean up the land and
return it to the people of Vieques immediately," Diaz said.
     "There is a large incidence of cancer among people on Vieques,
as well as bronchial asthma among children and some unknown skin
disorders among adults," said Dr. Rafael Rivera Castano, Vieques, a
retired epistemologist and professor at the University of Puerto
Rico, Rio Piedras.  He said the population of Vieques has had a 27
percent higher incidence of cancer than the population of Puerto
Rico.
     Castano said scientific studies conducted on the east coast of
Vieques have indicated the presence of lead, mercury, uranium and
other toxins in the soil and sediment.  These contaminants have
spread for miles, he said.
     "We can find no other source in the environment that would
explain the presence of these contaminants and the cause of cancer
and other illnesses among our people," Castano said.
     Castano and Sanes met with the ELCA delegation March 23 at the
Museum of Vieques' Art and History, Fort Count Mirasol, Vieques.
     Surrounded by artwork depicting the history of Vieques,
particularly the last six decades, Lutherans heard stories about life
on the island told by a college student, a school teacher,
representatives of the Vieques Women's Alliance and members of the
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques.
     Eva del Mar Emeric, a university student from Vieques, said the
economic crisis and lack of job opportunities on the island keep her
and other students from returning to the island after graduation.
     "I live in a place where many around me have cancer, and I have
a high probability of getting sick with it.  I've been exposed to the
same contaminants everyone else has been exposed to.  I'm afraid to
get tested for the level of uranium that may exist in my body. I'm
afraid of what it may mean for my future," she said.
     "When I was six years old my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Since then I have had to care for her, especially during her
chemotherapy.  She's lived some years in remission, but cancer has
surfaced in another area of her body.  Thanks to God, she lives.  On
the other hand, my grandfather was not as lucky.  He died three
months ago.  He's just another victim of cancer.  I have a 16-year-
old male friend who has testicular cancer.  So we must continue the
struggle to free Vieques, so that future generations will have better
prospects," Emeric said.
     Carmen Valencia, a member of the Vieques Women's Alliance,
said, "There are babies being born with cancer here, a problem people
should care about.  There are people who do not believe in the
seriousness of the health crisis on Vieques, and we cannot understand
why.  We have 20- and 30-year-olds dying of cancer, as well."
     "Instead of focusing on the lesson plan, I have had to spend
time consoling children who were afraid of bombs exploding nearby,"
said a school teacher in Vieques.  The children "couldn't distinguish
between the sound of thunder in a rainstorm and bombs exploding.
Many of them hid under their desks -- afraid of being bombed," she
said.
     "The air we breathe and the water we drink has been
contaminated with heavy metals.  These contaminants do not belong in
our bodies, especially in the bodies of our children," said Mirna
Pagan, an artist living on Vieques.  "The residents of Vieques cannot
continue to absorb these contaminants at the expense of the nation's
security," the teacher said.
     "Support from religious organizations has been fundamental and
essential to the efforts of people in Vieques and Puerto Rico," said
Ismael Guadalupe, Committee for the Rescue and Development for
Vieques and "veteran leader" of the Vieques struggle.  Guadalupe
served six months in federal prison in Pennsylvania for his
participation in civil disobedience related to Vieques in 1979.
     "What we want is the Navy to leave and give us back our land,"
Guadalupe said.
     "Physically, there is enormous pressure for people living on
this island.  We are sandwiched between two coasts occupied by the
Navy; that is an imposition.  People are imprisoned on their own
land, and that is a violation of human rights," he said.
     "Our effort has taken on momentum and has been able to
penetrate the mainstream -- more and more people are becoming aware of
consequences related to the U.S. Navy's [military activities],"
Guadalupe told the Lutherans.
     "Vieques, despite the Navy's presence, is a very special
place," said Robert Rabin, Committee for the Rescue and Development
of Vieques.  "It is a small, family-like community where people share
their happy and sad times together.  Since the death of David Sanes,
people here collectively engage in social and psychological therapy,
and they deal seriously with the unemployment and health crisis," he
said.
     Rabin said the unemployment rate on Vieques is about 50
percent, and residents cannot afford to purchase household
appliances.  He added that fishermen for decades struggled to get the
Navy to stop bombing the land and sea.  Military ships destroy fish
traps, and bombing imposes "severe restrictions on [a fisherman's]
entry into some of the best fishing areas around the island," he said
     "Since the Navy controls the closest connecting point between
Puerto Rico and Vieques, the people have had to use a water route
that is three times the natural route.  That means they have to bear
the high costs of transporting goods and services from Puerto Rico to
Vieques.  A refrigerator that costs $400.00 in Puerto Rico sells for
$800.00 on Vieques.  There has been no government subsidy for local
commerce," Rabin said.
     According to Dr. Juan Fernandez, special commissioner for
Vieques, health care is an item that requires immediate attention on
Vieques.  "There is a health clinic on the island, but no major
hospital," he said.  The government of Puerto Rico is working to
improve health care on Vieques, Fernandez told the Lutherans.
     The military facilities in Vieques -- including Camp Garcia in
the east -- are part of a larger military complex known as Roosevelt
Roads, "one of the largest U.S. Naval bases outside of the
continental United States," said the Rev. Francisco L. Sosa, bishop
for the ELCA Caribbean Synod, Dorado.
     "The shortest distance between Puerto Rico and Vieques is six
miles.  Workers, tourists and individuals needing emergency medical
care must travel 18 miles -- about 45 minutes -- on ferry, crossing the
sometimes rough ocean water," he said.
     When the Navy conducts its war exercises, transportation
between Vieques and Puerto Rico is shut down.  Someone from Vieques
cannot travel to Puerto Rico, or vice versa, Sosa explained.
     "It's clear that the people of Vieques feel that they are, in a
sense, caught in their own island in a way that they are not able to
live as freely as they would like and as they see the rest of our
country living," said the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding
bishop, Chicago, in an interview.  Anderson led the delegation.
     The ELCA delegation, pastors and lay leaders from Puerto Rico
also visited Camp Garcia.  "I could not believe the vast devastation
of land near the camp," said Evelyn B. Soto, ELCA director for
multilingual and culture-specific programs, Chicago.
     "Vieques is a tropical island, but it really resembles a
desert.  That ought to concern people.  Instead of seeing lush
foliage, palm trees and flowers that are typical of the tropics, I
saw sand dunes," Soto said.
     "Going to Vieques was a very powerful experience," said the
Rev. Donald J. McCoid, bishop for the ELCA Southwestern Pennsylvania
Synod, Pittsburgh.  "Being with the people of Vieques, hearing their
stories and seeing their land brought into context the cause of what
the concerns have been about the bombing, the damage to the land and
the medical fears," he said.
     "There is concern for the future.  We [need to] look for ways
to reclaim the land, not just by cleaning it up, but to help provide
a better life for people," McCoid said.
     In 1999 the ELCA Churchwide Assembly adopted a resolution that
called on the U.S. government "to seek reasonable solutions" that
will end all U.S. military operations on Vieques.  The resolution
asked that the land be returned to the people of the island "while
not compromising our nation's security."
     "I would like for the entire church to understand that the
position of the Caribbean Synod is to have the U.S. Navy immediately
cease their occupation and activities on Vieques," said the Rev.
Pablo Quinones, Iglesia Luterana Reconciliacion, Levittown, Puerto
Rico, in an interview.
     Quinones believes the church has added a condition to the
removal of the U.S. Navy by inserting "without compromising our
nation's security" into the text of the churchwide resolution.  He
said clergy and lay leaders of the ELCA Caribbean Synod will work to
develop a new resolution for consideration by the 2001 ELCA
Churchwide Assembly this summer that will illustrate "advocacy for
the people of Vieques" and reflect the synod's position "to have the
U.S. Navy immediately cease their occupation and activities on
Vieques" without conditions.
     The ELCA Caribbean Synod, with offices in Dorado, Puerto Rico,
is made up of 6,783 Lutherans in 26 congregations.
     "We are members of a very large church -- 5.15 million members
[in the United States and Caribbean].  Many of them know very little
about what continues to happen on Vieques," the Rev. Gregory J.
Villalon, director for ethnic leadership development, ELCA Division
for Ministry, told a group of clergy, lay leaders and others at
Iglesia Luterana Santisima Trinidad, Bayamon, Puerto Rico, on March
24.  The delegation met with the group to share their experiences
about their visit on Vieques, and to provide information about their
work.
     "The bombing on Vieques must stop and the U.S. Navy must leave
the island," Villalon said.  "The delegation will help determine ways
in which it can walk with you in the struggle."
     "We have listened carefully and uncovered facts.  But, having
been to Vieques, the information is different.  The opportunity to
meet with people there and seeing them do what we do, I stood in
awe," said the Rev. Russell O. Siler, director, Lutheran Office for
Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C.
     "I heard people [there] say, 'we do not know what tomorrow
brings.'  That spoke to me, especially from the comfort context of
where I come from.  We're not really taking about the U.S. Navy; we
are taking about the right for people to live daily life in peace,"
Siler said.
- - -
     Members of the delegation were:
     + the Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, Chicago
     + the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, bishop for the ELCA Southwestern
Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh
     + Melissa O. Ramirez, associate director for news and
information, ELCA Department for Communication, Chicago
     + the Rev. Eric C. Shafer, director, ELCA Department for
Communication, Chicago
     + the Rev. Russell O. Siler, director, Lutheran Office for
Governmental Affairs, Washington, D.C.
     + the Rev. Francisco L. Sosa, bishop for the ELCA Caribbean
Synod, Dorado, Puerto Rico
     + Evelyn B. Soto, director for multilingual and culture-
specific programs, ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries,
Chicago
     + the Rev. Maria del Rosario Valenzuela, director for
Hispanic/Latino ministries, ELCA Commission for Multicultural
Ministries, Chicago
     + the Rev. Gregory J. Villalon, director for ethnic leadership
development, ELCA Division for Ministry
     The Rev. Jerry Cruz, Iglesia Luterana Principe de Paz, Caguas,
Puerto Rico; the Rev. Mario C. Miranda, Iglesia Luterana Betania, Rio
Piedras, Puerto Rico, and member of the ELCA Church Council; the Rev.
Ricardo E. Rivera, Iglesia Luterana Nuestro Salvador, Guaynabo,
Puerto Rico, and others accompanied the delegation.

     Photos from the ELCA delegation's visit to Vieques are
at http://www.elca.org/co/news/images.vieques.html on the ELCA's Web
site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html