Report from the trenches 13 de septiembre de 2000
Peace and Justice Camp, at the entrance to the Navy base in Vieques, Camp García
The Vieques struggle has entered a critical period with the elections, hurricane season, a strong offensive by the Special Operations South unit of the Southern Command (specialists in Psychological Warfare and Public Opinion manipulation) and preparations for military maneuvers in October.
The people and the grassroots organizations in particular, the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) use the popular creativity and our spirit of struggle to deal with the challenges of this moment to maintain the offesive that the Puerto Rican community has kept up against the military presence here.
On August 25th, we received here at Peace and Justice Camp (PJC), Ruben Berríos, President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. We received him warmly and with great respect for his valuable contribution to the struggle during the entire year spent a the camp he set up in the bombing area. We shared our concerns and aspirations for a Free Vieques with the gubernatorial candidate.
During the same week the Claridad (newspaper) Festival was held, this year dedicated to the struggle for Peace on Vieques. Representatives from the community organizations of Vieques participated in the Vieques Women´s Alliance, churches, CRDV and the civil disobedience camps were recognized for their great efforts that kept the Navy from bombing during the entire year.
On the 27th of August, the group "Artists for Peace" under the direction of Puerto Rican painter, Rafi Trelles, entered into the Navy´s restricted zone in defense of Vieques' landscape. They were arrested while other artists participated in a special theatrical protest at the PJC, at the entrance to the navy base. We are deeply greatful for this action of valor and great sensibility toward the Island of Vieques, our people, for Puerto Rico and for peace in the world.
Members of the grass roots organizations here participate in a constant stream of presentations and conferences on radio, TV, on the main island of Puerto Rico and elsewhere. In the coming weeks we continue this proces as our people travel to Michigan, New York, San Diego, Philadelphia, England and Okinawa and to many points of the Puerto Rican archipelago.
We work with Dr. Luis Nieves Falcón in the planning of an International Tribunal on Human Rights in Puerto Rico and Vieques to be held in Vieques in November. Also with the help of Nieves Falcón, we began last week a series of visits to Vieques by ex PR political prisioners. Luis Rosa conversed with members of the PJC and with students in our schools last week. We will soon receive sisters Lucy and Alicia Rodríguez.
Legal work by the Robert Kennedy, Jr. team continues. A motion will soon be announced to block military maneuvers scheduled for October.
Last week we also received an international delegation of union leaders participating in an electrical workers union (UTIER) congress in Puerto Rico. Delegates from France, Perú, Cuba, Spain spoke here with Dr. Rafael Rivera Castaño (CRDV) about the extremely high cancer rate and military contamination. They also visited the PJC where they met with Nilda Medina and other member of the Camp.
The CRDV works actively on the prepations for the October 1st actions. We also work with several organizations here and on the main island planning actions designed to block maneuvers during the rest of October.
Last Saturday, during the vigil celebrated every week for a year and a half at Camp Peace and Justice, we presented on a big screen the new documentary of the 4 May arrests prepared by Johana Bermúdez. The Vieques music group (plena), Vieques Libre, kept us in high spirits during the militant piquetting in front of the Navy base entrance.
On 6 September, Flavio Cumpiano, Esq., CRDV representative in Washington, D.C., was named "Colegiado del Año" (member of the year) by the PR Bar Association, in honor of his great efforts for Peace in Vieques. This was the first time a lawyer practicing outside of PR was given the distinction. Flavio has organized an impressive list of pro Vieques actions in the Federal Capital and works constantly organizing, investigating and spreading the word on the Vieques issue. CONGRATULATIONS, FLAVIO!
Legal proceses continue against participants in actions of civil disobedience. We must be alert, in solidarity and ready to act in support of these compañeros-as. We also send a strong embrace of solidarity to the PIP members in federal prison for their pro Vieques actions.
4 September, 2000
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Press Release of the Vieques Organizing Committee of the 1st of October National Front
March and Demonstration in Support of Civil Disobedience
The Puerto Rican community of Vieques, through its organizations, convokes all Puerto Ricans to join in a massive mobilization in support of peacefull civil disobedience here. The related actions will take place principally on Vieques on the 1st of October, with a huge march and demonstration of unity in support of the campaign of peacefull civil disobedience that we have conducted successfully for more than a year. Simultaneously, important civil disobedience actions will take place in Vieques and on the main island of Puerto Rico. The march-demo will begin at 11AM on the first, leaving Barrio Esperanza, on the South coast of Vieques, moving in several directions.
This project brings together an ample unitary front, representing the diverse Viequense organizations that have sustained the struggle of our people to get the US Navy out of Vieques. Among these groups are Yayi Key Collective, Mount David, Mount Carmelo, Peace and Justice Camp, Vieques Women´s Alliance, Vieques Youth United, Horsemen for Peace, Mapepe Camp, Popular Democratic Party (Vieques), PR Independence Party (Vieques), Catholic and Methodist churches of Vieques, Vieques South Coast Fishermen´s Asoc., Vieques North Coast Fishermen´s Asoc., Vieques Merchants, The Voice of Vieques Newspaper, Lula Tirado Camp, Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, and others that will join the march. The wide array of Viequense organizations and the massive participation in the march will counteract the Navy lies ? and those of its few supporters ? that we the Viequenses are not the protagonists of our struggle. After the first of October it will be clearly confirmed that the Viequense people are in the first line of the battle to end the genocidal presence of the US Navy on our island.
At the same time, we support the National Day in Solidarity with the People of Vieques to be held in Washington, DC on the 22nd of September in front of the White House, beginning at midday. This event will constitute a powerful example of how our struggle and demands go beyond the borders of Puerto Rico.
The mobilization for the October 1st activity will be organized by brigades, each one with the name of a Viequense killed as a result of many years of the criminal military presence on our island. The brigades will begin to move on the 27th of September and will carry out diverse activities, product of the creativity of this struggle. The actions previous to the first of October are designed to reinforce and amplify the impact of the great march and demonstration, in which more than a thousand Viequenses and an equal number of Puerto Ricans from the main island will participate.
The brothers and sisters moving to Vieques on the 27th will be received in Vieques and moved to a series of camps set up for this action. At 8:00 in the morning on 1 October, a shining national fleet composed of dozens of boats with Puerto Rican and Vieques flags will leave the East coast of Puerto Rico. The fleet will transport hundreds of people to the town of Esperanza on the South coast of Vieques, who will join thousands of peace brigade members to begin the actions.
This great march and demonstration on October 1, 2000, will go down in the history of our people, together with the 4th of May, as one of the events that marked the history of our liberation from the Navy. Join this great offesive for Peace. Vieques will be free. !US Navy out of Vieques!
Contact: Nilda Medina Díaz, CRDV 787 741-0716
Robert L. Rabin Siegal
Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques
Apartado 1424 Vieques, PR 00765
(787) 741-0716 cel. 375-0525
¡FUERA LA MARINA DE VIEQUES!
PRESS RELEASE
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I BELIEVE AND CREATE IN VIEQUES: ARTISTS FOR PEACE ENTER THE US NAVY RESTRICTED ZONE IN VIEQUES
Vieques, Puerto Rico. Today, August 28, 2000, a group of graphic artists and actors entered the restricted zone of the US Navy on Vieques. The artists performed a theatrical-pictoral play titled: I BELIEVE IN VIEQUES. They proclaimed the fundamental importance of the landscape, which for sixty years the US Navy has been destroying with their war practices. This distruction has caused grave damages, not only to the landscape but also to the mental, physical and spiritual health of the people of Vieques.
The artists painted a spectacular human mural in which they portrayed the landscape of the Isla Nena (Baby Island-Vieques) that proclaimed, "from the esthetic point of view the landscape has been, and will be a vital source of inspiration of artistic creation." The artists and actors formed two groups: one that entered the restricted area in a civil disobedience act, and another group providing support on the outside. The support group, besides presenting a mural similar to the Vieques landscape, showed another mural that was an adaptaption of the world famous painting by Picaso, GUERNICA, to dramatize the serious situation of the Navy presence on Vieques.
The artists that fooled the military security and entered the restricted zone this morning at dawn were: Rafael Trelles, Luis Alonso, Paloma Todd, Marta Pérez García, Elías Adasme and Gustavo Castrodad; and the actors Carlos Esteban Fonseca, Cristina Soler and Antonio Sotomayor. The support group was composed of the actors and actresses Magaly Carrasquillo, Georgina Borri, Maritza Pérez Otero, Rosabel Otón, Teresa Hernández, Puchi Platón, Ineabelle Colón, Yamil Collazo, Vilma Martínez, Pepín Lugo and Carlo D?Atili; painter Taí Fernández, producer Pedro Muñiz and communications expert Zaida Castro Meaux. Also Myrna Pagán and Juan Silva, Viequense artists, joined the group.
From the main island, master artists Rafael Tufiño, Antonio Martorell, Antonio Maldonado, Augusto Marín, Lorenzo Homar, Myrna Báez and Luis Hernández Cruz, among others, expressed their solidarity with the artists' proclamation.
The artists had the logistic support of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and Peace and Justice Camp of Vieques. The Viequenses recognized the importante of this action in support of Peace for Vieques and the demands for demilitarization, decontamination, return of the lands and sustainable economic development of a Free Vieques.
This act in support of the struggle of the people of Vieques and their right to peace, health and their esthetic well being, took place the day the Navy announced the resumption of military exercises.
Contacts: Maritza Perez Otero y Zaida Castro Meaux 741-0716, 741-0358
The rest of August has been archived.
You may access those postings by clicking on the "folder" below:
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Folks, I found a great new resource. For more in-depth coverage of Vieques (by the Methodists, yet!) click on the marvelous photo they thoughtfully provided:
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