Protest camps grow on Vieques
By PAUL JEFFREY
Special to the National Catholic Reporter Vieques
Island, Puerto Rico
Serving the new parish on Vieques is
much like working in any other parish for Fr. Juan Luis Negrón. He gets
up in the morning, sweeps out the parsonage, reads a bit, eats breakfast with
some nuns, and then watches the neighborhood arrive for Mass. As the
celebration finishes, the one big difference becomes evident -- the closing
hymn is drowned out by the noise of a U.S. Navy helicopter that hovers low
overhead videotaping the scene.
Thats church life today on the Puerto Rican island of
Vieques, for almost six decades a playground for Navy and Marine pilots
practicing the bombing runs they would carry out elsewhere in the world. Today,
however, the bombing range is filled not with the sounds of war, but with the
sounds of people singing and hammers pounding. A protest camp is becoming a
small, bustling town, and the church is in the middle of it.
Shortly after a wayward bomb killed a civilian security guard last
April, Puerto Ricans from all over the U.S. colony came to the bombing range
and set up resistance encampments, determined to use their physical
presence to prevent the renewal of bombing. The Navy refrained from removing
them from the off-limits zone, perhaps believing that with time that they would
tire and go away. Yet the number of people risking arrest by trespassing on
Navy territory has grown steadily.
Option for peace
By late February, 14 distinct civil disobedience camps had been
set up, including a Protestant camp established in November, and a camp built
in February sponsored by the Catholic diocese of Caguas, Puerto Rico.
I came here as part of my commitment as a man of
faith, said Negrón, rector of the Catholic seminary in Caguas.
We in the diocese have made an option for peace in Vieques, and we have
to act out that option in concrete forms. So weve come here to work for
peace, and to defend life, both the life of the environment and of the human
beings who are threatened here.
Negrón said he wasnt worried about trespassing on the
Navy bombing range. When there is an unjust law that violates the laws of
the reign of God, then we Christians can disobey that law, Negrón
said.
The Catholic camp includes several tents, including one sporting a
sign reading Parsonage. A two-room wooden structure contains the
kitchen and storage area. The complex is staffed round the clock by volunteers
chosen and trained by the Caguas diocese, whose bishop, Alvaro Corrada del
Río, has become a leading proponent of civil disobedience. The island of
Vieques is part of the Caguas diocese.
According to Feliciano Rodriguez, a priest in Caguas who
coordinates the Catholic presence, participants are given at least six hours of
training in nonviolence and are fully briefed on relevant church teachings.
Civil disobedience for us means discipline and training, or else it
becomes simple protest, Rodriguez said. People know were
there to pray and work for peace.
To date the diocese has received requests to participate from over
300 people, but has accepted only a third of those. According to Sr. Lavinia
Ortiz, of the Carmelites of Vedruna, who train lay people in biblical studies
for the diocese of Caguas, anyone with a background in political parties is
automatically disqualified from participating in the church camp. We want
people who are peaceful and not conflictive, she told NCR.
Ortiz, who took her turn at civil disobedience in mid-February,
said the presence of so many protesters on the bombing range, especially from
the church, had given the people of Vieques a space to breathe. They feel
understood and supported. As a result, they feel more interior peace in the
middle of so much struggle. When you feel accompanied, although you have many
problems, you experience new strength and peace.
Both Corrada del Río and Archbishop Roberto González
of San Juan, Puerto Rico, have visited the restricted zone, lending their
support to the protest.
Should arrests occur, both will try to make their way to the camps
to join the ranks of those taken to jail. Protestant leaders will be doing the
same. Puerto Rican Methodists have a plan to fly Bishop Juan Vera onto Vieques
should the Navy block sea transit.
Such commitment by church leaders is helping to turn the tide
against the Navy. Ismael Guadalupe, president of the Committee for the Rescue
and Development of Vieques, claimed that the participation of new sectors
of the population, especially the churches, has allowed us to break down the
wall of lies. Now the people are hearing what weve been saying for a long
time, and realizing its true, no matter how many times they called us
communists or crazy people. Sooner or later the truth has to triumph, and today
on Vieques the truth is winning.
According to Robert Rabin, director of a museum housed in an old
Spanish fort on Vieques, The participation of the churches in this
struggle has been fundamental in making clear that this is not just a political
issue, but rather a violation of human rights, an abuse of the people and
environment of Vieques by the Navy.
Rabin said that islanders have for years received important
manifestations of solidarity from church organizations in Puerto Rico, the
United States and elsewhere. We have a drawerful of resolutions from different
ecumenical and religious organizations, dating from the 70s until now.
But this is a very different moment. Its no longer just resolutions, but
people from the churches coming to Vieques willing to work at ground level, to
stay in the resistance camps.
The two church-sponsored camps on the bombing range are
right now the most important weapon that the people of Vieques have against the
military plans to resume bombing. If it had not been for those two camps being
set up, the Navy might have already come in and arrested the small number of
other people, Rabin said. Yet there are now Catholic priests and
Methodist and Baptist ministers, men and women, out there on the bombing range.
That has created a very difficult situation for the U.S. government and Navy.
Its going to be very difficult for [U.S. Attorney General] Janet Reno to
sign an order for the arrest of a bishop or archbishop.
The church leaders prominent role in the Vieques struggle
became evident in the first weeks of the new millennium when they had a public
showdown with Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rosselló. The governor, who last
year promised that not one more bomb would fall on Vieques, changed
his mind at the beginning of the year and agreed to a Clinton administration
proposal that would allow renewed bombing on Vieques this year. Under the plan,
residents of the island would be offered a plebiscite next year in which they
could choose between indefinite continued bombing or limiting further bombing
to three years. Church leaders were upset by the absence of an option that
would cancel all further bombing, and because the referendum wouldnt be
held until months after the Navy was allowed to resume bombing.
When religious leaders announced a march for Puerto Ricans to
publicly reject the Clinton-Rosselló deal, the governor was furious and
called on church members to disobey their bishops and stay at home.
This is a situation where we need religious disobedience
because church leaders have stepped out of their environment, theyve
exceeded their authority and are assuming roles in our democratic society that
are designated through popular vote, Rosselló declared. None
of them have been elected by the people. Therefore, none of the faithful have
to follow their orders in affairs like this which correspond to the entire
society and not just to the church.
Undeterred by the public spat, the bishops went ahead with the
march, and more than 100,000 people took to the streets of San Juan Feb. 21,
walking in silence while waving white flags. Police Superintendent Pedro Toledo
called it the biggest public demonstration in the countrys history.
The U.S. Navy has to abandon the island, said Corrada
del Río. It was demonstrated today that the people of Vieques can
count on tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans who are not going to abandon
them.
According to Vera, the Methodist bishop, the massive turnout
sends a clear message to President Clinton that political decisions are
not written in stone and can thus be changed. We want him to reconsider his
decision and not renew bombing on Vieques, whether with live munitions or inert
bombs. We dont want one more bomb to fall on Vieques.
Meeting the day after the march, church leaders wrote President
Clinton, asking for a meeting to discuss Vieques in a conciliatory
manner.
Invitation to repentance
They also invited Gov. Rosselló to public repentance for
his position on Vieques. He will know, in his wisdom and prudence, what
he has to say, Vera said during a Feb. 23 news conference at
Gonzálezs residence.
The turnout for the march, along with the steady growth of
resistance camps on the bombing range, leaves the Navy with no apparent good
options. It could lose the battle if it drags the protesters off, inevitably
provoking a long, drawn out series of arrests as replacements flock to the
island. And some campers, Puerto Rican Vietnam veterans, say they wont go
as easily as the church-sponsored protesters.
The Navy could also lose the battle if it lets the protesters
remain. Every day the Navy doesnt bomb, the island belies the Navys
claim that the facility is essential for combat readiness. In early February,
the Navy announced it was moving exercises scheduled for March on Vieques to
the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.
Many observers believe that if bombing doesnt resume soon,
it may be delayed even more to avoid getting the issue tangled up in U.S.
electoral politics. Some speculate that resumption of bombing could cost
Hillary Clinton Puerto Rican votes in her New York race for the Senate.
While Puerto Ricans speculate about what the Navy will do, the
aggressive public witness of Corrada del Río and González has
left some of their colleagues exasperated. Although the Puerto Rican Episcopal
Conference issued a statement in early December declaring immoral
the Navys practices on Vieques and supporting civil disobedience as long
as it was nonviolent and truly a last resort in the struggle against the Navy,
the showdown with Rosselló provoked murmurs of discontent from some
other bishops.
The Permanent Commission of the Puerto Rican Episcopal Conference
issued a Feb. 13 communiqué claiming many faithful are confused
when confronted by the diverse and at times contradictory declarations
about the problem of Vieques. Released by Bishop Ulises Casiano Vargas of
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, president of the bishops conference, the
declaration said church leaders getting involved in temporal
matters should remember the statement about rendering unto Caesar what is
Caesars.
Corrada del Río expressed dismay at Casianos
statement. We lament that the entire episcopal conference was not
consulted ahead of time about this declaration, above all when it is known that
in the Catholic church, the jurisdiction over an affair of a parish corresponds
exclusively to the bishop of the place, Corrada stated.
The public role of Methodist Bishop Vera and other Protestant
leaders has also provoked protest from some conservative evangelicals. Gustavo
Filpi, president of the International Council of Independent Christian
Churches, claimed that the role of the churches is to pray, to cry out to
God for this to be resolved in peace. Thats the role of the church, not
to walk around with little white flags nor dress up politicians in church
robes.
Yet the widespread consensus around Vieques has brought even many
conservatives into the movement to end the bombing. According to Angel Luis
Gutierrez, a Baptist pastor, the church in Puerto Rico has the
responsibility of saving the U.S. Navy because it finds itself in sin. The
church has to say to the Navy what our Lord said to the woman caught in
adultery: Go away and sin no more.
National Catholic Reporter, March 10,
2000
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