1924
U. S. Navy launches its first military
maneuvers in Vieques and Culebra.
1941 On August, the US Navy
begins the expropriation of 26,000 of the 33,000 acres of the island of
Vieques.
1943 Work
for civilians in the construction of the base ends. Demonstrations in Vieques
due to the lack of work on the island.
1953
On April 4th, two Marines beat an old
man, Mapepe Christian, to death.
1959
On February 8th, US Soldiers severely
injured 19 people at a birthday party.
1961 The
Pentagon proposes to relocate the people of Vieques to turn the island over to
the armed forces. This plan even included the removal of the corpses in the
municipal cemetery. This proposal was not carried out.
1964 The
US Navy tries to take over the whole southern coast of Vieques, including the
vicinities of Esperanza and Puerto Real. The people of Vieques organize a
militant campaign to halt the process.
1970-3 Anti-military
movement erupts on neighboring Puerto Rican Island of Culebra, culminating in
the eviction of the US Navy from Culebra and the transfer of bombing.
Intensification of maneuvers in Vieques.
1977 Local
leaders of the four political parties oppose unanimously the aviation easement
proposed by the Navy.
1978 On
February 6th, Vieques fishermen protest the use of live ammunitions in their
fishing waters by taking over the waters where target practice was about to begin.
They were successful in stoping the maneuvers and awakening the support of the
entire Puerto Rican nation.
1979 21
people arrested by military police during an ecumenical mass in a protest held
at a beach in the military zone. One of them, Angel Rodríguez Cristóbal, was
found dead in his Tallahassee jail cell. His death was never cleared.
1983 The
Puerto Rican government and the Navy sign a Memorandum of Understanding in
which the Navy promises to be a good neighbor and lessen environmental destruction
of the island.
1989
Organized land recovery of 800 acres
of military land in Monte Carmelo.
1992
Navy jets dropped 40,000 pounds of
live explosives on Vieques, including live Napalm.
1993 A
US airplane fighter misses its target dropping 5,500-pound bombs one mille away
from civilians.
1994 Navy
proposes the installation of a ROTHR radar on Vieques, part of which would be
located on the western part of the island.
1996 Several
bombs dropped near a group of fishermen in the southern coast. One of the
fishermen, René Hernández, was hospitalized with serious injures.
1997 Five
hundred people rally in Vieques against ROTHR installation, the largest
anti-military demonstration in twenty years. Fishermen confront warships on
Mother’s Day.
1999 On
February 19, the US Navy reports that 263 bullets containing depleted uranium
were fired by accident on the eastern part of the island.
On April 19, two F-18 airplanes drop two
500 pound bombs outside their target area, killing David Sanes, a Vieques
civilian, and injuring four others.
On April 21, a group of 15 boats visit the
bombing site, named Mount David, and place a large cross in memory of David
Sanes. Afterwards, several camps of civil disobedience are enclaved inside the
US Navy zone, including Mount David, Cayo Yayí, Partido Independentista
Puertorriqueño, Congreso Nacional Hostosiano and Central Puertorriqueña de
Trabajadores.
June
9 President Clinton orders Defense
Secretary William Cohen to "establish a panel to review the need for
operations at Vieques and to explore alternative sites or methods that would
meet the Department's needs. "
July
4 Around 50,000 march to Roosevelt Roads
Base in Ceiba to demand that the US Navy leaves Vieques.
July
6 The United Nations Decolonization
Committee encourages the government of the United States, in accordance with
the need to guarantee the Puerto Rican people their legitimate right to
self-determination and the protection of their human rights, to order the halt
of its armed forces military drills and maneuvers on Vieques.
Population: 9,311 (1997)
Population living below the
poverty level: 72%
Death rate: 10.8
deaths/1,000 population (1997). Vieques is the municipality with the highest
death rate of all Puerto Rico.
Incidence of Cancer: Studies carried out by the Puerto Rico
Health Department have shown that from 1985 to 1989 the cancer rate of the
population of Vieques rose 26 percent over the reate for the population living
on the main island.
“There are places in the world, on
American soil, where one cannot do certain things because there are animals,
flora and fauna. Nonetheless we are people and no one takes us into account. We
are species in danger of extinction. We, the people of Vieques, are in danger
of extinction. And nobody hears us. ”
Radamés Tirado
Former Mayor of Vieques
“We went out to fish. I was
arrested. Why? For looking for bread for my children. And it was with pride
that I stood before a federal judge with my hands bound and my head held high.
Because I had not committed any crime. To the contrary, there was prejudice
against me because I was not permitted to look for bread for my children in my
own land, in my own nation. ”
Santiago Meléndez
Vieques Fisherman
“We have no petrochemical plants or
pharmaceuticals or any other such industry; the only culprit of the high
incidence of cancer is the US military. At the Atlantic Fleet weapons Training Area,
the US Navy tests bombs. This area is the most devastated; if you walk through
there, you’ll see bombs, craters, shrapnel and destruction everywhere. The area
smells of chemicals. ”
Ismael Guadalupe
Member of the Committee for the
Rescue and Development of Vieques
“I urge our government to stop the violence, the bombing. Now is the
time to put commitment to demilitarizing Vieques. . . . Give the land back to
the people. ”
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Rainbow Coalition
“We declare that the Navy is an usurping entity of our territory, whose
presence and activities violate the natural right of the people of Vieques to
enjoy our natural resources and the right to peace. If the Navy does not
respond to the demands of our people, we declare the intention of all the
people of Vieques and of millions of Puerto Ricans in solidarity throughout the
Puerto Rican Archipelago and in the United States, to participate in, and
support, the acts we carry out inside the territories restricted by the US
military forces in Vieques. We hold the US government responsible for any harm
or injury against any Puerto Rican who exercises his or her right to defend our
land. Furthermore, we declare that repression or arrests will not weaken the
determination of the Puerto Rican-Viequense people to rescue from the US Navy
the territorial patrimony that belongs by historical and natural right to the
people of Vieques. ”
Declaration of
Ultimatum of the People of Vieques
“Enough
is enough. We cannot accept any more of the abuse that is being put upon the
people of Vieques. ”
Pedro Rosselló
Governor of Puerto
Rico
“The findings of the Dellums Panel [of the House
Armed Services Committee] 20 years ago have turned out to be tragically
prophetic.To the detriment of thousands of Viequenses, the past two decades
have proven to be not only a continuation of the deplorable situation described
by the Dellums Panel, but indeed a deterioration of that situation. Consider
Vice Admiral William Fallon's reply, "I deal with facts, not with sentiments",
when recently confronted with the concerns of the people of Vieques. That
telling remark not only reflected the Navy's insensitivity, but also its
willful blindness towards the reality that the high cancer rate in Vieques, the
ecological and environmental damage caused by the Navy, the callous disregard
for the welfare and well-being of Viequenses, the illegal use of napalm and
depleted uranium on Vieques, among others, are indisputable facts that Fallon
and the Navy should be forced to "deal with". How? By getting out of
Vieques now.”
Flavio Cumpiano
Washington Representative
for the Committee for the
Rescue and Development of
Vieques