By Laura van Veenendaal
Daily Bruin Contributor
A protest against the U.S. military presence on the Puerto Rican
island of Vieques on Tuesday ended almost cheerfully as people sang
and danced while showing their dissatisfaction with the situation
on the island.
The demonstration, held in front of the Federal Building on
Wilshire Boulevard, drew about 65 people who wanted to show their
concern for the current situation on Vieques.
“We are here to show our support for the people of
Vieques,” said Ernesto Vigoreaux, president of the Puerto
Rican Alliance and one of the organizers of the demonstration.
“The people of Vieques have a right to demand justice for
what’s been going on.”
According to the demonstrators, the presence of the U.S. Navy on
Vieques has several negative consequences for the civilian
inhabitants of the island.
“Vieques has the highest cancer rates of Puerto
Rico,” Vigoreaux said. “A civilian has been killed last
year and that was the straw that broke the camel’s
back.”
The protesters were also concerned about displacement of the
people living on Vieques and the high unemployment rates on the
island. Demonstrators held up signs calling for “Justice, not
U.S. bases” and “U.S.: hands off Vieques, enough is
enough”
David Stockwell, spokesman for the National Security Council,
said the American government realizes that there are health and
environmental concerns with the presence of the Navy on the island
of Vieques. He added, however, that the island is too important for
training to remove the military bases from it.
“The uniqueness of the characteristics of the island make
Vieques an important training site,” Stockwell said.
“There is a beach where amphibious assaults can be practiced;
there is deep water around the island and it is away from shipping
lanes.”
But demonstrators said it isn’t essential for the Navy to
be on the island, and many said that the Navy dropping bombs on the
island is unacceptable.
“They need to get out,” Santiago Almeida said at the
protest. “Why don’t they use Catalina
Island?”
The bombs dropped on Vieques used to be real explosives,
Stockwell said, but after an agreement with the Puerto Rican
government in January about the U.S. presence on the island the
Navy started to use inert bombs.
“We are not using actual live ordnance anymore,”
Stockwell said.
Some of the demonstrators said the bombing of Vieques can never
be called practice, but it is an act of aggression against
civilians.
“There is no such thing as practice with bombs,”
said Preston Wood, a member of the International Action Center and
one of the protesters. “This is warfare.”
An important reason for organizing Tuesday’s protest was
the removal of 200 protesters from a civil disobedience camp on
grounds of the U.S. Navy on May 4, Vigoreaux said.
“Those people were just peacefully protesting,”
Vigoreaux added. “How much more abuse do we have to
take?”
Stockwell said the presence of people in the civil disobedience
camp did not influence the American government’s position on
the presence of the Navy on Vieques.
“The trespassers did not cause the government to change
the agreement with the Puerto Rican government,” said
Stockwell. “They had to be removed because they were breaking
federal law.”
The protest was viewed sympathetically by many people passing by
the Federal building Tuesday afternoon, even if they were not
prepared to partake in the protest.
“This protest is a good thing,” said Andy Toscano,
who stopped to look at the protest. “I sympathize with their
cause.”