 |
|
|
War Games Are Deadly in Vieques |
|
By Linda Dorow*
Contaminated soil, the thunder of bombs dropped during U.S. military exercises and the specter of cancer disturb the dreams of the 9,400 people on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico - The United States navy will continue bombardment at its base on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques at least until the end of September, despite the complaints of most of the 9,400 residents who have been suffering the effects of the military exercises for the last 60 years.
The latest round of bombing practice began Sep 3, while Washington intensified its rhetoric of war against Iraq.
Three-quarters of the 65-square-km territory of Vieques, located just east of the main island of Puerto Rico (a free associate state of the United States), were progressively expropriated by the U.S. military since 1942 to use for bombardment and target practice.
"I have five grandchildren and they and the rest of the family have heavy metal contamination of the blood. The U.S. navy is cultivating death here," says Myrna Pagan, a Vieques artist who survived uterine cancer that she blames on the heavy metals used in the artillery.
"The contamination from these metals (such as lead and mercury) here is rampant," Pagan, also an activist with the Committee for the Recovery and Development of Vieques, told Tierramérica.
Even if the military exercises were halted immediately, the health and environmental problems would continue for many years, say experts and activists alike.
On the few hectares of land that the U.S. military has returned to the people of Vieques, "there are places so contaminated that we can't dig wells less than 2,500 meters deep. It is also prohibited to build schools or daycare centers there, and those are the restrictions imposed by the navy itself in the handover agreement," said the municipality's legal advisor, Arnoldo Báez Genoval.
But he pointed out that the agreement stipulates that the remaining territory ultimately will not be returned to the people of Vieques but handed over to the U.S. Department of Interior. "We are going to continue our fight," he pledges.
The thunder of bombs -- often day and night -- for as many as 200 days a year causes buildings to shake, leaving cracks in walls and ceilings.
Epidemiologist Rafael Rivera Castaño, a former Vieques resident, told Tierramérica that the incidence of respiratory illnesses and cancer is much higher on the island than on the main island of Puerto Rico.
Studies are under way to determine exactly how prevalent such diseases are, but there are indications that the cancer rate on Vieques is 27 percent higher than on the main island.
After 60 years of war games, which have often involved live artillery, most of the ground is contaminated with heavy metals and the prevailing winds carry the soil and dust from the navy base to the populated areas, say activists.
Pagan points out that three of her grandchildren live in a house in which the windows are continuously covered with contaminated dirt, "and all three have problems with asthma."
Many people throughout Puerto Rico hold out hopes that the round of military exercises this month will be the last, including the Governor of Puerto Rico, Sila Calderón, who expressed her desire that the bombing would "cease forever".
U.S. President George W. Bush pledged in mid-2001 to withdraw forces from the Vieques base, known as Camp García, by May 1, 2003. But that now seems unlikely to happen, given the winds of war blowing in Washington.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Sep 16 that the plan is to continue using the bombing range on the island. "Vieques is an important location for us and we intend to continue operating there," he said.
However, the exercises are obsolete and have not been used in war "since (Gen. Douglas) MacArthur was in Korea" in the 1950s, says U.S. activist Robert Schwartz, a former marine captain and co-founder of the organization Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (ECAAR).
During a visit to Vieques in August, Schwartz said he doubted that Camp García would be dismantled next year. "It is one of the biggest navy bases, and leaving would be a defeat to the power the navy believes it has," he said.
Before war games became a primary activity on Vieques, agriculture was important, with five sugarmills operating as well as plantations of tobacco, cacao, pineapple and other fruits. "After the navy arrived, all farming disappeared," legal advisor Báez Genoval told Tierramérica.
"Because we all fear that the soil is contaminated, through a project promoted by Vieques mayor Dámaso Serrano López, we have begun hydroponic cultivation. We are growing lettuce, spinach and other vegetables in water," he said.
Meanwhile, Antonio Fas Alzamora, president of the Puerto Rican Senate, has said repeatedly, "if they don't clean up the area used in the bombings, it will be as if they haven't returned it."
The war games have also claimed victims directly. The most recent were the three crewmembers aboard a Vieques-based military aircraft that crashed into the surrounding Caribbean Sea on Sep 10.
The anti-navy activists report that dozens of people have been killed in the last 60 years by stray bullets and other projectiles from the military exercises.
The death emblematic of their protests is that of David Sanes Rodríguez, a civilian who worked as a private security guard at one of Camp García's look-out posts. He was killed by an errant bomb during the war games on Apr 19, 1999.
In a referendum held last year, 68 percent of the electorate on Vieques voted for the immediate demilitarization of the island. Those in favor of the navy remaining are people who benefit -- through jobs or business -- from the existence of the base, say political observers.
Outside the main entrance to Camp García, there are signs and murals of protest against the presence of the U.S. military that alternate with white wooden crosses bearing the names of the dead.
"In memory of the people of Vieques who have been victims of military accidents and environmental contamination," reads a sign posted behind the crosses.
* Linda Dorow is an IPS correspondent.
|
