From: donq@acs.bu.edu (Jose Otero)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: La marina de EEUU en Puerto Rico
Date: 11 Dec 92 19:36:33 GMT
Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Originator: donq@acs.bu.edu




Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

VIEQUES: WE DON'T DROP NAPALM & BESIDES IT'S SAFE

Translated and edited by Toby Mailman
from El Diario/La Prensa 12/8/92

"El Diario/La Prensa" is a Spanish-language newspaper
published in New York City.


NAVY NAPALMING PUERTO RICAN ISLAND
bylines Edgardo Martinez, Esteban Creste

The November 19 issued of "The Navigator," a magazine published by
the Navy, revealed that, for the first time in ten years, practice
maneuvers on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques include dropping
napalm bombs. Napalm is made of a gelatinous phosphorous substance
which adheres to human skin and burns everything it comes in
contact with. It was used heavily in Vietnam.

Intruder jets have dropped 20 tons of live bombs in the last two
weeks. Navy spokesman Col. Harris Spies said Vieques was used as a
proving ground to save money, saying what takes two weeks in
Vieques would take two months in California. Although the Navy
claims it is bombing in a controlled area, historian Robert Rabin
said the Navy has caused great environmental damage and it does
not concern itself with the well being of the island's 8,000
residents. Rabin said, "They started intensifying the bombing a
year ago," and that there was no reason for such maneuvers now
that the cold war is over. He added that in October and November
the Navy carried out the bombing twice a day, and that it has
backed out of an agreement signed in 1983 to provide employment
and protect the environment. The few projects the Navy initiated
employed few people and only for about one year. There are
currently only 100 Puerto Ricans working on the base.

In the face of complaints registered by representatives of the
people living on the island, Marine spokesperson Stacey Byington
said that the use of napalm was not uncommon, and that he had not
heard any complaints. He added that if complaints existed they
were being directed at the wrong people.

Roosevelt Marine Base, which was established on Vieques in the
early 1940s, takes up three-quarters of the island and has long
been a sore point between the US and Puerto Rico. Congressman
Jose Serrano and former Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer
said they are asking the US government to stop the used of napalm
in Navy maneuvers. Serrano added that after decades of using the
island as a practice area for maneuvers, it was time the navy
"stopped bothering the people of Vieques." Ferrer said the use of
the island as a naval base was "horrible," adding that "if it is
true that they're using napalm, then the situation is much worse
than we imagined." The use of napalm has been confirmed by
appropriate sources. (edlp 12/08) [See also the following story]

                               -30-

from El Diario/La Prensa 12/9/92

NAVY DENIES DANGER TO PUERTO RICAN ISLAND FROM NAPALM BOMBS
byline Claudio Alvarez Nunez and Edgardo Martinez

Referring to reports that the US Navy is dropping napalm bombs in
"test areas" on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico, Stacey
Byington of the Roosevelt Roads naval base in Ceiba, near San
Juan, was quoted as saying, "This is no big story; no one called
us to corroborate the news before putting it on the wire service
totally out of context, which was totally irresponsible." Byington
claims that the bombs are being dropped under "totally controlled
circumstances" where "the nearest house is ten miles away."
Byington said there were no "fireballs" or anything which appeared
like the napalm bombs seen in movies of the Vietnam war, and that
the bombing was simply "precision practice."

However, in an interview with "el diario/La Prensa" for an article
in the Dec. 8 issue, Byington never denied that the bombs
contained napalm, and said that the substance, made of gelatinous
phosphorous which sticks to the skin and burns anything it
touches, was "an authorized weapon which is used in other practice
areas." He added that reporters from the EFE wire service, which
originally released the story, hadn't verified their information,
and that it was "sad" that people believed it. He claimed that
what was written was not what had actually happened. However,
because of the situation created among high-level officials,
Byington added, testing on the island would probably stop.

Meanwhile, residents of Vieques have been feeling strong earth
tremors during the last week. The US Navy has no official
information on this question. Carmelo Belargo, former mayoral
candidate for Vieques from the Puerto Rican Independence Party
(PIP), said the tremors had been intensifying. He said "we've felt
intense bombing during the last few nights and two nights ago
(Dec. 7) we felt the earth move and there still has been no
official explanation for it." Regarding the question of napalm in
the bombs dropped by the Navy, Belargo said, "they hide the
evidence. Their policy is not to confirm or deny anything and to
let things be forgotten and then to reactivate their practice."

Congressman Jose Serrano has written a letter to President-elect
Clinton in regard to the use of napalm in the Navy's exercises in
Vieques, asking for an exhaustive investigation of the entire
matter. (edlp 12/09)


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