From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: La marina de EEUU en Puerto Rico
Date: 17 Dec 92 06:50:17 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

>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.

Sure, and they forgot to mention it is a yellow press exemplar.

>NAVY NAPALMING PUERTO RICAN ISLAND
>bylines Edgardo Martinez, Esteban Creste
[..]

>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. 


Well every time they hold heavily attended municpal elections, the pro-navy 
candidate has always won.  

>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. 

Yeah, but swords have not been turned into plowshares yet, and incidents like 
the invasion of Kuwait are expected to happen again.

>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.
Again this is a matter for the people of Vieques to decide, not communist 
outsiders.

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. 

They have never been a sore point at all.  Puerto Ricans are proud of having 
the Roosevelt Roads complex on the island and benefit greatly from its 
presence.  I have even bathed in the pristine white sand beaches under navy 
supervision and they are in very good hands.

>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. 

Again, here come the politically motivated outsiders telling the people 
Viequenk.  Mr. Serrano represents the Bronx, a 
district which is a more than a thousand miles away, and now he wants to shove 
his
perspective down peoples throats.  In fact he is overstepping into the 
district of Democratic Carlos Romero Barcelo, who has always supported the Navy 
presence on the island.  Perhaps Mr. Serrano want to profit politically from 
this "cause".

>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." 

The only ones doing the bothering are the outsiders.  The people of Vieques 
are perfectly happy with the Navy's precence.  In fact, they are worried that 
some nut or opportunist might want to close the base for budgetary reasons.  
This base has had an important role in the stagin of mock landings by the 
marines and national guard units and should be preserved as such.  The "damage" 
only occurrs in a small portion of the island and the rest is kept pristine for 
public use.  I invite anybody on this net to take a trip to Puerto Rico, jump 
aboarda a plane (Vieques Air Linkul island and 
see for yourself.  The "struggle" of Vieques occured after some fisherment were 
having problems with fishing during naval practices.  The Navy settled the 
conflict and normality returned to the shores of the island.  Howver a few hard 
line communists (as well as some mainland terrorist) decided to take the cause 
of the fishermen as their own and "liberate" Vieques.  Since then, the issue 
has been one of external agitators who have no support amongs the people of 
Vieques. 



>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."

Well this is a perfectly acceptable explanation which show how alarmists and 
histerical these doves get at times.

>He added that reporters from the EFE wire service, which
>originally released the story, hadn't verifiet 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.

Perhaps it should for the moment, while the hot air of the outsiders calms 
down.

>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. 

This is the equivalent of the Peace and Freedom Party in Puerto Rico which 
only obtains 3% of the vote and then claims to represent everybody.  I guess 
these folks will even go on to blame solar eclipses on the Navy, so who knows 
what next we will hear from them.

>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 exhaustivatter. 

I think Congressman Serrano is a wonderful representative of for the Puerto 
Ricans of the Brox district but I think he's stepping out of bounds on this 
issue and should see for himself what the people of Vieques (and Puerto Rico) 
think on this matter before he shoots the gun.

Edelmiro