Full In-depth coverage about Puerto Rico Related News Stories
· US Navy won't budge on Vieques - Boston Globe (Apr 28, 2001)
· Untimely Exercises on Vieques - NY Times (registration req'd)
· Puerto Rican Activists Get Big Boost From U.N. - The Gully Audio - U.S. Navy Calls Halt to Vieques Bombing - Pacifica (Mar 2,01)
· Renewed Efforts to Close Vieques as U.S. Navy Bombing Range - Pacifica (Feb 27, 2001)
· Puerto Rican Governor Seeks End to U.S. Military Exercises - NPR (Feb 2, 2001)
· Vieques protesters want U.S. Navy out - CNN (Apr 28, 2001)
· U.S. Navy resumes Vieques bombing - CNN (Apr 27, 2001)
· Federal agents move in on protesters - (May 4, 2000)
 
Saturday April 28 8:20 PM ET
Navy Bombing on Vieques Disrupted
By IAN JAMES, Associated Press Writer

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico (AP) - Protesters repeatedly disrupted a second day of naval exercises on the small island of Vieques by putting themselves in the line of fire Saturday.

Demonstrators claimed a partial victory in forcing a three-hour delay of the U.S. Navy (news - web sites)'s ship-to-shore shelling with inert ammunition.

Exercises also were paused for about an hour Saturday afternoon while guards detained demonstrators who had sneaked onto the firing range and other restricted areas, Navy spokesman Lt. Corey Baker said. Bombing exercises resumed when the range was cleared, he said.

Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and actor Edward James Olmos were among those detained on Navy land near the firing range after being dropped off by a speedboat earlier Saturday, Kennedy spokeswoman Wilda Rodriguez said.

Outside the range, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, and 14 others, including three Puerto Rican senators, were arrested after breaking through a fence on the edge of the military zone.

On Saturday night, protesters clapped and marched Saturday just outside the fence. ``It's not easy, but we know that we are in the right,'' said demonstrator Haydee Colon, 49. ``In the end, we will prevail.''

In all, 81 protesters were detained Saturday in or near the firing range on the island's eastern tip. More than two dozen people were still on the range, not far from where shells were falling, protest leader Robert Rabin said.

``Our people need and want to live in peace,'' said Carlos Ventura, a 39-year-old island fisherman who has been protesting against the Navy since his adolescence.

Among those captured on the firing range was pro-statehood Sen. Norma Burgos, said Navy spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon.

The Navy owns 12,000 acres on the eastern end of the inhabited island, but the firing range takes up only 900 acres of that area, much of it covered by trees where people could be hiding.

Opponents of the training, including Puerto Rican Gov. Sila Calderon, say the exercises harm the health of the island's 9,400 residents, and they cite studies suggesting unusual heart abnormalities and other problems.

The Navy insists there is no credible scientific evidence that the training is harmful to health.

The latest detentions bring to 128 the number of protest arrests since Thursday night, when people began breaching the restricted military zone to prevent the Navy exercises, the first since December. Those detained will be prosecuted for trespassing on federal property, the Navy said.

Officers also seized a 17-foot boat that broached restricted waters and refused to turn back, the Coast Guard said Saturday. One Coast Guard officer was injured when he cut his face while pursing a boat.

At least three people were injured in violent confrontations between protesters and federal authorities Friday. And on Thursday, unidentified assailants beat a U.S. Army recruiter near his office in Aguadilla on the west coast, leaving notes saying ``Vieques Yes, Navy No.'' The recruiter was not seriously injured.

There also was trouble on the main island of Puerto Rico, where a police bomb squad detonated an explosive device found Saturday at a U.S. post office in north coast Arecibo, authorities said. On the walls of the post office, someone painted one word: ``Vieques.''

In New York, which has a large Puerto Rican population, about 100 anti-Navy protesters marched peacefully Saturday outside a federal office building in Manhattan. New York Gov. George Pataki denounced the exercises.

The naval exercises began the day after a federal judge refused a last-minute request from the Puerto Rican government to block the training. The complaint argued that the bombing exercises would harm islanders and violate a new local law on noise pollution.

On Friday, the Navy announced it would suspend exercises for one day Sunday to honor the beatification in Rome of Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago, who could become Puerto Rico's first saint.

The naval exercises involve about 15,000 sailors and Marines and a dozen cruisers and destroyers in the battle group led by the Norfolk, Va.-based aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. Jets also were dropping non-explosive bombs.

Opposition to the exercises intensified in April 1999 when dummy bombs dropped off-target on the range killed a civilian security guard. Outraged, protesters occupied the range and prevented exercises until they were removed by U.S. marshals in May 2000. Since then, the Navy has used only non-explosive ammunition.