Monday 6 November 2000
Yahoo News
Vieques Protestors Spread Message Atop Statue of Liberty
10 November 2000
Letter to the President
From Mayor-elect of the
Municipality of Vieques
Monday 6 November 2000 Yahoo News Vieques Protestors Spread Message Atop Statue of Liberty |
10 November 2000
Letter to the President From Mayor-elect of the Municipality of Vieques |
|
Monday November 06 03:26 PM EST Looking like a scene from a Hollywood action adventure, eleven people were arrested Sunday for tying banners which read "Peace for Vieques" on the top of Lady Liberty in a daring move to protest the U.S. Navy's occupation of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Protestors also tied the Puerto Rican and Vieques flags on two spikes of the statue's crown. The activists protested the Navy's continued bombing of Vieques. Protests have been increasing since the spring when two stray missiles killed a security guard on the island's testing range. The protest began at 10:20 a.m. Tourists were quickly evacuated from Liberty Island. The protests were orchestrated by members of Amigo del Mar and the Amigos de Vieques, and lasted nearly two hours. In one of the most harrowing moments was when one of the protestors secured himself to the crown of the Statue with rope and harness. He refused to get down in spite of gusty winds that whipped around the statue's head. NYPD Emergency Service police responded quickly to the incident. The last time Puerto Rican protestors took over the statue was in 1977 to demand the release of political prisoners. "People need to know," said Shirley Rodriguez, organizer of the "Stop the Bombs" concerts which supports the Navy leaving Vieques. "This issue effects us all as Americans. They used the most important symbol [of the United States] to show a violation of human rights." While most New Yorkers watched the New York Marathon or were concerned with Tuesday's elections, the protestors were busy taking over the national landmark. They were the first to get off the elevator on the Statue's top floor Sunday morning. The Statue of Liberty is one of New York's top tourist attractions. "This was an act that is significant," said Inti Celis, an employee at an internet company who had followed the day's event. "Showing, on the ultimate symbol of Liberty, that that's the liberty Puerto Ricans don't enjoy." Protestors have continued to keep the pressure and attention on Vieques. This past Summer protestors were arrested for handcuffing themselves onto a Wall Street statue of a bull and running onto Yankee Stadium with "Free Vieques" banners. Asked if she thought the protest was too extreme, Rodriguez responded: "What's extreme is the high cancer and asthma rates on the island. It's noble that they exercised their freedom of speech presenting an issue that won't be ignored." According to local news reports, protestors will most likely be charged with unlawful demonstration, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. President Clinton promised that next year a referendum will be held where the citizens of Vieques will vote to end the Navy's testing on the island. |
10 November 2000 Letter to the President From Mayor-elect of the Municipality of Vieques Dámaso Serrano López Mayor-elect Municipality of Vieques P.O. Box 312 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765 November 10, 2000 The Honorable William J. Clinton President of the United States The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Clinton: My name is Dámaso Serrano López and I am the Mayor-elect of Vieques, Puerto Rico. I won Tuesday's election with 63.8% of the votes, for a four-year term as Mayor of Vieques. My campaign focused on achieving the immediate and permanent cease and desist of all military activities in Vieques, which is the primary goal and demand of our people. At the same time, the candidates in the general election in Puerto Rico who support that same goal and demand, won in Tuesday's elections, among them the Honorable Sila Calderón, Governor-elect of Puerto Rico, and the Honorable Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, elected as Resident Commissioner to the U.S. Congress. The demand that the U.S. Navy must leave Vieques without dropping one more bomb, of any kind, has been the popular will of the people of Puerto Rico in general, and of Vieques in particular, before you issued your Directives on Vieques, and after you issued those Directives. President Clinton, now the will of the elected representatives of Puerto Rico, in the Mayoralty of Vieques, in the Governorship of Puerto Rico, in our Representative in the U.S. Congress, in the Puerto Rico Senate and House of Representatives, and in the majority of the mayoralties in Puerto Rico, concerning Vieques is the same as the will of the people of Puerto Rico in general and of Vieques in particular: That the U.S. Navy must be ordered out of Vieques now, without dropping one more bomb, of any kind. We are calling on you to respect that demand and that, before you leave office ten weeks from now, that you issue an Executive Order implementing that demand. It was foreseeable that your Directives on Vieques would be changed by a Republican U.S. Congress, especially in an election year. That is why we insisted that you issue the Executive Order that we are demanding once again. You still have some time to do what's right, and the urgency of our plight is accentuated by the fact that the Republicans will control Congress once again. If you don't issue this Executive Order, your Directives (drastically modified by this Congress and with no guarantee that they will be respected by the next Congress) will be used to say that there is no alternative site to Vieques, that Vieques is indispensable and that the Navy hasn't found another site. Meanwhile, bombing will continue in our island of close to 10,000 people. The only incentive for the Navy to seriously find an alternative site is if they are ordered to stop bombing in Vieques. Mr. President, on Election Day, during a radio interview with reporter Amy Goodman, you urged the American people to vote for the Gore Lieberman ticket, for First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as Senator from New York, and for John Corzine as Senator from New Jersey. In so doing, you told the American public the following: “Now, the Republicans in Congress broke the agreement, and instead of giving the Western part of the island to Puerto Rico, gave it to the Interior Department to manage. If I can't find a way to give that island, the western part of the island back to the people of Puerto Rico, and to honor the agreement that the government of Puerto Rico itself made with the support of the local leaders, including the mayor of Vieques, then the people of Puerto Rico I think have a right to say the Federal Government broke its word, and the training has to stop right now.” That encouraging statement, Mr. President, gives us hope that you will not once again let our people fend for ourselves once again before a Republican Congress, especially since you will leave office shortly. It is easy to blame the Republican Congress for what they have done, and may foreseeable do, regarding Vieques. But the constitutional authority to “stop the training right now” lies with you, President Clinton. If you fail to do so, the responsibility for the continuing suffering of our people and the disrespect towards the will of our people and our elected representatives, is solely yours. I respectfully and emphatically call on you, President Clinton, to heed the will of our people and our elected representatives and issue an Executive Order ordering the immediate and permanent cease and desist of all military activities in Vieques. Please call me in Vieques, or call Flavio Cumpiano in Washington, DC, to set up a meeting or a conference call in order to provide you with whatever information or assistance we can give, or answer whichever questions you may have, in order to resolve this critical situation and accomplish this essential demand. Sincerely, Dámaso Serrano López |
For more personal info send mail to:
gary@endex.com