From: John Clancy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
from: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
s
Subject: [Cuba SI] VIEQUES PRESS RELEASE 3-15-01
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques
P.O. Box 1424 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Tel. (787) 741-0716 E mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
15 March, 2001
Special Report
Viequenses paralize ATSDR proceedings
On Wednesday, March 14, a large group of Viequenses, representing
diverse sectors of the community, paralized the proceedings of the
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in Vieques.
The agency arrived on Vieques as part of the US Navy¥s public
relations program designed to discredit the arguments of our
envirnomental scientists and silence our denunciation of the
negative impact on our health from military contamination.
During five hours officials of ATSDR waited to receive people from
the community to offer their ëorientationí about the lack of
military contamination of our waters. Nobody showed up!. In
solidarity with the call from our organizations for NO COOPERATION
with the federal agency, our people rejected ATSDRís invitation. The
only visit they received was from around 150 Viequenses - men and
women, mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers, fishermen,
teachers, young people, students, doctors, civic, political and
religious leaders ñ who entered the Multiple Uses Center to denounce
the agencyís presence here and the health crisis caused by the
Navy.
The protesta action was organized by the Committee for the Rescue
and Development of Vieques (CRDV) with the active participation of
the Vieques Women¥s Alliance, Vieques Youth United, the Federation
and Association of Teachers of Puerto Rico (Vieques locals),
Horsemen for Peace, Vieques Veterans for Peace, Peace and Justice
Camp, Luisa Guadalupe Camp, the ex Mayor of Vieques, RadamÈs Tirado,
Association of Fishermen, among others.
A procession of people carrying crosses with names of victims of
cancer or military violence, heavy metals and other chemical
contaminants began the entrance to the meeting hall. Then four
people carried in a wooden casket that was placed in the center of
the room, followed by about one hundred citizens with crosses and
signs about contamination and deaths due to cancer. With litanies,
chants, hymns and several brief messages, the group clearly and
firmly expressed the community¥s rejection of intervention by this
agency whose history is one of serving the industrial and military
interests accused of contaminating. Harry Felix sang a song he
recently wrote dedicated to Milivy Adams, a 4 year old viequense
girl with cancer who has become a symbol of the cancer crisis here.
Among those holding crosses were Fela GarcÌa, cancer patient whose
cross had the name of her husband ñ don Angel Navarro ñ also a
cancer victim; don Suso Berm™dez lifted high a cross with his
daughter¥s name ñ Minerva ñ died of cancer at the age of 20; also
with a cross was the family of Liza Rosa, who died at the age of 16
with leukemia. Fishermen¥s Associations leaders Carlos Ventura and
Carlos ZenÛn also participated, as did Education Department
officiales and members of the Municipal Government.
With an impressive discipline and strength of statement, the
protesters filed out of the Multiple Uses Center, leaving one by one
the sixty crosses (one for each year of the Navy presence) on the
ATSDR information table. We stayed outside the Center until at 5 PM,
the hour to end the Public Audience - that never took place!!
We must thank our environmental scientists-advisors for their
important help in creating awareness about ATSDR and for helping us
to critically analyze the agency¥s report suggesting no Navy
contamination of Vieques drinking waters. Sara Peish (Center for
Environmental Action), UPR chemist, Jorge ColÛn (Technical and
Professional Group in Support of Vieques), chemist JosÈ Sep™lveda,
spokesman for the Villa Cristiana community in Puerto Rico that
suffered terrible mercury contamination and expected health crisis,
although ATSDR certified their neighborhood as "safe".
All aspects of the protest were discussed in two community meetings
at the Peace and Justice Camp, the second with the participation of
more than forty people representative of the diverse segments of our
civil society. The tasks were divided and a program of action
prepared to carry out what was proposed and discussed with the
intention of paralizing the ATSDR proceedings in Vieques. Everyone
did their work ñ and this collective action ended in a small but
signficant victory in defense of our health and against military
contamination.
The struggle for Peace on Vieques has received great impulse
recently: the excellent work of the People¥s Lobbyists in
Washington, D.C.; declarations of solidarity from public figures
like the Governor of New York, the ex president of Costa Rica,
Hillary Clinton, the Bishops of Puerto Rico and of Chiapas, actor
Martin Sheen, Ricky Martin; the Governors statement that the health
of our people is not negotiable. All of these actions are
important. However, it is the organized and militant work of our
people in the streets of Vieques, our fishermen in the sea, our
constant protest in the Navyís face at the gate to Camp GarcÌa, and
actions like the paralization of the ATSDR ñ with the participation
of diverse sectors of our community ñ that send the strongest
message to the Navy: that the days of military tyranny on Vieques
are over; that no more bombs will be dropped here; that here lives a
people with dignity and willing to make the necessary sacrifices to
defend their right to live in peace.
R. Rabin, CRDV
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