Opinion letters

Author: Various Authors

Puerto Rico Sues Navy Over Bombing

By MANUEL ERNESTO RIVERA
.c The Associated Press


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Challenging the U.S. government, Puerto Rico's governor filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Navy Tuesday to halt bombing exercises on Vieques island.

The U.S. Navy, which called the lawsuit a ``grave development'' in relations between the Navy and the U.S. territory, posted notices in Vieques saying maneuvers would resume Friday.

``The legal action that my government is taking responds directly to the need to ... look out for the health and security of all Puerto Ricans,'' said Gov. Sila Calderon, adding that she regretted that the government was forced to take legal action.

The lawsuit comes from an anti-noise bill passed by the local legislature that prohibits loud noises along the island's shores. The local law cites the Noise Control Act of 1972, which allows states - and in Puerto Rico's case, U.S. territories - to set noise-control laws.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Washington, Calderon said. The plaintiffs are the Navy, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting Navy Secretary Robert Pirie and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark.

Calderon said she asked President Bush and Rumsfeld to permanently end the Navy exercises on Vieques. If they don't agree by Wednesday, the Puerto Rican government will seek a federal court injunction to stop this weekend's bombing, she said.

``The legal action filed in federal court today is a grave development in the relationship between the U.S. Navy and the commonwealth governmment,'' Navy spokesman Jeff Gordon said. ``That said, the Navy is confident our training and presence in Vieques pose no health or safety risk to the civilian population on the island.''

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said the Navy still plans training exercises on Vieques. He said he did not know what the Defense Department would do if an injunction were issued.

``We'll have to see what the final language of the legislation says and have our lawyers take a look at it and see what their advice is,'' Quigley said at a Washington news conference.

Opposition to the Navy's use of Vieques erupted after a jet dropped two errant bombs in 1999, killing a civilian Puerto Rican guard.

The Navy owns two-thirds of Vieques and the bombing range covers 900 acres on the island's eastern tip. Bombing on the eastern part of Vieques has been suspended since March.

The U.S. military says the range offers an isolated environment where the Navy can practice amphibious invasions, ship-to-shore and air-to-shore shelling.

Before Calderon's announcement, there was speculation in Washington about whether Bush would exempt the Navy from the noise control law to allow bombing on Vieques. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said he did not yet know whether Bush wanted to exempt the Navy.

Anibal Acevedo-Vila, Puerto Rico's representative in Congress, said Bush is authorized to exempt the Navy from the noise control laws but that such an exemption ``will put the president in a very difficult situation'' because he would be opposing the will of the territory's local government.

``If the president issues an exemption, we will have to keep fighting this,'' Acevedo-Vila said.

Commentary by
Richard R. Tryon
Mar 24, 2001

Those who have watched the development of the Sila Caulderón administration for the past year have observed that she has been calculating for a long time the chance to play the card she played today! With help from a high priced Washington, D.C. attorney named Richard Copaken, she has brought suit against Navy, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting Navy Secretary Robert Pirie and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark. All are mislabeled in the story above as plaintiffs rather than defendants. But, forget the minor reporting error...what does this suit really mean?

1. That in spite of not having ever heard of a new disease called ‘vibroacoustic’ disease coming from excessive sound waves like those of the boom box in a car outside my window now and about twenty times per week, this Governor has found a way to claim that the Navy doesn’t care about her people, but SHE does! Her faithful followers on Vieques, really believe that their health is seriously impaired by the U.S. Navy’s plan to fire inert shells at the firing range end of the island.

2. But, the issue is really much bigger than the allegations that the Navy is culpable. What really is at issue is Sovereignty. A good lawyer has found a way to challenge the U.S. notion that lets it think that Puerto Rico is a subservient and subordinate territory. For over 45 years the Governor’s party the PDP or Populares had held to the notion that PR is a sovereign “Free associated state” or a nation that calls itself a Commonwealth. When the leaders of her party tried to make that status permanent, they found Congress could not comply as there is no provision in our Constitution for such a status as exists save on an indefinite basis. As a result the Commonwealth party was put into disarray. So, Sila is out to restore the old idea. She won the election by charging everyone in sight with corruption and the Navy with armed intent to kill her brothers and sisters. One died when he did not obey the safety rules of his job as a civilian security officer.

3. So, the game will now unfold. If Pres. Bush and the Navy ignore the new law and its preemptive suit, they better have either a good story or a stronger position that is going to play well. To use bigger guns from 12 miles out is not an answer. That is being evasive by staying outside the law. The Navy can contend that the law is flawed and go to Court, but that indicates that the people of PR are sovereign and can tell the Navy where to go and what it can’t do on its own land.

4. Further, Sila has a lot of legislators, clergy and others ready to storm the beaches and stand in the way to be martyrs. No president will want to be part of that!

So, look, for Sila to win! That is for the moment. Then look for Congress to react badly! They will cut off the rum tax rebate program and a lot of aid to P.R. to show support for the Navy and the friends of the Navy all over the nation. Then look for it to tell P.R. to choose- statehood or independence! That may be where Sila wants to be. If she gets enough of P.R. mad, they will throw away their citizenship and follow her into independence - a position that her party would say it has been reluctantly forced to take away from the existing independence party.

Yes, the stakes are big. Sila may end up being the president of a new Republic or Queen of a monarchy before four million citizens of the U.S. figure out that she is tricking them over charges that can not involve more than a few people who swim or dive in the water off of Vieques!

Neat trick, if she can do it. but what if Bush and Congress hold their fire and slowly the people find out that she was crying ‘wolf’ or ‘fire’ when neither problem was real? The people of P.R. may get excited, but they are not dumb!