U.S. Army South to Leave Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico Update, February 2002
By John Lindsay-Poland
Only three years after moving to Puerto Rico from Panama, U.S. Army South is preparing to pull up its takes and move to the United States. General Alfredo Valenzuela, chief of the command which is responsible for U.S. Army operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, recommended leaving Fort Buchanan in San Juan in a memo last August.
The two main candidates for relocation of the command, known as USARSO, are Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas — where Valenzuela grew up — and Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. The final decision will be made by Army Secretary Thomas White and Army chief of staff Eric Shinseki, with the consent of Congress. Shinseki had reportedly approved a move to San Antonio, and White is from Texas, but interest in Congress in hosting the command apparently delayed a formal decision. The Army is conducting a study of eight possible sites.
Valenzuela cited the high cost of living for base workers as well as the controversy over Vieques as reasons for leaving. Some 480 soldiers and 670 civilians are employed by the command on Fort Buchanan, which could remain as an Army Reserve or National Guard base, or be closed, when USARSO leaves. In 1999 Congress imposed a moratorium on construction at Buchanan as a result of the Vieques conflict, preventing the badly needed expansion of child care clinics the base.
Buchanan workers complain that they must wait months to get a home telephone from the company that took over phone service when it was privatized in 1998. They have also found that hospitals are so short-staffed that family members must help out by keeping long vigils with patients. The command lost 200 workers in 2001, and has not replaced most of them, leading Valenzuela to conclude that “leaving Fort Buchanan is a must-do to accomplish the mission.”
Valenzuela said the Army could save money by moving to Georgia or Texas, where it would operate in leased buildings. In Fort Sam Houston, the command would move into the dilapidated Brooke Army Medical Center, vacant since 1996.
When USARSO’s relocation to Puerto Rico from Panama was announced in 1997, then-governor Pedro Rosselló greeted the news with enthusiasm. He claimed that the command’s location in Puerto Rico would strengthen the war on drugs and country’s economy — and his drive to make Puerto Rico as U.S. state. Rosselló has been in disgrace of late as a result of growing corruption scandals showing his administration, which ruled the archipelago from 1992 to 2000.
By linking the move to the controversy around Vieques, it appears to be an attempt to punish Puerto Rico economically for its opposition to naval bombing on the island. But if Puerto Rico prepares to convert Fort Buchanan to productive uses, it could be the best blessing the Army could offer.
For the Caribbean Project for Justice and Peace, USARSO’s announcement is good news. “Moving troops of US Army South from Panama to Puerto Rico was another business between governments, without the people’s consent, with no environmental, social or economic impact analysis, and without giving information on what the troops would do,” Wanda Colón Cortez, director of the Project in San Juan, told Puerto Rico Update. Noting that militarism has limited the right of Puerto Ricans to self-determination, Colón expressed confidence “that the 700 acres of Fort Buchanan, like all lands militarily occupied, be returned for the use and enjoyment of the Puerto Rican people.”
Sources: San Antonio Express-News 12/23/01; El Nuevo Día 12/10/01; El Panamá América 8/2/97.
