Puerto Rico Update, December 2003

by John Lindsay-Poland

At a time when most people view with despair the U.S. military’s relentless attempt to occupy not only Iraq but many other lands and waters around the globe, a growing number of activists are resisting U.S. military bases and their nefarious consequences, coalescing into coordinated networks, and sometimes succeeding in stopping military expansion.

An international delegation of Asia and Pacific Island activists visited Vieques on November 8-12, met with community members and visited the former munitions storage area in western Vieques. Representatives from the Philippines, the Marshall Islands, Guahan (Guam), Hawai`i, the Dine people, Puerto Rico and the United States celebrated “the Viequenses’ courageous and victorious struggle to end the Navy bombing of their island, and commit ourselves to support them in their continuing efforts for the clean up, return of land, compensation and health care, and sustainable economic development of their island.”

“We affirm that land is life, and that all peoples have an inalienable right to human security that includes having basic needs met, a healthy environment that can sustain life, and the ability to perpetuate our languages and cultural traditions. Militarism and imperialism are the antithesis of human security, and we refuse to take part in such crimes against humanity and the global environment.”

Popular Victories Against US Militarism in Costa Rica and Argentina

Popular movements have so far successfully resisted the installation in Costa Rica of an “International Law Enforcement Academy” (ILEA) in that country. The US attempted but failed to negotiate an ILEA in Panama as part of a military complex it sought after 1999, and in June 2002 signed an agreement with Costa Rica for an ILEA.

Vieques residents picketed a meeting of Navy and other government officials on November 18 to demand greater community participation in decisions affecting cleanup of former Navy lands.
Photo: Kathy Gannett

The academy would be completely under U.S. control, but Costa Rica would have to give diplomatic immunity to academy staff, at a time when the United States is aggressively opting out of the International Criminal Court. As Gustavo Cabrera Vega of Service for Peace and Justice asks, “If the United States doesn’t recognize the universal human rights conventions, with what authority will it train and give skills [to others] to combat international crime?” In the face of such questions, the Costa Rican legislature has delayed ratification of the agreement, and Washington is considering other sites, including El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

In Argentina, widespread protests and opposition to massive U.S. air force exercises scheduled for late October, led to the cancellation of the project, known as Aguila III. Militaries from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile and Bolivia were to participate in the exercise, with 80 fighter jets, over 200 land vehicles, and some 1,200 soldiers in what Latin American social movements called “a true invasion.” But mass marches occurred in Mendoza and San Luis provinces, where Aguila III was to occur, and 70% of Argentines polled opposed a foreign military presence, even temporarily. In the end, Washington’s insistence that U.S. soldiers be immune from prosecution for any crimes committed on Argentine soil led both official and opposition parties in Buenos Aires to nix the exercises.

Legal Strategies

Inuit hunters in Greenland are petitioning the Danish supreme court to close down a secret U.S. air base used for ‘Star Wars’ programs. A Danish court ruled in 1999 that the Inuit’s exile from the area was illegal, and Inuit representatives assert that the indigenous people’s existence is at stake. “The Americans need to understand that you don't just take away the homes of people — even in Greenland — and you don't take away their livelihood,” said Acalug Lunga, a member of Greenland’s home rule parliament.

In Okinawa, where the United States maintains 20,000 Marines on the densely populated island, a plan to relocate Futenma Air Station onto reclaimed land atop a coral reef is being challenged in a bi-national environmental lawsuit to protect the Japanese dugong, a large sea mammal similar to the manatee that is highly endangered. The suit calls for a complete public analysis of the impacts of the base on the dugong’s habitat, required under the National Historic Preservation Act.

Much organizing has been spurred by opposition to the US war in Iraq and by plans to expand and realign the global structure of US military bases. Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon wants a more flexible base structure, which will include reduction of the forces in Germany and Korea. But they don’t have an overall reduction in mind, which means bases and agreements to host troops will be pushed onto many new countries. “Taken together, the adjustments now under consideration — in where bases are located, in the arrangements Washington makes with host countries, in troop and ship deployments, and in theaters of operation — will constitute the most sweeping changes in the U.S. military posture abroad in half a century,” write Kurt Campbell and Celeste Ward in a recent issue of Foreign Relations.

In Djibouti, for example, which is located on the Horn of Africa at one of six “chokepoints” for international oil shipping identified by the US Department of Energy, the United States established a permanent “counter-terrorism” headquarters in August, which was followed by Djibouti’s expulsion of some 100,000 foreign-born residents as potential terrorists. In New Zealand, activists are organizing a weekend protest encampment in January outside the Waihopai electronic intelligence base, operated by New Zealand, U.S. and British forces.

In western Australia, increased training by the U.S. Navy on the Lancelin Defence Training Area, 60 miles north of Perth, has provoked widespread indignation and protests. In May 2002, plans were announced suddenly to expand the range, to include air-to-ground bombing similar to what was imposed on Vieques. In less than two months, the community organized nearly 1,500 submissions against the expansion, and it was substantially curtailed. Opposition had been limited to submitting petitions against the range’s expansion, until early this year, when the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group trained at Lancelin, heading straight for Iraq afterward. “This is a very conservative area, but the prospect of foreign forces using it more frequently galvanized the whole town,” writes Anne Snow, who lives only five miles from the edge of the bombing range. Protesters infiltrated the bombing range, but – as in Vieques — the military refused to stop firing, and the protesters walked out.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace has launched an international campaign against the dumping of military ship toxics overseas through the scrapping of the U.S. “ghost fleet” in England and in poorer countries such as India, Turkey and Bangladesh. Greenpeace has selected 50 ships which will soon be scrapped and sent to Asia without being decontaminated. Every year 600 ships like these are exported to Asian countries for breaking without proper decontamination.

“Once-pristine beaches of India, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Turkey are now littered with ships and pollution,” according to Greenpeace. “Workers there scrap the ships without any protection. Oil, PCBs and other wastes are dumped in the sea. Workers remove deadly asbestos by hand. Only the ship owners' profit from the lack of safety and environmental safe guards.”

Regional forums in preparation for the World Social Forum took place in Seoul, Korea from November 30 to December 2 and in Brazil on November 7, the latter featuring opposition to the Alcántara ‘space base’ in Brazil which displaced local farmers in the early 1980s. At the September gathering and protests against the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico, representatives of some 20 organizations from the Americas and Europe also met to discuss organizing against U.S. bases and militarism, and began a discussion group for anti-base campaigns.

Groups and networks from the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand, and Holland are calling for an International Conference Against US Bases, as part of a “General Assembly” of the worldwide anti-war movement, at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, from January 16-21. This conference aims to be the first in a series of international meetings to prepare for an international campaign against US bases. “The US’ global military presence is a means by which it pursues its economic and political aims at the expense of the interests of peoples around the world,” write the organizers. “Hence, to prevent the United States from waging its illegal wars and military interventions to advance its corporate and strategic interests, a campaign to dismantle the global network of US bases is imperative.” For more information on the conference or the anti-bases campaigns discussion group, contact Herbert Docena of Focus on the Global South, at herbert@focusweb.org. For information on the World Social Forum, go to www.wsfindia.org.

Sources: La Tierra Es Vida Declaration, 11/13/03; ALAI, 8/29/03; La Jornada 10/2/03; Correo Pacificar, 10/1, 8/22/03, www.pacificar.com; BBC, 11/3/03; Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, 9/26/03; Foreign Relations, Sept/Oct 2003; Globe and Mail (www.globeandmail.com); www.converge.org.nz/abc; Anne Snow communications, 11/16, 11/18/03; Greenpeace statement,

http://greenpeaceweb.org/shipbreak/final voyage.asp.

©2003 Fellowship of Reconciliation