June 13, 2000,
WASHINGTON, D.C. – All six members of a National Council of Churches delegation that
visited Puerto Rico June 1-3 carried a request from Puerto Rico’s church leaders to
the White House on Monday (June 12) for a meeting with President Clinton about
Vieques.
“The
President has met with Puerto Rico’s governor and with the Marines, but he has not
talked with Puerto Rico’s spiritual leaders, who are the moral authority and who have
the trust of the people,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, NCC General Secretary,
the delegation’s head.
“Puerto
Rico’s mainline and evangelical Protestant, Roman Catholic and Pentecostal church
leaders have joined forces in an unprecedented ecumenical coalition against continued use
of Vieques for U.S. military exercises,” Dr. Edgar reported. “They are giving leadership on this issue
with passion and conviction, working to keep the struggle peaceful and on a high moral
plane.
“It is important that President Clinton
hear their concerns,” Dr. Edgar said. “Government
should hear the concerns of several sides. It
also is important that the leaders of the churches hear from the President himself the
rationale of his position.”
The NCC
delegation’s meeting June 12 was with three White House staff members: Jeffrey
Farrow, Co-Chair, President’s Interagency Task Force on Puerto Rico; Maria Echaveste,
Deputy Chief of Staff, and Maureen Shea, Special Assistant to the President for Public
Liaison.
Dr. Edgar said the delegation reported on its June 1-3 visit to
Puerto Rico and showed a brief video – produced by Puerto Rico’s government
– of the destruction resulting from U.S. military use of Vieques.
DETAILS, NCC DELEGATION VISIT TO PUERTO RICO
“Not one more bomb in Vieques” is
the unanimous message of Puerto Rico’s churches, which also judge as “immoral”
the terms of the proposed plebiscite on continued U.S. military presence, the NCC
delegation reported upon return from Puerto Rico.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recently
resumed using Vieques for military training exercises after clearing out protestors who
had occupied the bombing ranges for a year after a civilian was killed by a bomb.
The government of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Navy
and President Clinton have agreed on a plebiscite – date to be announced –
offering the people of Vieques a choice between two alternatives.
Under the first, the Navy would “cease
all training on Vieques and leave the island by May 1, 2003.” Under the second, training would continue on
Vieques on terms to be presented at least three months before the vote – with a
promised bonus of $50 million for enhancement of infrastructure and housing on the Western
portions of Vieques.
The Rev. Heriberto Martinez, General
Secretary of the Evangelical Council of Churches, which represents most evangelical and
some mainline Puerto Rican churches, told the NCC delegation, “This is not an
acceptable choice. We don’t want to see
one more bomb on Vieques.”
He and other church leaders declared the
terms of the plebiscite to be immoral because they don’t offer the choice of an
immediate cessation of the bombing. Puerto
Rican theologian Dr. Samuel Silva Gotay dramatized the point by offering a simile. He said it’s like a judge offering a battered
woman this choice – either her husband may continue to beat her for three more years,
at which point he must stop, or he may continue to beat her indefinitely.
Besides Dr. Edgar, the
NCC delegation included the Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, Director of Peace and Justice
Ministries of The Episcopal Church, New York, and a member of the NCC/Church World Service
and Witness Unit Committee; the Rev. Dr. Nozomi Ikuta, Minister for Liberation Ministries,
United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, Cleveland; the Rev. Dr. Leslie F. Weber, Jr.,
Associate Executive Director, Division for Church in Society, Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, Chicago; Ms. Rebecca Cruz, former chair of the NCC Inclusiveness and Justice
Standing Committee, of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Chicago, and the Rev.
Oscar Bolioli, NCC/CWSW Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, New York.
The many church and community leaders with
whom the NCC delegation met included: the six-member Evangelical Council of Churches’
group headed by the Rev. Martinez; Roman Catholic Archbishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio, whose
Caguas jurisdiction includes Vieques; Caribbean Lutheran Synod Bishop Francisco Sosa,
Episcopal Church Bishop David Alvarez, and Dr. Lester McGrath of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ), a seminary professor.
The delegation also met with Vieques
community leaders, including Carlos Zenon and Ismael Guadalupe, two of four persons
selected by the NCC two years ago to receive the Council’s “Mauricio Amilcar
Lopez Human Rights Award” on behalf of the people of the island of Vieques. “It was an emotional reunion,” said the
Rev. Bolioli. “The conversation was
intense, and some were crying. We concluded
by praying together.”
Others met included representatives of the
Puerto Rico’s academic and professional community, and of CWS-supported projects in
Puerto Rico, including one that has documented the U.S. military’s damage to the
Vieques ecology.
The NCC delegation also went to the gate of
a U.S. Navy bombing range on Vieques to give encouragement to the local people. Some 100-150 people continue to demonstrate every
weekend in protest of the resumption of military exercises there. There they met Ismael Guadalupe, Jr., a Vieques
community leader who was seriously beaten by U.S. military, and Casimar and Pedro Zenon,
who go on trial June 7 for participating in the protests on Vieques. They are sons of Carlos Zenon, President, Vieques
Fishermen.
“I am impressed that given that the issue of U.S. military use of Vieques is so emotional, the people of Vieques continue to exercise restraint and are making a tremendous effort to keep their protests non-violent,” Dr. Edgar commented. “The churches reaffirmed to us that this is a peaceful struggle.”
-end-
Contact: NCC News
NCC Home Page