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href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Remembering-Vieques-Anti-Colonial-Victory-in-the-21st-Century-20170421-0016.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Remembering-Vieques-Anti-Colonial-Victory-in-the-21st-Century-20170421-0016.html</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Remembering Vieques: Anti-Colonial Victory
in the 21st Century<br>
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April 24, 2017 by Rebeca Toledo<br>
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<p class="subtitle" itemprop="description
alternativeHeadline">teleSUR spoke with Vieques resident
and activist Ismael Guadalupe about Puerto Rico's current
and historic battle against U.S. imperialism. </p>
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<p>Ismael Guadalupe was a leader in the struggle to get
the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The tactics
used by the movement led to a historic victory in 2003,
when the U.S. Navy was forced to close its military base
on the small island and end all exercises and training,
including the testing of bombs.</p>
<p><strong>The fight against the U.S. Navy in Vieques is a
good example of Puerto Rico’s status as a colony.
Could you tell us how Vieques triumphed against
colonialism?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe:</strong> Years after the U.S.
Navy expropriated the best lands in the country, the
most important nationalist leader in Puerto Rico, Dr.
Pedro Albizu Campos slammed the increased destruction of
the island of Vieques. He described it as the
dismemberment of our nation. Nationalism was
experiencing its worst moments of persecution and murder
of activists who fought against imperial aggression with
no fear. And so it was Albizu Campos who set the stage
for what happened in Vieques.</p>
<p>In the beginning, the first followers of Albizuism
fought against imperialism using the slogans of the
movement. We didn’t grow. We didn’t unite. We remained
alone even though our demands were recognized by small
sectors.</p>
<p>In 1964, as a young 19-year-old, I joined a protest
against the navy's continued attempts to expropriate
land from Vieques. University students organized a march
to protest and the messages they used were not the
traditional anti-U.S. slogans.</p>
<p>These new slogans opened the door to alliances with
U.S.-aligned groups. Later, other organizations
reclaimed these messages that divided us and separated
us from the people. The Puerto Rican Socialist Party and
its committee in Vieques opened their doors to us in
order for us to work together around our demands.</p>
<p>Although in the beginning, the central demands were
against the effects of military exercises, this later
grew with the creation of the Committee for the Rescue
and Development of Vieques to encompass a set of demands
known as the 4Ds: demilitarization, decontamination,
development and the return of lands. With these demands
and new fighting strategies, we were able to grow,
impact and shut down the navy, which had to close its
base where they trained and tested bombs for future
aggression against other countries.</p>
<p><strong>The Vieques movement was able to unite many
groups, </strong><strong class="gr-progress">parties</strong><strong>
and personalities in Puerto Rico. As one of the
leaders, could you tell us how you were able to
achieve this level of unity, given how difficult it is
to achieve?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe: </strong>At different
periods, the struggle was led by different organizations
with different leaders. As a wide-spanning, democratic
and participatory struggle, we did away with those
distorted visions of leadership, where the decisions of
one person rule over the decisions of the rest. This led
to a unique strategy of fighting against the navy base.</p>
<p>And so a new organization was created in Vieques: the
Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques,
with a broader vision of struggle brought in new leaders
from Vieques and the mainland of Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>The committee that was created outside of Vieques
included members who had a strategy for uniting
different and diverse sectors, which gave form to how
the committee envisioned the struggle. Different
ideologies and a wide range of organizations joined the
committee.</p>
<p>On April 19, 1999, when a young man (David Sanes) who
was working at the navy base died after a bomb exploded
at his security post, the people of Vieques were
horrified.</p>
<p>The CPRD united the people and together that afternoon
protested at the entrance to the military facilities at
Camp Garcia. The next day the CPRD called the people to
come together in front of town hall and this began a new
stage of the struggle. We decided to organize a civil
disobedience protest suggested by one of the members of
the committee to enter the area by sea and take it over,
followed by dozens of fighters.</p>
<p>This action shook Puerto Rico and every party, church,
union, cooperative, association and other groups
clamored to support Vieques.</p>
<p>The triumph of this tactic rested in the leadership
which utilized its capacity to adapt to change. It used
strategies which were non-violent, non-verbal,
non-physical, but always firm, never taking a step back.</p>
<p>When Sept. 11 and the attacks on the U.S. happened, the
CPRD called for a moratorium on its actions. Believing
this was an opportunity to discredit the CPRD, some
groups ignored the call but the people supported it.
Once the moratorium was lifted, we continued to fight
until the navy stopped using our island as a shooting
range.</p>
<p><strong>Vieques won immense global support from
countries, organizations, parties, congressional
members. Tell us how you achieve so much support?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe: </strong>For decades, the
navy had successfully hidden the situation in Vieques
away from the eyes of the world. It was normal for U.S.
interests to hide the violations they committed in
Vieques; the civilian deaths caused by military
accidents; the terror of their planes flying; loaded
with bombs over the people; the continuous bombings
shaking homes; the bulldozers destroying homes to build
bunkers to store bombs. Raising awareness of this
reality helped build solidarity.</p>
<p>Our participation in social forums, the U.N.
Decolonization Committee, trips to India, Okinawa, South
Korea, Palestine, gave much wider dimension to the fight
against military abuse. The participation of well-known
U.S. political figures also played an important role.
Countless figures publicly expressed support for the
struggle like the actor Edward James Olmos and the
environmentalist Robert Kennedy, who both performed acts
of civil disobedience and were arrested in Vieques.
Calls by figures like Ricky Martin and other celebrities
meant that what was happening in Vieques could finally
be seen.</p>
<p>It was the direction of this movement by the CPDR in
Vieques as well as the national committee in Puerto Rico
and New York that made this struggle.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, the work of Cuba and Venezuela at the
U.N. in support of Vieques also made a big difference.
Now it was no longer just our voices.</p>
<p><strong>After the victory in Vieques, what can you tell
us about the island today? How have the people, the
environment, the way of life moved forward? Did the
U.S. comply with your demands?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe: </strong>Fourteen years ago,
on May 1, 2003, the United States Navy, in response to
the fight against them in Vieques opted to close the
base. Today, our seas are free. Our fishermen can fish
without the pressure of shots and their fishing gear is
safe from the destruction of warships.</p>
<p>Now, we do not feel airplanes flying overhead or hear
their loud noises which caused us great worry because
they were loaded with bombs. Drunken sailors abusing and
provoking fights with civilians, which often caused
deaths in Vieques, is a thing of the past.</p>
<p>The scene of war we lived in is gone. We are no longer
accomplices to the aggressions against other countries.
They no longer train to invade countries which do not
respect their imperialist encroachments. Today this
scenario has disappeared.</p>
<p>But total justice has not come. The United States did
not respond to all of our demands — the total
decontamination of Vieques, the return of our lands and
full development. Indeed, the local government has
forgotten about Vieques. The diseases caused by this
contamination is still a worry for our people because
the pollution persists.</p>
<p>We have questioned the methodology of the environmental
cleanup. The detonation and open burning of bombs on the
ground have increased pollution, destroying our
resources. In other places, they use detonation boxes
where the bombs are detonated inside a box to prevent
the spread of toxins.</p>
<p>Hundreds of Viequenses have died after the navy stopped
using Vieques as a base. They retain more than half of
our land. Vieques has been invaded mostly by United
States' capital with the consent of the colonial
government, leading to our marginalization. They have
taken over our beaches and resources.</p>
<p><strong>For International Day Against Colonialism, we
know that Puerto Rico remains one of the last colonies
in the world. Now with the Financial Oversight and
Management </strong><strong>Board </strong><strong>that
the U.S. has imposed on the country, tell us how this
is yet another example of Puerto Rico’s colonial
status.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe: </strong>The fiscal crisis
created by the various administrations of Puerto Rico’s
colonial government has been an opportunity the U.S.
Congress has taken advantage of to demonstrate where
true power lies.</p>
<p>With the endorsement of the two parties subservient to
the United States, congress passed the PROMESA law,
which in turn approved a Fiscal Control Board that would
make decisions on various aspects of our life as a
people.The role of the administrators would be to
implement measures that would affect the lives of our
people.</p>
<p>The decisions that this board can take are aimed at
meeting the payment commitments to the bondholders who
are owed millions of dollars. The passage of laws such
as anti-labor laws would take away working class gains
and reduce benefits such as adequate wages, holidays,
bonuses and obviously already approved pay increases.</p>
<p>One example which has kept college students on strike
at nearly 11 universities is the elimination of about
US$450,000 from state colleges. There is no doubt that
university students, together with trade union
organizations, leftist and even those in the center, are
putting up a fight.</p>
<p>The colonial government is subjected like never before
to the U.S. Congress. The laws of being a colony do not
give us the chance to find alternatives to a crisis
which is more economic than political because it has
shown us as a colony.</p>
<p><strong>In conclusion, is there anything else you would
like to add?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Ismael Guadalupe: </strong>The colonial status
suffered by Puerto Rico has allowed military abuse
against not only Vieques and Culebra but all of Puerto
Rico by converting the land and air into part of U.S.
war adventures.</p>
<p>Given that the ways of waging war have changed, the use
of military facilities has changed. The use of new
technology has made traditional wars obsolete, giving
way to other methods.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the use of land is still required by the
military industrial complex in order to test the new
weapons.</p>
<p>As former President Eisenhower said in the 1950s, wars
today are determined by that military complex. The
working class gives their children and the rich give
their investments to the new weapons. These are the ones
who put their senators and representatives in the U.S.
Congress.</p>
<p>The colony’s struggle to stop the weapons buildup is
challenging because the true power is not in our hands.
Countries like South Korea or Japan are independent but
their governments are docile before the United States
because their leaders have been bought out. So other
countries must fight to achieve full independence.</p>
<p>These struggles wherever they are, even on U.S. soil,
raise awareness of the powerful who control the world.</p>
<p>In the colony of Puerto Rico, we have achieved much in
this respect. We received a lot of support from
different sectors that expressed solidarity with the
people of Vieques in the face of military abuses. In
striving to eradicate military facilities, we are
fighting for a new world, for a world of peace.</p>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
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