Militarismo y clases sociales en
Vieques, 1910-1950 - NOTICIAS
Vieques, 1910-1950 - NOTICIAS
| Noticias de Vieques |
| © Derechos Reservados. |
www.vieques1910-1950.com
Tomado de: Field Artillery Journal, May-June, 1949, vol. 39, No. 3.
1) FERIA DE ARTESANIA Y LIBROS VIEQUENSES
SABADO, 29 DE agosto de 2009 DE 6:00 A 11:00 PM
El Museo Fuerte Conde de Mirasol y la Hermandad de Artesanos y Artesanas de
Vieques les invita a una Feria de Artesanía y Libros Viequenses este próximo
sábado a partir de las 6:00 de la tarde en los terrenos del Fortín.
Además de una impresionante muestra de artesanía, bebidas y comidas típicas
y libros sobre Vieques, habrá música con Manolín Silva: Marfil y Hierro,
con la participación especial del músico guayamés, “Tito” Rovira en el
piano.
También ofrecerán su talento musical, nuestros jóvenes artistas del Hip Hop,
Lady M y McNatra.
Entrada Gratis
English
Fort Count Mirasol Museum
P.O. Box 71 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-1717 </src/compose.phprrabin@icp.gobierno.pr>
rrabin@icp.gobierno.pr
=======================
Vieques Artisans and Book Fair
Saturday, 29 August, 2009 6:00-11:00 PM
The Fort Count Mirasol Museum and the Organization of Vieques Artisans
invite you to a Vieques Artisans and Books Fair this next Saturday beginning
around 6pm in the grounds at the Fort.
In addition to an impressive array of artesanry, typical drinks and foods
and Vieques books, there will be music by Manolin Silva: Ivory and Steel,
with the special participation of Guayama (Puerto Rico) musician, “Tito”
Rovira on the piano.
Also offering their musical talent will be our young Hip Hop artists, Lady M
and McNatra.
Entrance free
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Puerto Rico: Nuevos reclamos en Vieques por acciones
norteamericanas
Residente de la Isla denunciaron que las prácticas de la Armada los exponen otra
vez al peligro, y podrían envenenar la naturaleza local justo cuando tratan de darle
a Puerto Rico una imagen atractiva para el turismo.
PRENSA WEB RNV/AGENCIA
7 Agosto 2009, 08:44 AM
Residentes de la isla puertorriqueña de Vieques se enfrentan hoy nuevamente a la
Armada de Estados Unidos por lo que consideran procedimientos nocivos para la
salud medioambiental y humana.
La Marina, que una vez operó en la ínsula la mayor base de la Flota Atlántica,
comenzó a limpiar el área de bombas sin detonar mediante explosiones al aire
libre, y propone quemar una zona de 100 acres de vegetación para facilitar su
trabajo.
Pero los vecinos refieren que las prácticas de la Armada los exponen otra vez al
peligro, y podrían envenenar la naturaleza local justo cuando tratan de darle a la
isla una imagen atractiva para el turismo; reseñó Prensa Latina.
La gran mayoría de las visitas realizadas aquí a las salas de emergencia el año
pasado estuvieron asociadas a problemas respiratorios, señaló la alcaldesa de
Vieques, Evelyn Delerme, al diario The New York Times.
"¿Ellos pueden garantizar que esos contaminantes o humos no alcanzarán a la
población? ¿Tenemos que esperar y ver si (los procedimientos de la Marina)
constituyen un problema?", se cuestionó Delerme.
El nuevo conflicto surge cuando aún continúan sin resolución demandas del
gobierno local y residentes que alegan afectaciones por el alto nivel de
contaminación al que los expusieron las prácticas militares realizadas en la isla
desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Oficiales de la Agencia de Protección del Medioambiente aseguran que las
detonaciones siguen el protocolo establecido para limpiezas de ese tipo, y que no
constituyen un riesgo para la salud humana mientras se regulen cada cierto tiempo.
Estudios sanitarios efectuados en la isla encontraron alta incidencia de
enfermedades como el cáncer y la hipertensión, las cuales podrían estar
asociadas a los ejercicios que realizó la Armada hasta 2003.
Sin embargo, la Agencia Federal para las Sustancias Tóxicas y el Registro de
Enfermedades, después de evaluar el territorio, concluyó que los niveles de
metales pesados y compuestos explosivos en la zona no eran perjudiciales.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) A New Battle on Vieques, Over Navy's Cleanup
The New York Times
August 7, 2009
By MIREYA NAVARRO
VIEQUES, P.R. — The United States Navy ceased military training operations on
this small island in 2003, and windows no longer rattle fr om the shelling from ships
and air-to-ground bombings.
Gone are the protests that drew celebrities like Benicio Del Toro and Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. Real estate prices and tourism have boomed: a 157-room Starwood
W hotel is expected to open by December on the island, which is seven miles east
of Puerto Rico's mainland.
But Vieques, once the largest training area for the United States Atlantic Fleet
Forces, is still largely defined by its old
struggles. Once again, residents have squared off against the American military.
The Navy has begun removing hazardous unexploded munitions from its
old training ground by detonating them in the open air. It also
proposes to burn through nearly 100 acres of dense tropical
vegetation to locate and explode highly sensitive cluster bombs.
But what could have been a healing process has been marred by lingering mistrust.
As the Navy moves to erase a bitter vestige of its long presence here, residents
assert that it is simply exposing them again to risk.
"The great majority of emergency room visits here last year were for respiratory
problems," said Evelyn Delerme Camacho, the mayor of Vieques. "Can they
guarantee that contaminants or smoke won't reach
the population? Would we have to wait and see if there's a problem?"
The cleanup comes as the local Vieques government and most of the island's
9,300 residents pursue claims against the United States government for
contamination and for illnesses that they assert are linked to pollutants released
during decades of live-fire and bombing exercises beginning in World War II.
Given the history of grievances, many locals are aghast that the Navy's methods
involve burnings and detonations whose booms can be heard in some residential
areas, setting people on edge. They have spoken out at public hearings and in
legislative resolutions.
But Christopher T. Penny, head of the Navy's Vieques restoration program, said
the unexploded bombs are too powerful to be set off in detonation chambers. And
he said that experiments to cut through the dense vegetation with a remote-control
device had not had much
success.
Environmental Protection Agency officials who are overseeing the project say that
such on-site detonations are typical of cleanups at former military training ranges.
Jose C. Font, an E.P.A. deputy director in San Juan, says they pose no threat to
human health as
long as limited amounts are exploded each time, the wind is calm and air quality is
monitored constantly.
In 2005 the training ground was designated a federal Superfund site, giving the E.P.
A. the authority to order a cleanup led by the party responsible for the pollution.
The unexploded munitions lie o n 8,900 acres of former Navy land on the eastern
end of the island, including 1,100 acres of what was once the live impact area. The
E.P.A. says the cleanup could take 10 years or more.
> Workers are using historical records, aerial photography and high- power metal
detectors to locate the munitions before cutting through the foliage and detonating
them. So far, the Navy says, it has identified 18,700 munitions and explosives and
blown up about a third of those.The E.P.A. says that the hazardous substances
associated with ordnance that may be present in Vieques include TNT, napalm,
depleted uranium, mercury, lead and other chemicals, including PCBs.
Residents' concerns about the cleanup are heightened by suspicions of a link
between the contaminants and what Puerto Rico's health department found were
disproportionately high rates of illnesses like cancer, hypertension and liver
disease on the island.
In 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which
assesses health hazards at Superfund sites, concluded that levels of heavy metals
and explosive compounds found in Vieques's soil, groundwater, air and fish did not
pose a health risk.But this year the registry agency said it would "rigorously" revisit
its 2003 finding, and its director, Dr. Howard Frumkin, plans to visit Vieques on
Wednesday to meet with residents.
Puerto Rico's legislature, meanwhile, has asked President Obama to keep a
campaign promise to "achieve an environmentally acceptable cleanup" and
"closely monitor the health of the people of Vieques and promote appropriate
remedies."
Most contested here is a Navy request to the E.P.A. and the
Environmental Quality Board in Puerto Rico to allow the controlled burn to clear
vegetation and find bombs. The risk of accidental explosions, the Navy says, is too
high for workers to do it by hand using chainsaws, machetes and trimmers.
"The issue is safety," said Mr. Penny of the Navy. Many residents complain that
they have not received enough information to feel reassured. Among them are a
group that gathers on most evenings in a plaza of sand-colored buildings anchored
by the church in Isabel Segunda, Vieques's main town.
"We hear they are taking out bombs, but we haven't been informed of
what exactly is coming out of there and whether there's more
contamination when they get it out," said Julio Serrano, 57, who works at the airport
as an operations supervisor. "We need to be told clearly what's in there."
Yet some experts on military cleanups suggest that, rather than focusing on any
short-term air quality problems, residents might consider the possibility o f an
accidental explosion that is years away.
"The real risk is that there's no technology available that would guarantee that
they've removed every piece of ordnance," said Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, an
assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill who has studied the risks of adapting former training
ranges. "There's no way to make that land safe for reuse unless it's very restrictive."
Other battles loom. Most of the 26,000 acres the Navy used to own on the eastern
and western ends of Vieques — making up about three-fourths of the island —
have been turned over to the Department of the Interior, which plans to maintain the
land as a wildlife preserve.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has already opened up small portions
of the area to the public as a wildlife refuge that includes
gorgeous undeveloped beaches where sea turtles like the loggerhead
and hawksbill nest.
But Mayor Delerme Camacho said that once the cleanup is over,
Vieques's residents want to be able to use the land for housing and
ecotourism, too. Already, those eager to build have staked out makeshift claims
with signs on trees within a chunk of 4,000 acres transferred by the Navy to the
municipal government.
Though fishermen can now catch red snapper and yellowtail unfettered by the
Navy's target practice, and visitors have discovered the rural charms of a place
where horses roam freely on the roads, Vieques still has high rates of poverty and
lacks a full-fledged hospital.
Ismael Guadalupe, 65, a retired teacher and leader in the long resistance to the
Navy's operations here, said that while the training is over, the fighting continues.
"As one of our sayings goes, `If we had to eat the bone, now we should be able to
eat the meat,' " he said.
********************************************************************************************
********************************************************************************************
SABADO, 29 DE agosto de 2009 DE 6:00 A 11:00 PM
El Museo Fuerte Conde de Mirasol y la Hermandad de Artesanos y Artesanas de
Vieques les invita a una Feria de Artesanía y Libros Viequenses este próximo
sábado a partir de las 6:00 de la tarde en los terrenos del Fortín.
Además de una impresionante muestra de artesanía, bebidas y comidas típicas
y libros sobre Vieques, habrá música con Manolín Silva: Marfil y Hierro,
con la participación especial del músico guayamés, “Tito” Rovira en el
piano.
También ofrecerán su talento musical, nuestros jóvenes artistas del Hip Hop,
Lady M y McNatra.
Entrada Gratis
English
Fort Count Mirasol Museum
P.O. Box 71 Vieques, Puerto Rico 00765
Telefax 787 741-1717 </src/compose.phprrabin@icp.gobierno.pr>
rrabin@icp.gobierno.pr
=======================
Vieques Artisans and Book Fair
Saturday, 29 August, 2009 6:00-11:00 PM
The Fort Count Mirasol Museum and the Organization of Vieques Artisans
invite you to a Vieques Artisans and Books Fair this next Saturday beginning
around 6pm in the grounds at the Fort.
In addition to an impressive array of artesanry, typical drinks and foods
and Vieques books, there will be music by Manolin Silva: Ivory and Steel,
with the special participation of Guayama (Puerto Rico) musician, “Tito”
Rovira on the piano.
Also offering their musical talent will be our young Hip Hop artists, Lady M
and McNatra.
Entrance free
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2) Puerto Rico: Nuevos reclamos en Vieques por acciones
norteamericanas
Residente de la Isla denunciaron que las prácticas de la Armada los exponen otra
vez al peligro, y podrían envenenar la naturaleza local justo cuando tratan de darle
a Puerto Rico una imagen atractiva para el turismo.
PRENSA WEB RNV/AGENCIA
7 Agosto 2009, 08:44 AM
Residentes de la isla puertorriqueña de Vieques se enfrentan hoy nuevamente a la
Armada de Estados Unidos por lo que consideran procedimientos nocivos para la
salud medioambiental y humana.
La Marina, que una vez operó en la ínsula la mayor base de la Flota Atlántica,
comenzó a limpiar el área de bombas sin detonar mediante explosiones al aire
libre, y propone quemar una zona de 100 acres de vegetación para facilitar su
trabajo.
Pero los vecinos refieren que las prácticas de la Armada los exponen otra vez al
peligro, y podrían envenenar la naturaleza local justo cuando tratan de darle a la
isla una imagen atractiva para el turismo; reseñó Prensa Latina.
La gran mayoría de las visitas realizadas aquí a las salas de emergencia el año
pasado estuvieron asociadas a problemas respiratorios, señaló la alcaldesa de
Vieques, Evelyn Delerme, al diario The New York Times.
"¿Ellos pueden garantizar que esos contaminantes o humos no alcanzarán a la
población? ¿Tenemos que esperar y ver si (los procedimientos de la Marina)
constituyen un problema?", se cuestionó Delerme.
El nuevo conflicto surge cuando aún continúan sin resolución demandas del
gobierno local y residentes que alegan afectaciones por el alto nivel de
contaminación al que los expusieron las prácticas militares realizadas en la isla
desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Oficiales de la Agencia de Protección del Medioambiente aseguran que las
detonaciones siguen el protocolo establecido para limpiezas de ese tipo, y que no
constituyen un riesgo para la salud humana mientras se regulen cada cierto tiempo.
Estudios sanitarios efectuados en la isla encontraron alta incidencia de
enfermedades como el cáncer y la hipertensión, las cuales podrían estar
asociadas a los ejercicios que realizó la Armada hasta 2003.
Sin embargo, la Agencia Federal para las Sustancias Tóxicas y el Registro de
Enfermedades, después de evaluar el territorio, concluyó que los niveles de
metales pesados y compuestos explosivos en la zona no eran perjudiciales.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3) A New Battle on Vieques, Over Navy's Cleanup
The New York Times
August 7, 2009
By MIREYA NAVARRO
VIEQUES, P.R. — The United States Navy ceased military training operations on
this small island in 2003, and windows no longer rattle fr om the shelling from ships
and air-to-ground bombings.
Gone are the protests that drew celebrities like Benicio Del Toro and Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. Real estate prices and tourism have boomed: a 157-room Starwood
W hotel is expected to open by December on the island, which is seven miles east
of Puerto Rico's mainland.
But Vieques, once the largest training area for the United States Atlantic Fleet
Forces, is still largely defined by its old
struggles. Once again, residents have squared off against the American military.
The Navy has begun removing hazardous unexploded munitions from its
old training ground by detonating them in the open air. It also
proposes to burn through nearly 100 acres of dense tropical
vegetation to locate and explode highly sensitive cluster bombs.
But what could have been a healing process has been marred by lingering mistrust.
As the Navy moves to erase a bitter vestige of its long presence here, residents
assert that it is simply exposing them again to risk.
"The great majority of emergency room visits here last year were for respiratory
problems," said Evelyn Delerme Camacho, the mayor of Vieques. "Can they
guarantee that contaminants or smoke won't reach
the population? Would we have to wait and see if there's a problem?"
The cleanup comes as the local Vieques government and most of the island's
9,300 residents pursue claims against the United States government for
contamination and for illnesses that they assert are linked to pollutants released
during decades of live-fire and bombing exercises beginning in World War II.
Given the history of grievances, many locals are aghast that the Navy's methods
involve burnings and detonations whose booms can be heard in some residential
areas, setting people on edge. They have spoken out at public hearings and in
legislative resolutions.
But Christopher T. Penny, head of the Navy's Vieques restoration program, said
the unexploded bombs are too powerful to be set off in detonation chambers. And
he said that experiments to cut through the dense vegetation with a remote-control
device had not had much
success.
Environmental Protection Agency officials who are overseeing the project say that
such on-site detonations are typical of cleanups at former military training ranges.
Jose C. Font, an E.P.A. deputy director in San Juan, says they pose no threat to
human health as
long as limited amounts are exploded each time, the wind is calm and air quality is
monitored constantly.
In 2005 the training ground was designated a federal Superfund site, giving the E.P.
A. the authority to order a cleanup led by the party responsible for the pollution.
The unexploded munitions lie o n 8,900 acres of former Navy land on the eastern
end of the island, including 1,100 acres of what was once the live impact area. The
E.P.A. says the cleanup could take 10 years or more.
> Workers are using historical records, aerial photography and high- power metal
detectors to locate the munitions before cutting through the foliage and detonating
them. So far, the Navy says, it has identified 18,700 munitions and explosives and
blown up about a third of those.The E.P.A. says that the hazardous substances
associated with ordnance that may be present in Vieques include TNT, napalm,
depleted uranium, mercury, lead and other chemicals, including PCBs.
Residents' concerns about the cleanup are heightened by suspicions of a link
between the contaminants and what Puerto Rico's health department found were
disproportionately high rates of illnesses like cancer, hypertension and liver
disease on the island.
In 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which
assesses health hazards at Superfund sites, concluded that levels of heavy metals
and explosive compounds found in Vieques's soil, groundwater, air and fish did not
pose a health risk.But this year the registry agency said it would "rigorously" revisit
its 2003 finding, and its director, Dr. Howard Frumkin, plans to visit Vieques on
Wednesday to meet with residents.
Puerto Rico's legislature, meanwhile, has asked President Obama to keep a
campaign promise to "achieve an environmentally acceptable cleanup" and
"closely monitor the health of the people of Vieques and promote appropriate
remedies."
Most contested here is a Navy request to the E.P.A. and the
Environmental Quality Board in Puerto Rico to allow the controlled burn to clear
vegetation and find bombs. The risk of accidental explosions, the Navy says, is too
high for workers to do it by hand using chainsaws, machetes and trimmers.
"The issue is safety," said Mr. Penny of the Navy. Many residents complain that
they have not received enough information to feel reassured. Among them are a
group that gathers on most evenings in a plaza of sand-colored buildings anchored
by the church in Isabel Segunda, Vieques's main town.
"We hear they are taking out bombs, but we haven't been informed of
what exactly is coming out of there and whether there's more
contamination when they get it out," said Julio Serrano, 57, who works at the airport
as an operations supervisor. "We need to be told clearly what's in there."
Yet some experts on military cleanups suggest that, rather than focusing on any
short-term air quality problems, residents might consider the possibility o f an
accidental explosion that is years away.
"The real risk is that there's no technology available that would guarantee that
they've removed every piece of ordnance," said Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, an
assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of
North Carolina in Chapel Hill who has studied the risks of adapting former training
ranges. "There's no way to make that land safe for reuse unless it's very restrictive."
Other battles loom. Most of the 26,000 acres the Navy used to own on the eastern
and western ends of Vieques — making up about three-fourths of the island —
have been turned over to the Department of the Interior, which plans to maintain the
land as a wildlife preserve.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has already opened up small portions
of the area to the public as a wildlife refuge that includes
gorgeous undeveloped beaches where sea turtles like the loggerhead
and hawksbill nest.
But Mayor Delerme Camacho said that once the cleanup is over,
Vieques's residents want to be able to use the land for housing and
ecotourism, too. Already, those eager to build have staked out makeshift claims
with signs on trees within a chunk of 4,000 acres transferred by the Navy to the
municipal government.
Though fishermen can now catch red snapper and yellowtail unfettered by the
Navy's target practice, and visitors have discovered the rural charms of a place
where horses roam freely on the roads, Vieques still has high rates of poverty and
lacks a full-fledged hospital.
Ismael Guadalupe, 65, a retired teacher and leader in the long resistance to the
Navy's operations here, said that while the training is over, the fighting continues.
"As one of our sayings goes, `If we had to eat the bone, now we should be able to
eat the meat,' " he said.
********************************************************************************************
********************************************************************************************
| (Scroll Down) 1) FERIA DE ARTESANIA Y LIBROS VIEQUENSES 2) Puerto Rico: Nuevos reclamos en Vieques por acciones norteamericanas 3) A New Battle on Vieques, Over Navy's Cleanup |
Actualizado: Jueves, 27 de agosto de 2009.
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| Movimiento de Afirmación Viequense (MAVI) |
www.viequesenlucha.org
www.vieques.uprm.edu
| Estudio de la vegetación como bioindicador (centinela) de disturbios ambientales y riesgos a la salud de los residentes de la Isla Municipio de Vieques, Puerto Rico. (Laboratorio de Microbiología Ambiental, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Mayagüez) |