Puerto Rico governor says U.S. shouldn't close Vieques base

AP | 1/16/03 | RICARDO ZUNIGA

[kattracks]

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- Puerto Rico's government hopes the U.S. Navy won't close its Roosevelt Roads Naval Station on Vieques Island after it halts bombing exercises there in May, the U.S. territory's governor said.

Gov. Sila Calderon, who had pressed for a halt to the training, said Wednesday that her government will lobby for the base to remain open. With some 4,800 employees and temporary contractors, Roosevelt Roads is one of Puerto Rico's largest employers.

"The people of Puerto Rico don't have any interest in the closing of the Roosevelt Roads base," Calderon said. "The government of Puerto Rico is interested in that base staying in Puerto Rico, for all the economic benefits."

The Navy says training now under way is the last scheduled on Vieques. It will abandon its firing range there by May 1, turning over the island's eastern third to the U.S. Department of the Interior to become a wildlife refuge.

The United States stopped all live-fire training in Vieques in 1999 after a guard was accidentally killed. It has used non-explosive bombs and shells since then.

Once the Navy leaves Vieques, all operations at Roosevelt Roads associated with Vieques will be discontinued, Navy officials have said. Adm. Robert Natter, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, went further last week, saying: "Without Vieques there is no way I need the Navy facilities at Roosevelt Roads -- none."

Other Navy officials said any decision about closing the base in eastern Puerto Rico would have to be made by an independent commission that has yet to begin its work.

The Navy estimates the base injects some $300 million each year into the Caribbean island's economy.

Training continued Thursday with two U.S. warships firing inert shells at the island. The USS Arleigh Burke and USS Cape St. George participated in the training, said Lt. Cmdr. Kim Dixon, a spokeswoman.

President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the base built in 1940, and it was used for World War II naval operations.

The Navy has trained on Vieques since 1947. Opponents say the exercises have damaged the environment and the health of the island's 9,100 residents, but the Navy denies the accusations.

[meadsjn]

Puerto Rico, Oregon, and Washington constantly jockey about for particular rank, but remain the three worst states/territories for employment. The common thread between them is that their residents and politicians want to strangle every productive economic activity through taxation, regulation, or outright banning; yet, they think they deserve a higher standard of living for their stupidity.

Rosy Roads actually is used for much more than a landing dock for Vieques, but it's a fair turnabout for the USN to close it in retribution. St. Croix would probably let us build a couple of extra piers for our off-shore stuff in that area, if necessary.

If I remember correctly, RR is the largest Navy base (in acreage) in the world.

[Karsus]

People who have lost there jobs do not vote you back into office.

[marron]

In my opinion, this thing was totally engineered by agitators from the outside.

Bingo. This is completely engineered by the left, and primarily by the non-Puerto Rican left. The left, and its press mouthpieces, have a bad habit of claiming to speak for others, for whom they in fact do not speak.

There is no question as to whether Puerto Rico is a part of the US. It is. They will no more declare independence than will the Republic of West Texas. They have a very beautiful and blessed corner of the world as their home, and a civilzed and democratic society to boot. They are Americans, and they aren't leaving.

[wayoverontheright]

Hey guys AuH2ORepublcan is absolutely right. I met far more American flag waving Puerto Ricans down there than you would see on the mainland, percentage wise. They serve in the armed forces and wear the uniform with pride. The only reason they tend to vote for commonwealth status is the fact that statehood would do irreparable harm to their wonderful culture. These people were WAR REPARATIONS after the Spanish-American War, when Spain couldn't come up with money, they bequeathed us Puerto Rico. Let's give 'em a break.

[AuH2ORepublican]

Thanks for the kind words. My only correction to your otherwise fine post is that the main reasons why no more that 47% of Puerto Ricans have voted for statehood in referenda is that (i) they mistakenly believe that statehood would destroy our culture,(ii) they've been lied to for decades about how "Commonwealth status" is the "best of both worlds," and (iii) there are actually tens of thousands of people out there who belive that "Congress has never offered us statehood, so it's futile to vote for it."

[CyberAnt]

"Gov. Sila Calderon, who had pressed for a halt to the training, said Wednesday that her government will lobby for the base to remain open"

Maybe she should have thought of that before she protested for us to leave!!

[livius]

I mean, we're not the state that ...[fill in the blank]

Very true! I've always thought Puerto Rico would make a good state, but unfortunately, the left has somehow always managed to portray itself as the voice of Puerto Rico. This, of course, was also encouraged by things like Bill Clinton's pardons of PR terrorists, as well as his left-wing view of Latin America as a whole.

Maybe now that this has changed, however, Puerto Ricans will see the issues more clearly and make it clear where their loyalties lie. (Certainly not with the left, I'm convinced.)

[4Freedom]

This article is a little misleading. The base at Roosevelt Roads is on the east coast of the main island of Puerto Rico. It's 11,000 acres in size, has a hospital, landing strip, golf course, it's own water filtration plant, very large harbor and mooring facilities, beaches, roads and other infrastructure.

That's why they ultimately want it for free.

Camp Garcia is 6.5 miles east of Roosevelt Roads on the island of Vieques. It's still 24,000 acres big even after we gifted Puerto Rico 8,000 acres of it.

The U.S. Taxpayers own it all.

The corrupt politicians of Puerto Rico want to steal it all, just not all of it at once. They'd like to push a new Section 956 tax scam through Congress and they need the leverage of a base for the usual extortion tactics they use.

There are already plans in the works for all of the land the U.S. Taxpayers own at not only these two, but the land Fort Buchanan and Sabana Seca are on. The catch is they not only want the land, they want us to pay for everything they want built on it after our military is gone.

They also want the U.S. Taxpayers to build a $550 million dollar bridge to connect Roosevelt Roads to Vieques!

Puerto Rico: Turnover of Roosevelt Roads would be boon for island, investor says.

They have big plans for our money. It never stops.

Anyone that believes Puerto Rico has a vibrant economy that can stand alone, if we pull away the $18 billion dollars plus that we gift them every year is fooling themselves.

The federal government probably employs 25% to 30% of their workforce.

Add up everyone that works for the other 14 - 15 military bases on the island.

Then add up all of the U.S. Postal employees.

The 1,000 that work for the IRS on the island.

The 100s that work for FEMA.

The almost 1,000 new TSA employees.

Then USDA, US Marshalls, Federal Courts, EPA, Dept. of Trans. and Highways, National Parks, INS/Border Patrol, DEA, US Customs, etc. and you begin to see the Puerto Rican economy is just a house of cards.

The island government of Puerto Rico employs another third of the workforce.

Now that the tax give-aways are on the way out, industry is leaving the island in droves.

If the U.S. Federal Government leaves with it's jobs, the military, and the $18 billion plus in cash we gift Puerto Rico every year, all of the rest of PR's industrial base will leave the island, too.

PR would have 66% unemployment and no cash overnight.

[wooden nickel]

Dittos.

[4Freedom]

We should offer Puerto Rico statehood when hell freezes over.

Puerto Rico would immediately send 2 of the most fiscally and socially liberal Senators and 6 to 8 similarly liberal Representatives to the U.S. Congress that our country has ever seen.

Our House of Representatives can only have a max of 435, so the other 50 states would lose some of their representation.

Puerto Rico would immediately receive another $3 billion dollars in Welfare payments. They would also receive parity in Medicare, Foodstamps and Education.

The whole island declares so little income that virtually the entire workforce would receive an, 'Earned Income Tax Credit!

The U.S. Taxpayers will receive absolutely nothing of value in return for all of these BILLIONS, if Puerto Rico was offered statehood.

Iraq would be a better choice.

I've been on the island for the '4th of July' and you won't hear a peep or see an American Flag for miles, but 'New Years' and any strictly 'Puerto Rican holiday' sounds like 'Operation Desert Storm'.

They do commemorate their military dead on 'Memorial Day', but not with 'American Flags'.

If you had the exclusive 'American Flag' concession on Puerto Rico, you'd starve!

The majority of Puerto Ricans see the United States as a meal ticket and nothing more.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

If they're gonna bomb Florida for training they can bring the base here and help our economy. Simpletons! No cake and eat it too!

[Brian Allen]

<< If you had the exclusive 'American Flag' concession on Puerto Rico, you'd starve!

The majority of Puerto Ricans see the United States as a meal ticket and nothing more. >>

Spot on!

Puerto Rica costs every American family $350.00 per year -- and every Puerto Rican thinks the squandering of the confiscated wealth of America's most productive, creative, innovative and industrious is his bloody "right!"

[GATOR NAVY]

I've always thought Puerto Rico would make a good state

Statehood for Puerto Rico without a Constitutional amendment declaring English the official language of the U.S. would be a nightmare. The multiculturalists would would leap at the chance to make the U.S. officially bilingual.

Just picture Canada and Quebec.

[BillyBoy]

>> Gov. Sila Calderon, who had pressed for a halt to the training, said Wednesday that her government will lobby for the base to remain open. With some 4,800 employees and temporary contractors, Roosevelt Roads is one of Puerto Rico's largest employers. "The people of Puerto Rico don't have any interest in the closing of the Roosevelt Roads base," Calderon said. " <<

Awwww...poor widdle liberals. How unfair that you don't get to keep earning $$$ off a base that you dictated not be allowed to do it's job.

If you wanted the base to stay open so bad, you shouldn't have encourged Al Shapton and Martin Sheen to keep barricading themselves in front of it.

Oh well.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"If you had the exclusive 'American Flag' concession on Puerto Rico, you'd starve!"

---

Well, 4Freedom, you sure didn't come to Puerto Rico after September 11, 2001, or during July 4, 2002. Guys were selling American flags out of the backs of trucks, and business was so good they kept running out (I had to order a flag through the Internet). Things have calmed down a lot since then (as they have throughout America---it's been almost a year and a half since 9/11), but you'll still see more U.S. flags on cars (both flag decals and mini flags on the car antena), front porches, apartment buildings and even lamp posts than practically anywhere else in the U.S. Maybe a few small towns in Bush Country fly Old Glory as much as we do here in Puerto Rico (I was in New Hampshire a few months ago, and there were a couple of towns that had no problem showing their pride), but I dare you to find a large metropolitan area in the U.S. with as many U.S. flags as San Juan, Puerto Rico.

As for your economic argument against statehood, you are correct that, being a poor state, Puerto Rico would receive more in federal funds than it would pay in taxes. But that is not a good argument for two reasons. Number one, probably half the states receive more in federal funds than their taxpayers give the IRS. Are you going to kick West Virginia or North Dakota out of the Union? Without those porklovers, Bush wouldn't have gotten to 270 electoral votes and we'd be stuck with Al Gore as president. And number two, the federal government sends between $12 and $18 million a year to Puerto Rico, and all it receives from us in return are social security taxes and a few other payments (although, of course, our contributions to the national defense, even without the Vieques bombing range, certainly have great value). If Puerto Rico became a state, the amount of money sent here by the feds would increase by maybe $4 billion, but Puerto Rico would pay much more than that in federal taxes. Thus, statehood for Puerto Rico is much more beneficial to the U.S. than the present colonial status.

And finally, as to your political concerns, while I have no idea who would be out 2 Senators or our 6 Representatives if we were a state, I concede that, being a poor state, several of them may well be economic liberals. But one thing I am certain about is that we will send 2 pro-lifers to the Senate and 6 pro-lifers to the House. And it would not surprise me one bit if, because of cultural, federalism and defense issues, Puerto Rico becomes as Republican a state as Oklahoma or Mississippi (two of our poorest states, by the way).

And, oh yeah, I forgot, the House of Representatives has 435 members because of a law passed during the Theodore Roosevelt administration, not because of any constitutional requirement. When Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as states, the number of Representatives was increased until the next Census, when it went back to 435. This wasn't such a big deal, since Alaska only had one Rep and Hawaii only 2 Reps after the 1960 Census (same as today). But if Puerto Rico becomes a state and temporarily increases the size of the House to 441 members, there is no reason why Congress couldn't amend the old law so that the House stays at 441 members (or increases to 445, or whatever) after the next Census.

[Righty1]

I want the rose, you get the thorn! PR has to choose once and for all.

[boomop1]

95% is a bit high, I worked there for months every place I went had windows barred up. I never felt welcome there, except the engineers where I worked who were Puerto Rican and educated, were very friendly. Cut them lose let them survive in their own welfare state.

[Consort]

Vieques