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Puerto Rico governor says U.S. shouldn't close Vieques base
AP | 1/16/03 | RICARDO ZUNIGA

Posted on 01/16/2003 1:50:07 PM PST by 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.



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To: wayoverontheright
"...an island one mile by two miles long..." (Vieques)

The island (Vieques) is about 21 miles long by 5 miles at its widest point, or 55 square miles in area."

Just do a general search on Vieques and you'll find all kinds of good info.

61 posted on 01/16/2003 5:33:52 PM PST by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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To: kattracks
A classic case of wanting your cake and eating it too.

No training on Vieques, no need for Rosey Roads. None. Close it down.
62 posted on 01/16/2003 5:34:05 PM PST by jackbill
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To: AuH2ORepublican
Either way. It's time to "fish or cut bait" regarding PR. Either they become a state, or they go independent, no more of this Commonwealth crap.
63 posted on 01/16/2003 5:41:08 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: 4Freedom; AuH2ORepublican; livius; wayoverontheright
We should offer Puerto Rico statehood when hell freezes over.

Puerto Rico is fully a part of the US as it is. Its present commonwealth status simply affords it the level of autonomy that other US states would have if the 9th and 10th ammendments were observed.

With only 4 million inhabitants it probably only rates one seat in Congress, hardly worth the trouble.

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

Actually, the percentage of Repubs to Demos in Puerto Rico is equivalent to any other state with a Democratic governor, that is, about 46% to 48%. The Demos have a slight edge. The only exception is that they do tend to be pro-life either way.

The island is fairly prosperous. Refining has been hurt, as there isn't enough profit margin to compete with mainland refineries when your market is the mainland. Pharmaceutical plants are expanding, even without the tax break.

Overall, the economy is quite good. There is plenty of employment, wages are about 2/3 of mainland wages, which in Caribbean terms is not bad. The infrastructure is in good shape, people live well. There is less obvious misery than you see in an average American city, in fact I would say that there is "way" less. It is in many ways a much healthier place to raise kids than the average mainland city.

The basic problem PR faces is its distance from its markets and its suppliers. This makes it difficult to compete in some industries, especially as its relatively high wages mean it cannot compete with low wage competitors like Mexico and the like. NAFTA has not been their friend.

But the employment that is there is fairly high tech.

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

Its hard to measure what the US "gets" if PR is "offered" statehood. Puerto Rico is already part of the US. It isn't going away. It is already one of the nicer places to live in the US. Quibbling about statehood versus commonwealth is more about dotting i's and crossing t's. Essentially, it makes little difference either way. Either way, they are we.

64 posted on 01/16/2003 5:44:38 PM PST by marron
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To: dfwgator
I'll drink to that, Gator.
65 posted on 01/16/2003 5:44:59 PM PST by AuH2ORepublican
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To: Brian Allen
Here's another way to look at it. There's approximately 1 million families in Puerto Rico receiving $18 billion dollars plus from the U.S. Taxpayers each year.

That's a check for $18,000 plus to everyone of those families every year!

What other country besides the USA is crazy enough to be suckered like that?

66 posted on 01/16/2003 5:46:10 PM PST by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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To: kattracks
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.

Should have thought about that before you ran the Navy out of their training area. Why keep Rosy Roads open if it serves no useful function?

67 posted on 01/16/2003 5:47:01 PM PST by PogySailor
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To: AuH2ORepublican
You don't have legalized prostitution?? What about the Balck Angus Social Club? hmmmm? hehehe
68 posted on 01/16/2003 5:47:28 PM PST by chasio649
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To: AuH2ORepublican
ooops Black Angus
69 posted on 01/16/2003 5:48:30 PM PST by chasio649
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To: kattracks
You're a bit late, Guv !

Hope the entire Naval presence is withdrawn !

70 posted on 01/16/2003 5:51:14 PM PST by genefromjersey
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To: AuH2ORepublican
Re: Your Post #40

Excellent post!

You brought out many thoughts I had not previously considered.

71 posted on 01/16/2003 6:03:17 PM PST by albee
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To: kattracks
Not that the base has been stripped of its usefulness, it is time to make it into a pork barrel project.
72 posted on 01/16/2003 6:04:41 PM PST by Torie
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To: wayoverontheright
In my opinion, this thing was totally engineered by agitators from the outside. In Puerto Rico the left is represented by the "independentistas", an openly socialist faction that comprises maybe 4 or 5 per cent of the population, and, of course on our mainland the part of the left that took up the Vieques cause were the greens and the peaceniks. Actually Al Sharpton even got involved last year.

I think you're right. The international Marxists have been exploiting the situation for years - "evil imperialist America" bombing innocent islanders. I'm peeved at AP and the BBC the most - our biggest international news agencies. Truth? Not when the ends justify the means for the left.

Third World Marxists also continued as stalwarts of international solidarity work.... In 1978 activists in the Puerto Rican left and Puerto Rico solidarity movement formed the Vieques Support Network to assist Vieques residents trying to stop U.S. warships from using the area as a firing range, a fight that continues and has become an important component of solidarity activism today.
What Legacy from the Radical Internationalism of 1968? , the VLWC, scroll down 3/4.

73 posted on 01/16/2003 6:07:24 PM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: AuH2ORepublican
I was on #22 (the de Diego Expressway), #18 (the Las Americas Expressway), #26 (Baldorioty de Castro) and #52 everyday after 9/11 and I was appalled by the lack of American Flags in Puerto Rico.

You want to walk around the tourist areas of the Condado, Isla Verde and Old San Juan and imply that the American Flags in their windows, if any, are in some way indicative of what's going on in the rest of the island then you're only kidding yourself.

Try looking around Bayamon, Rio Piedras, Puerto Nuevo, Ponce, Yauco, Mayaguez, Lares, Guaynabo, etc.. You're not going to find any American Flags there, except on the Post Offices and other government buildings. And not all of them.

Carlos Pesquera was recently arrested for trying to put an American Flag back in a government building.

Even the recycled U.S. Taxpayer's dollars that Puerto Rico sent to New York after 9/11 were only for Puerto Rican victims.

You really intend to argue that we need another state that receives more in federal funds than it pays in taxes, because we already have 25? That's the crazy for someone to say even if they're in Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico would pay no net income taxes.

They are almost all below the taxable threshold. Almost all Puerto Ricans would qualify for an 'Earned Income Tax Credit' check. Do you know what that is? It's more welfare, that's what.

Independence for Puerto Rico is much more beneficial to the U.S. Taxpayer than any other status for Puerto Rico.

We don't need a few thousand Puerto Rican mercenaries in our military that cost us $18 billion dollars plus each year.

74 posted on 01/16/2003 6:16:49 PM PST by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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To: AuH2ORepublican
As a person who has visited the "Isle of Enchantment" over 50 times, I want you to know I think your comments are right on the mark.

I have met many, many Puerto Rican people from all walks of life and I agree. They are pro-America, hard working, family oriented,lovely,warm,friendly,nice people. And the food is pretty great too!

I have attended business functions, family affairs & religious services. I have visited all over the island, in the cities, up in the mountains, on the beaches. It is a safe (US protected), thriving beautiful jewel amidst a bunch of sleazy bananna republics. The services and systems are of US quality. The people are educated and motivated.

The New York City Barrio Puerto Ricans who are the ones that are truly into the welfare mentality, are nothing like the residents of Puerto Rico. To think of a bunch of people lolling around in the tropics waiting for their check from Uncle Sam is wrong and completely off base.

The Gov is an idiot and now she is getting the screws put to her-Good-It irrited me to no end that she and the other morons were basically slapping the US in the face,it is just too bad for the Puerto Rican people who will pay the price.
75 posted on 01/16/2003 6:21:29 PM PST by grammymoon
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To: marron
The local island government of Puerto Rico employs 30% to 40% of the island's workforce, while the U.S. federal government employs around another 30%. What the hell kind of a dynamic economy is that?

The $18 billion dollars plus in cash that we gift Puerto Rico every year is what keeps this whole house of cards standing.

There's not a true fiscal/social conservative on the whole damn island. Puerto Rico's Republicans are bigger RINOs than you'd ever find stateside.

Independence should be their only option. They're blood-sucking leeches.

76 posted on 01/16/2003 6:28:35 PM PST by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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To: VaBthang4; Travis McGee
Payback is a Hillary! Ain't it!
77 posted on 01/16/2003 6:45:01 PM PST by CARepubGal
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To: jammer
Well, can we keep it open and bomb it while supporting the operations from Vieques, Donna Calderon?
78 posted on 01/16/2003 6:51:08 PM PST by mathurine
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To: 4Freedom
The majority of Puerto Ricans see the United States as a meal ticket and nothing more.

That's how I see it. If it wasn't for the generous financial benefits they receive because of their commonwealth status, I think the majority would have voted for independence years ago. Hey, I don't blame them; if Americans are stupid enough to subsidize them why would they rock the boat? They had a pretty sweet deal going on and all they had to put up with was a military base where live bombing took place. I guess they just want the money without having to be inconvenienced. I think that they need to be taught that that is not the way things work in this world.

79 posted on 01/16/2003 6:56:02 PM PST by qwas
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To: qwas
There are only 10,000 residents on Vieques and the little bit of bombing that took place was 15 miles from them. The target range was a 300 acre plot on the very tip of Vieques which is 21 miles long.

The biggest bomb we dropped wouldn't even cause a ripple on the top of a 'Rum & Coke' at the closest resort.

Inconvenienced nuthin', they couldn't even hear it over their car stereos. Did you ever drive around Puerto Rico and listen to how loud the wackos play their music? They all must be legally deaf. They wouldn't hear a bomb, if it landed next to them.

And the speaker trucks that run around the island during campaign season. You wouldn't believe your ears.

There's a lot of politicians and land developers that want that property that the Navy is on for free. It's worth billions.

80 posted on 01/16/2003 7:13:12 PM PST by 4Freedom (America is no longer the 'Land of Opportunity', it's the 'Land of Illegal Alien Opportunists'!!!)
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