I spent four years in Puerto Rico as a student and visit friends there often. I've also been to Roosevelt Roads and Vieques. Upon my visit to Vieques, being an American I was curious about how the locals viewed the presence of the Naval bomb training unit. They led me to believe (this was in the eighties) that they were fully aware that their economy benefitted greatly and were quite happy to have them there.
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.
What you have to understand is that "Rosey Roads" is a huge naval base on an island that is 35 by 100 miles and the Vieques training effort is a very small contingent on an island one mile by two miles long. What the lefties wanted was the elimination of the target practice on Vieques but never dreamed it would cause the navy to yank Rosey Roads! I believe the Clinton administration gave them assurances that this wouldn't happen.
Is this under the category of "be careful what you wish for, or what?
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.
Just do a general search on Vieques and you'll find all kinds of good info.
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.