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No Borders for U.S. Military Oppression

Ismael Guadalupe from the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques and Chun Man Kyu from the Maehyang-ri Task Force for the Closing of the Bombing Range. Photo courtesy of Korea Truth Commission

By Neela Banerjee

The activist mantra “Get the Navy out of Vieques!” along with images of hundreds participating in civil disobedience against the United States military in Puerto Rico have been splashed all over the news, bringing the Puerto Rican struggle for self-determination into the mainstream media.

With almost identical issues affecting South Korea and other Asian countries, Asian Americans are taking the lead in organizing against global militarization — highlighting the importance of international solidarity.

Connections between Puerto Rico and the United States’ Pacific “colonies” have been in place since 1898, when Spain relinquished the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico in the Treaty of Paris, which ended the so-called Spanish-American War. Since that time, the United States military presence on these island nations has been critical in shaping their histories.

“We work on issues of militarization all over the world because that is the way countries colonize other countries,” said Shefali Shah of San Francisco-based nonprofit Comite 98 Por un Puerto Rico Libre, or Committee for a Free Puerto Rico. Shah’s parents immigrated to Puerto Rico from India some 30 years ago and she was raised there.

Por un Puerto Rico Libre started organizing in 1998 around issues of U.S. government invasion and military oppression all over the world. Though the organization focuses on issues directly affecting Puerto Rico, Shah said that their work resonates with the struggles of other people of color in places like Okinawa and the Philippines.

The fight to remove the Navy bombing range from Vieques has been a major organizing point for many groups, like Shah’s, for many years. Even though Puerto Rico has been under direct economic, political and military rule for over a century, it is still a possession of the United States. From the late 1940s, the Navy appropriated two-thirds of the island municipality of Vieques, which lies just off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, for military training practice. For the past 60 years, the people of Vieques have suffered from the constant danger, noise and environmental pollution from bombing practices.

“They have ransacked the island,” Shah said. The bombings have left the island ecology irreparably damaged by serious contamination of toxic residues. Studies by the Puerto Rico Department of Health show that the cancer rate in Vieques is 27 percent higher than the rest of Puerto Rico.

According to Luis Monterrosa of San Francisco-based Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean, Vieques is intrinsically tied to U.S. military destruction in other countries. The Vietnam War’s napalm bombings were practiced here in the 1960s, and virtually all naval and Marine troops entering the Gulf War trained at Vieques. Monterrosa pointed out that the U.S. military uses the threat of Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s military to continue practices on Vieques, connecting it to military oppression in the Middle East.

Across the World

Halfway across the world in a coastal South Korean farming village named Maehyang-ri, about 50 miles south of Seoul, similar practices have been happening for the past 50 years. U.S. fighter planes drop 400 to 700 bombs each day at targets less than a mile out to sea. At the Koon-ri range, now owned by private defense company Lockheed-Martin, bombs are dropped from morning until 11:00 at night.

Just like Vieques, the people of Maehyang-ri complain of high rates of infant mortality and other illnesses. Yoomi Jeong, deputy secretary of the Korea Truth Commission (KTC) — an international organization working on U.S. militarization issues in Korea — said that residents of this village have a much higher suicide rate than the rest of Korea, because of the dismal situation. Villagers claim that over 10 people have died in accidents linked to the range. Last May, a plane dropped six 500-pound bombs to lighten its load after losing an engine near the range, causing damage to some 500 homes and injuries to several people.

The Koon-ri range has been excluded from plans to close and consolidate bases in South Korea starting from next year, stirring up a great deal of protest.

A large-scale protest was organized outside of the United States Embassy last week, during Secretary of State Colin Powell’s two-day visit to Seoul. This followed a rally at Lockheed-Martin’s headquarters, where some 30 protestors scuffled with police, shouting, “Yankee Go Home!”

In Vieques, since April of 1999, when civilian David Rodriguez was killed by a naval bombing accident, activists have continuously organized protests on the Navy’s restricted areas — successfully detaining any bombing.

Recently, President George Bush has said that the Navy will be out of Vieques by 2003, but most activists do not see this as a victory.

“It is not a victory because [former President Bill] Clinton had said this already,” Shah said. “It seems like a political move.”

In a referendum held on July 29, Vieques residents voted with an overwhelming majority for: “Immediate and permanent termination of the military exercises and bombings of the Navy in Vieques, withdrawal of the Navy from Vieques and cleaning and return of Viequense lands to its citizens.”

This local vote does not have the power of law but does send a strong message about what the people want.

The Power of Solidarity

The KTC, which was organized in 2000 in response to the news about the massacre of thousands of civilians by the United States military during the Korean War, has sent a number of delegations through North and South Korea to tour the massacre sites. Jeong said that the publicity these educational trips have generated have made it possible to mobilize a significant movement in North Korea.

She added: “Because of the work we have been doing, the lines of communication we have opened, the government — both U.S. and Korean — can no longer work to repress these issues.”

Last year, the KTC sent a delegation of activists from Puerto Rico to Korea and one from Korea to Puerto Rico. Ismael Guadalupe, a leader in the Vieques movement, said visiting Maehyang-ri made him realize the manipulations of the United States military.

“What I saw in Korea made me think about how the United States has always used all its resources to write history as they please,” Guadalupe wrote in a statement after his trip. “In the movies, the U.S. always presents themselves as the heroes, but when we went to see the Korean villages, we saw who the real heroes were.”

Across the board, organizers speak about the need to recognize the connections between these far-away nations and what each person can do locally. On Aug. 1, Jeong will take a delegation of U.S. veterans from World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam to Korea. She hopes that coming face to face with the people they victimized will be a healing experience for everyone. Meanwhile, Shah continues to organize educational and community events in the Bay Area.

“Basically, it is a struggle that everybody should be in solidarity with,” Shah said. “It is not just about Puerto Rico, it is about Guam, it is about the continual colonization in the Philippines, it is about wherever the United States will try to go after they leave Vieques.”

Shilpa Mankikar contributed to this report.