Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Contact: Rachel Johnson
rjohnson@americanvaluesnetwork.org
703-807-1839

IT IS TIME TO END THE PAIN ON VIEQUES, THE PUERTO RICO SENATE AND HOUSE ALONG WITH THE UNITED NATIONS AGREES

Keeping Campaign Promises Concerning Vieques is Crucial

WASHINGTON, DC – The Senate and the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, as well as the United Nations, have given their voices and full support to the citizens of Vieques in their struggle with disease, contamination and neglect from the United States Navy.

“The people of Vieques, Puerto Rico are United States citizens. In fact, their young have provided one of the highest percentages of volunteerism for the U.S. military,” said Burns Strider, President of the American Values Network. “Yet, they struggle with disease, illness, contamination, birth defects and many other tragic problems arising from the toxic contamination caused by more than six decades of naval bombardment and other military exercises on their island.”

The people of Vieques have filed claims against the Navy in federal district court in San Juan to address the numerous health matters affecting the residents of this island municipality.

To the surprise of many, the Obama Department of Justice responded with a motion to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. This decision means that the US government is in fact asking an American judge to deny American citizens — as it is the case of the people born in Vieques, a municipality of Puerto Rico — their day in court and the opportunity for the case to be addressed on its merits.

The U.S. government claims “sovereign immunity,” an archaic principle derived from the Middle Ages when the King would say he could do no wrong because what he does is ordained of God.

Fortunately, earlier this week, the Puerto Rico House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution urging President Barack Obama to instruct the appropriate agencies to take the necessary steps to address both the health claims of the residents of Vieques and the environmental situation of the island.

The actions taken by the Department of Justice have raised numerous concerns among activists and community leaders regarding the administration’s commitment to provide fair compensation to the Viequenses. This is particularly relevant given that many of these community leaders actively supported Obama during both the primary and the general election.

Furthermore, many of the victims feel puzzled by the way the new Administration is responding to the Vieques claims since as a candidate, President Obama made a commitment that his administration would “promote appropriate remedies to health conditions caused by military activities conducted by the U.S. Navy on Vieques” and even sent surrogates and advisors to Vieques to campaign on his behalf.

In fact, the resolution passed by the Puerto Rico House of Representatives includes a clear reminder to the Administration about the contradictions between the DOJ’s actions and Obama’s promises when it states that: “…lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice have filed motions based on the ‘Federal Tort Claims Act’ asking the judge to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. This is contrary to the spirit of the promises made, as well as to the notion of access to justice deserved by a people that were subject to sacrifices in the interests of the national security for so long.”

This House Resolution comes on the heels of another resolution unanimously approved by the Senate of Puerto Rico, which recognizes “the contributions and sacrifices that our brothers and sisters of Vieques, have made in the interests of the national security of the United States of America, as well as the lasting effects of more than sixty years of military exercises endured by the residents of Vieques” and asks President Obama “to provide appropriate remedies for health conditions of the people of Vieques that could be related to the military activities conducted by the U.S. Navy.”

In addition, the Senate resolution notes that in the past “the United States of America has compensated both foreign nationals and U.S. citizens who have endured injuries and/or damages comparable to those suffered by the U.S. citizens of Vieques.”

According to the Senate Resolution, “it would be in the best interests of the United States of America to address the losses and ongoing medical and economic needs of the U.S. citizens on Vieques, which could be resulting from the U.S. Navy’s long bombardment and contamination of the island” and that the “the fastest, fairest, and most efficient way to correct the injustice and health crisis is for the U.S. government to resolve the claims pending in the US District Court in San Juan as well as those pending for the Municipality of Vieques before the Secretary of Navy.”

Moreover, the President of the Puerto Rico Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz, wrote a letter to President Obama urging his “intervention and attention to the health issues affecting thousands of disenfranchised U.S. citizens in the island municipality of Vieques, Puerto Rico.”

As Puerto Rico Senator Jorge Suárez, of the Popular Democratic Party, aptly put it in his July 1st letter to President Obama, there are many people that “hope and trust that you will heed this call, that you will take the necessary steps to allow for the compensation of the affected Viequenses, and that you will thus finally take swift action to put an end to the health crisis among the U.S. citizens of Vieques, people who have borne a very heavy burden in support of our rights and freedoms.”

As a result of more than six decades of bombings, at least four generations of American citizens in Vieques have now been exposed to toxins and heavy metals with devastating medical consequences. Numerous scientific studies have revealed that the rates of serious illnesses among Viequenses, including cancer, hypertension and diabetes, far exceed those on the main island of Puerto Rico. As pointed out by the President of the Puerto Rico Senate, Thomas Rivera Schatz, “in spite of this, nothing is being done by Federal authorities to address the major health problems suffered by our fellow Americans in Vieques. They have borne a very heavy burden in defense of our national security. Even though the bombings stopped in May 2003, they continue to suffer from the toxic chemicals and heavy metal hazards that are the legacy of decades of bombing and military practices in Vieques.”

But those are not the only two allies of Vieques. A Special Committee of the United Nations recently approved a resolution urging the government of the United States to complete the return of occupied land and installations on Vieques Island and “expedite and cover the costs of the process of cleaning up and decontaminating the impact areas previously used in military exercises through means that do not continue to aggravate the serious consequences of its military activity for the health of the inhabitants of Vieques Island and the environment.”