October 15, 1999
Navy Secretary Robert Danzig has been asked to testify before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Oct. 19 about the decades-long practice of using live ammunition in military training exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
One of the Navy's chief opponents, Puerto Rico Sen. Ruben Berrios, who has been camped out in protest for five months on a beach near the Navy's firing range in Vieques, was not invited to testify. Berrios supports the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States.
Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello will testify. A strong ally of President Clinton's and a proponent of statehood, Rossello has complained about the risks posed to the island's 9,300 residents and said he wants the Navy to end all operations in Vieques.
Controversy has surrounded the Navy's presence in Vieques for years, but the issue came to a head after a local civilian working at the military base was killed when an errant bomb was dropped by a Navy fighter jet in April.
A Pentagon panel has since recommended that the target range in Vieques should be used for another five years, but President Clinton has not yet decided whether to resume bombing practice there. Some fear Clinton may find it difficult to give in to Rossello on Vieques after the widespread criticism he endured over his clemency for 14 Puerto Rican nationalists.
In a related development, a Florida congressman said he will co-sponsor legislation to end the use of live ammunition in Vieques.
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, said he also would move for legislation that would transfer jurisdiction of the Navy's property in Vieques to the Puerto Rico government. The U.S. Navy has occupied two-thirds of Vieques for nearly 60 years.
Further complicating matters, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has agreed to investigate what some Vieques residents regard as unusually high cancer rates linked to the Navy's bombing exercises.
In a letter sent to the CDC in May, Gordon Rumore, a retired environmental health specialist who moved to Vieques in 1998, requested "an investigation and assessment of a clear, immediate and profound risk" to the health of his fellow islanders.
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