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American Morning

Military Ready to Begin Exercises on Vieques Island

Aired April 27, 2001 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go now to the battle over bombings on Vieques. The Navy set to resume bombing exercises on that Puerto Rican island possibly as early as today, despite protests there intended to disrupt the exercises.

CNN's John Zarrella joins us live from Vieques with the latest. Yesterday, John, we understood there were as many as a thousand people there.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, today we've got about 150 gathered here right now. More are still assembling. You can see there's a large crowd here right at the fence line. Beefed up security now, about 20 to 25 security guards have shown up. There is a police superintendent here apparently, who the people want gone. They don't want him here.

So far, Stephen, we have seen no acts of civil disobedience, although these protesters promise that. We've also heard that there are about two dozen protesters who have managed to make their way onto the grounds through the concertina wire and are there in acts of civil disobedience. We have not seen any shelling begin from the two destroyers that are off the coast and we haven't seen any of the A-4 planes that were supposed to be doing bombing from the carrier Enterprise.

But throughout the day we expect more and more people to arrive here, more and more protesters and we do expect that some of these people say they're going to try to break through these police lines and security forces in acts of civil disobedience to make their feelings known that Puerto Rican people are tired after 60 years of the United States Navy using Vieques Island as a bombing ground and a training ground for military exercises.

This is John Zarrella reporting live from Vieques Island, Puerto Rico -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: John, before we let you get away, it was about a year ago that protests like this managed to affect a suspension of bombing, didn't they?

ZARRELLA: That's correct, Stephen. It was about a year ago. Now I'm not sure what we've got here. We've got somebody who's going to speak, but what had happened was it was two years ago in 1999 when a civilian was killed here, a civilian security guard. That stopped the bombing initially. About a year, a little, then Jesse Jackson came down here and made some appeals to the U.S. to stop using this area as a bombing range.

So for the past two years there have been different levels of ratcheting up of the intensity of the disagreement between the Puerto Rican people and the United States government and the United States military over the use of Vieques Island.

Where it goes from here, Stephen, is really anybody's guess, but for now it appears as if the United States is going to begin about a week's worth of military exercises just across the concertina wire there in those hills behind me -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: On Vieques, John Zarrella. John, thank you.

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