Puerto Rico's new leader talks tough

 BY MIMI WHITEFIELD

 Sila María Calderón, the first woman to become
 governor of Puerto Rico, has wasted no time since
 her election last month in facing the hottest issue
 on the island territory, calling for an immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from
 Vieques.

 The victory of Calderón's Popular Democratic Party, which favors the existing
 commonwealth status of the U.S. territory, represents a sharp change in direction
 for the government of Puerto Rico and could lead the new governor and her
 administration into a confrontation with current U.S. policy, particularly with regard
 to Vieques.

 The tiny populated island off the Puerto Rican coast has been shaken by Atlantic
 Fleet bombing tests and military exercises since World War II, creating tensions
 that have strained relations between Puerto Rico and the mainland government.

 Calderón, who will take office Jan. 2, defeated Carlos Pesquera, candidate of the
 incumbent pro-statehood New Progressive Party, on an election night when her
 Popular Democratic Party scored big, giving Puerto Rico's politics a new look.

 The outgoing party had made a deal with the Clinton administration that would
 allow the Navy to remain in Vieques, but Calderón's election probably means both
 sides will have to go back to the bargaining table, with Puerto Rico's government
 taking a much tougher stand against the Navy's use of Vieques.

 Although the gubernatorial race itself was close, the Populares won back Puerto
 Rico's House, the Senate, and the majority of the island's 78 city halls.

 It will send lawmaker Aníbal Acevedo Vilá to Washington as Puerto Rico's
 nonvoting delegate to Congress, replacing Carlos Romero Barceló, a former
 two-term governor of Puerto Rico.

 MAJOR ISSUES

 While it would be easy to view the Popular Democratic Party's election sweep as
 a repudiation of those who favor making Puerto Rico the 51st state, analysts say
 Vieques and a series of scandals and corruption indictments under the watch of
 pro-statehood Gov. Pedro Rosselló were the major issues that resonated with
 voters.

 ``[Puerto Rico's political] status is always an issue at a certain level but what
 made the difference in this election were the feelings against corruption and the
 issue of Vieques,'' said Angelo Falcón, senior policy executive at the Puerto
 Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.

 The string of scandals included high-ranking administrators who were convicted of
 stealing $2.2 million destined for AIDS patients, two administrators of a nonprofit
 social service agency convicted of embezzling millions in federal funds, and a
 kickback scheme involving the centralized agency that collects taxes.

 And the list goes on.

 ``People were fed up with the scale of misappropriation of public monies,'' said
 Falcón, and many Puerto Ricans regarded a White House-brokered agreement
 reached last January between the Navy and the Rosselló government on the
 future of Vieques as a ``betrayal.''

 MOVING QUICKLY

 Calderón, 58, the mayor of San Juan, has moved quickly on both issues.

 Within days of the election, she sent a letter to President Clinton saying the
 Vieques agreement worked out with the current Puerto Rico administration didn't
 offer enough guarantees.

 Under the accord, the Navy is required to call a referendum by February 2002,
 asking residents whether the Navy should leave by May 1, 2003, or be allowed to
 continue its war games on the island indefinitely -- an option that would also
 result in $50 million in economic aid for Vieques.

 The agreement also limits Navy exercises to 90 days a year, permits only the use
 of inert munitions for the time being, and calls for the transfer of 8,000 acres of
 Navy-owned land to Puerto Rico -- a condition that Puerto Ricans worry may not
 be fulfilled.

 RETURN OF LAND

 In her letter to Clinton, Calderón asked for the return of all Navy land on Vieques
 and the immediate end to training on the 52-square mile island where emotions
 have been especially high since a civilian security guard was killed by a stray
 Navy bomb in April 1999.

 Then on Nov. 13, Calderón joined with Pesquera; Rubén Berríos, the Independent
 Puerto Rican Party gubernatorial candidate; and representatives of the Puerto
 Rican clergy in signing a letter appealing to Clinton to order the ``immediate and
 permanent cessation of all military maneuvers and training operations'' on Vieques
 before he leaves office in January.

 ``More than a letter this is a demand born of Puerto Rican strength and unity,''
 said Calderón, who also has said any referendum on Vieques' future should be
 held immediately.

 Clinton responded the next day with a letter congratulating Calderón on her
 victory, but saying he thought the January agreement remains ``the fairest
 solution possible, letting the residents determine the ultimate fate of their island.''

 And Clinton said he believed the U.S. government would fulfill the provisions of the
 accord.

 WORRISOME COMMENTS

 Calderón has made several other declarations about Vieques that are worrisome
 to the White House.

 Among them: pledges to withdraw Puerto Rican police from the front gate of the
 Vieques bombing range, dismiss prosecutions of base trespassers, and tighten
 regulations on ocean noise levels, which is seen as a move to end ship-to-shore
 shelling exercises.

 ``Vieques will be a very difficult issue for her,'' said A. W. Maldonado, a columnist
 for the San Juan Star who has followed island politics for decades. ``I think it will
 boil down to the Navy telling the president of the United States that there is no
 alternative [to using Vieques for war games]. But no one here believes that.''

 And Calderón must tread somewhat cautiously, Maldonado said, because she
 doesn't want to poison her relationship with the U.S. Congress. ``She needs a lot
 of things from Congress, economic things,'' he said.

 Not only will Puerto Rico's 3.9 million people be watching how she proceeds, but
 so will Calderón's political opponents. Berríos, who garnered around 5 percent of
 the vote -- a good showing for the Independentistas -- says his party will ``remind
 her every day of the promises she made about Vieques and we're going to
 demand that she fulfills them.''

 Calderón, said Maldonado, should have an easier time attacking corruption.

 Already, she has requested updates on pending public corruption investigations
 and promised audits on big government infrastructure projects and government
 operations. Her 11-member transition team includes four CPA's.

 KNOWN AS TOUGH

 A former chief of staff and secretary of state under Gov. Rafael Hernández Colón
 in the 1980s, Calderón is known as a tough, exacting administrator who gets
 results.

 Political observers had wondered whether machismo would play a role in the
 gubernatorial race, because Calderón is only the second female candidate to run
 for governor and the first woman to win, but she proved to be a particularly
 effective campaigner, good on television and gifted as a public speaker.

 New Progressive Party leaders chose to emphasize the closeness of the election
 (Calderón won by 55,000 votes of almost two million votes cast) and said the
 results shouldn't be regarded as a referendum on the pro-statehood position or an
 indictment of Pesquera.

 ``The electorate chose to base its decision on individuals, personalities and
 perceptions,'' NPP Sen. Kenneth McKlintock said.

 ``The opposition chose to campaign against the outgoing administration rather
 than Carlos Pesquera.''