THE Vieques referendum is a means of struggle, a symbolic act
                   reiterating to the world that the Puerto Rican people are standing firm
                   on their demand for the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. Navy from
                   the island, according to Milagros Rivera, president of the Puerto Rico
                   Solidarity with Cuba Committee, speaking to Granma International
                   in Havana.

                   The popular referendum, only for Vieques residents, was called by
                   Governor Sila Calderón for July 29 and resulted in 68% of the
                   participants voting for option two: the immediate withdrawal of the
                   U.S. Navy and the cleansing of contaminated areas.

                   Democratic representatives like José Serrano, Luis Gutiérrez and
                   Anibal Acevedo have urged Bush to respect the Vieques mandate,
                   claiming that it makes unnecessary the federal referendum called for
                   November, the outcome of which will be legally binding.

                   However, the federal referendum does not really respond to the
                   interests and decision of the Vieques islanders, as it only includes two
                   options: the withdrawal of the U.S. Navy in 2003 and, meanwhile,
                   the continuation of exercises up until that year; or the renewal of
                   exercises with live munitions.

                   Although the battle for the navy’s withdrawal is nothing new, it
                   reached greater proportions in 1999, when a 250-kilogram shell
                   exploded off target, killing a civil guard. As a result, a group of
                   protesters, among them independence leader Rubén Berrios, camped
                   out on Navy property for one year and had to be dislodged by force.
                   Consequently, the U.S. Navy agreed to use blank shells in its
                   exercises.

                   The fact is that the events had double repercussions. In Puerto Rico
                   itself, they managed to unite diverse sectors of the population in
                   consensus, while achieving international resonance," Rivera stated.
                   "Until then, U.S. news agencies and networks had presented Vieques
                   as an uninhabited island," she added.

                   Public figures such as environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr., actor
                   Edward James Olmo and Reverend Jesse Jackson and his wife
                   Jacqueline have joined those acts of civil disobedience to bring about
                   an end to such practices on the island.

                   Likewise involved in the movement are many Puerto Rican youth
                   such as Yaimara Muñiz, who visited Cuba in July with the 10th Juan
                   Rius Rivera Solidarity Brigade, and shared her experiences on Vieques
                   with our weekly.

                   Yaimara is an education and history student at the University of
                   Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, where, she explained, the fight against
                   militarization is being extended, given that attempts are being made
                   to restore the U.S. military education program for cadet recruits, or
                   the Recruitment of Training Cadets (ROTC).

                   "The ROTC building," she recalled, "pulled out of Río Piedras as a
                   result of student battles in the ’70s and we are not going to let them
                   return now, we won’t consent to the University being utilized for
                   teaching to kill."

                   This 22-year-old student explained that along with five other
                   students, in August 2000 she took part in an act of civil disobedience
                   on Vieques. "Our decision was to totally resist arrest, without
                   cooperating with the military."

                   She revealed how when the soldiers moved in to dislodge them, they
                   applied pressure points to their heads and they were taken to the
                   Roosevelt Roads base handcuffed hand and foot like criminals. They
                   later appeared at the San Juan Federal Court "before magistrate
                   Justo Arenas, commander of the U.S. Armed Forces," who imposed
                   a $10,000 USD fine, "the highest to that date," and sent them to
                   Guaynabo jail.

                   Yaimara Muñiz added that during the trial in March, "it came to light
                   that the navy had extended its fence into the civilian area of
                   Vieques," precisely where they were arrested. For that reason, even
                   though everything was rejected in court, the defense has appealed to
                   the Boston Circuit Court.

                   On April 28, 1979, 28-year-old Carlos Muñiz Varela, the father of a
                   five-year-old boy and a baby girl of one month, was shot dead in San
                   Juan, Puerto Rico. His crime was to head the Varadero Agency and
                   organize trips to Cuba.

                   He was taken by his parents to Puerto Rico in 1962, at the age of
                   nine. Later, as an independence student leader, he grew closer to
                   Cuba, the land of his birth, and returned in 1977 as a member of the
                   first Antonio Maceo Brigade.

                   Yaimara Muñiz, as committed to student struggles as she is to the
                   U.S. Navy withdrawal from Vieques, is the daughter of Carlos Muñiz
                   Varela. "Me and my brother Carlos (who was in Cuba in 1993 as a
                   member of the Juan Rius Rivera Brigade) are very involved in
                   clarifying the circumstances of his murder. In April we sent a letter to
                   the Justice Department asking for the assignment of a prosecutor
                   because the case has been put on file."

                   She stated that they received a positive response and "if they find
                   proof they will not hesitate to charge those who have been
                   detected," but so far they have done nothing.

                   In 1979, immediately after the crime, a terrorist group of Cuban
                   origin known as Command Zero, confessed in Miami to Muñiz’s
                   murder, while Orlando Bosch, another self-confessed terrorist,
                   openly affirmed that he had ordered Muñiz’ death.

                   At the time, the Claridad newspaper claimed that the Department of
                   Justice, the FBI and the police knew who had planed, financed and
                   executed the act. They included "elements dumped by former police
                   chief Alex Maldonado, who agreed to cooperate in clarifying the crime
                   in exchange for light sentences on other charges.

                   By 1984, the case already had a voluminous file, including the name
                   of Julio Labatud, one of five traders of Cuban origin who financed the
                   crime.

                   Years later, in 1996, prosecutor Michael Corona stated that Nicolás
                   Noguera, then vice president of the Puerto Rican Senate (later
                   dismissed for moral depravation), was implicated in the murder by
                   former police agent Maldonado, but has not been charged with the
                   crime.

                   Yaimara verified that it is known that the individual who pulled the
                   trigger which fired the murder bullets is now in a Miami jail for other
                   reasons and that his surname is Suárez. Neither has he been
                   prosecuted.

                   The young woman is not disheartened. The case might be shelved by
                   the Puerto Rican "justice," but many people are involved and
                   determined that the crime will not go unpunished, and "we are
                   continuing the struggle on many fronts."

                   Now Vieques is a fundamental part of the larger problem,
                   commented Milagros Rivera, who also heads the Juan Rius Rivera
                   Brigade, whose motto is "Solidarity will never be blockaded."

                   In 1898 Lola Rodríguez de Ti, the poet who forever united Cuba and
                   Puerto Rico in immortal verse and whose remains rest in Havana’s
                   Colón cemetery, wrote a text for La Borinqueña ancient dance which,
                   in other words, was to become the Puerto Rican national anthem.
                   The patriotism of its words is prophetic and symbolic: "Let’s go
                   Puerto Ricans/ Let’s go now/ For anxiously, anxiously awaiting us/ is
                   freedom."