This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

U.$. Navy plans new exercises on Vieques

Puerto Rican newspapers report that the U$ Navy plans to carry out new bombing exercises in January on the island of Vieques. The exercises appear to be planned for ships which will relieve a battle group in the Persian Gulf which is a part of the united snakes so-called war against terrorism. The Navy operations chief asked the Navy Secretary for permission to use live fire during the exercises in spite of an agreement last year signed by then-President Clinton to use only inert munitions in Vieques.(1) On December 29 at a screening of a new documentary about Vieques, a representative of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques summed up well the current state of the struggle in Puerto Rico and its relation to struggles around the world: "Today is the 111 Anniversary of the massacre by U.S. soldiers, of 350 men, women and children of the Dakota Sioux Tribe in 1890. This year (2001) we have witnessed the massacres of thousands of people in New York, Washington and Afghanistan.

"Today, like every Vieques day, we live with death in the form of the US Navy. That Navy which brings us death through bombs, mines, machine guns, cadmium, mercury and uranium; that Navy which uses the white sands of Vieques to practice killing innocent children in Iraq. But this is a people -- the Viequense -- Puerto Rican people who have decided to scream: !No more! no more bombs, no more death!"(2) The bombing is scheduled to begin on January 28 and civil disobedience, demonstrations, and other protests are being planned to denounce the U.$. and its Navy. Join MIM and RAIL in fighting the colonial occupation of Puerto Rico by the united snakes. Organize educational events and demonstrations to demand the U.$. Navy get out of Vieques.

Notes: 1. Weekly News Update on the Americas, Issue #622, December 30, 2001. 2. Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, 31 December, 2001 Report from the Peace and Justice Camp.