BATTLE OF VIEQUES
July 2001 – 18’17’’
script
| WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE THE U.S. NAVY TURN, AND RUN?
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| IN THE CARIBBEAN, THEY’RE FINDING OUT; RESIDENTS ON A TINY PUERTO RICAN ISLAND HAVE WAGED A TWENTY-YEAR STRUGGLE AGAINST THE MOST FEARED FLEET IN THE WORLD.
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| BARELY A SPECK IN THE ATLANTIC, VIEQUES (vee–ek –ezz) NOW LOOMS LARGE ON THE US POLITICAL RADAR.
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| SO MUCH SO, IT’S STAND AGAINST THE NAVY IS ATTRACTING A WHO’S WHO OF AMERICAN POLITICS, AND AS TIM LESTER REPORTS, IT’S HAVING CONSEQUENCES WAY BEYOND THE ISLAND’S STRIKING CARIBBEAN BEACHES.
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SUPERS:
| Manuel Rodriguez Orellana Independence Party (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Kenneth McClintock Hernandez Statehood Supporter (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Miguel Lausell ‘Free Association’ supporter (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Seth Cropsey Fmr. US Navy Under-Secretary (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Elizabeth Roebling US Protestor (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Jacqueline Jackson Released protestor (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Jesse Jackson Civil rights leader (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Adam Clayton Powell Jnr. New York State Legislator (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Robert Rabin Vieques Protest Leader (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Ismael Guadalupe Vieques Protestor (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Jo Anne Hamilton Vieques Resort Manager (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Angel Sanes Navy Employee (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Olga Garcia San Juan resident (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Denise Rivera San Juan Resident (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Catalina Colon San Juan Resident (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua Political Analyst (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Elias Gutierrez Economist (0.00 – 0.00)
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| Vieques sun set from fort: 2.15.42, 2.24.05 | 2.17.44 | (Birds at sunset in Vieques)
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| Manuel Rodriguez Orellana (Independence Party) LR | 10.20.12 | Americans are not here because they love Puerto Ricans or because they think we’re cute.
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| Navy exercises | Navy Tape 57.47 | (Naval vehicle comes ashore 3’)
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| Manuel Rodriguez Orellana
| 10.20.16 | They’re here because of what they perceive as the strategic military value of Puerto Rico.
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| Jesse Jackson (Civil rights leader) RL | 2.06.25 | There’s no national security interest or reason to bomb Vieques.
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| Navy exercises | Navy tape 1.00.21 | (Machine Gun fire 2’)
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| Jesse Jackson | 2.06.28 | It’s an old, bad colonial habit.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR | 16.12.14 | It has become a monumental mess for the United States of America.
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| Balaclava troops lead civilians through | 5.01.45 | (Whispering to get down 2’)
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| bush: 5.00.51, 5.03.33, 5.04.10 – Note sequence to be continued later in item. | They’re at war with the US Navy – and they’re winning.
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| In a methodical, far-reaching struggle, they’ve sabotaged the Superpower fleet’s manoeuvres so successfully; it’s now on the brink of retreat.
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| 5.05.57 | (Whispering 2’)
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| Continue the infiltration of Naval ground sequence: 5.00.51, 5.03.33, 5.04.10
| But they may also have over-shot their mark, stirring The United States and Puerto Rico to rethink an extraordinary relationship, in the wake of the Battle of Vieques.
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| (Continued whispering – footsteps etc. 6’ – mix to lightish Spanish inst. 2’)
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| San Juan; capital of the World’s oldest colony.
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| & Old San Juan streets: 2.11.53 (Tracking shots through streets), 14.32.09 | In the five hundred years since Christopher Columbus came here, Puerto Ricans have known only dominance from abroad.
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| Under Spanish rule, until in 1898, the United States Navy barged past Spain’s fortifications into San Juan Harbour, bombing the city.
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| More than a century since that change of colonial masters, Puerto Rico’s relationship with the US is more at issue now than ever.
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| Manuel Rodriguez Orellana (Independence Party) LR | 10.06.39 | The problem is Puerto Rico’s sovereignty doesn’t exist. The United States has Puerto Rico as a colony; a classical colony. It’s the classical political subordination, in which Puerto Rico has no say in it.
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| Rodriguez cutaways: 10.24.31 & Old San Juan streets: 2.11.53 (Tracking shots through streets), 14.32.09
| Attorney turned politician, Manuel Rodriguez is trying to sell the unsaleable in Puerto Rico; suggesting the island sever ties with the United States.
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| Manuel Rodriguez Orellana (Independence Party) LR - Thought track with San Juan pretties to cut | 10.13.14
10.13.40 | It’s ah like preaching vegetarianism in Argentina, or Australia I dare say, y’know where the culture is for eating red meat. (*cut*) We’re preaching against the current. We are for independence and everything here stimulates dependence.
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| (Check this next section) |
| Kenneth McClintock Hernandez (Senate Minority Leader) RL | 9.04.13 | It is the issue on which you associate politically.
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| Kenneth McClintock cutaways: 9.20.11
| At the other extreme, and with far more support, another lawyer turned legislator.
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| Old San Juan pretties on point: 14.30.00, 14.32.26, 15.00.31, 15.05.13, 15.10.27, 17.15.17 | Kenneth McClintock wants Puerto Rico proclaimed America’s fifty-first state.
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| (Check above section) |
| Kenneth McClintock Hernandez (Senate Minority Leader) RL - Thought track with Old San Juan to cut | 9.00.45
9.02.02 | We’ve been part of the US for over 103 years and it’s simply a matter of civil rights. We have fewer rights than any other of our fellow American citizens
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| Miguel Lausell (Free Association Supporter) LR | 18.03.20 | Obviously if you want to vote for the, for the President of the United States, ah you can always move to the United States.
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| Lausell with senior Democrats – stills on his wall: 18.17.51
| Well-connected Democrat and businessman, Miguel Lausell is in the middle ground of Puerto Rican politics.
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| People shots in San Juan | He, and at last count fifty percent of Puerto Ricans, want to hang onto the island’s status as a US territory.
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| Miguel Lausell (Free Association Supporter) LR | 18.03.52 | This is a Latin American culture. Y’know, we have our own language which is dear to us. Ah, we have our own traditions.
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| Protestors chant (Spanish – requires text) | 1.10.10
1.10.17 | With your bombs and your shrapnel, Navy go away. They destroy our beaches. Navy go away.
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| Protestors at Jackson release: 1.10.14
| Now, one issue is cracking open the US status question like nothing else.
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| Protestors chant (Spanish – requires text) | 1.10.27
1.10.34 | Vieques, yes. Navy, no. Vieques, yes. Navy, no. |
| Vieques aerial on DV Dub Tape | Vieques; a thirty by ten kilometre speck off Puerto Rico’s eastern tip.
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| Naval Training | Navy Tape 58.22 | (Wave and Naval vehicle comes ashore 4’)
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| Since World War Two, the US Navy has trained on and pummelled this tiny island incessantly.
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| Navy Tape 59.59 | (Tank on Vieques Road 2’)
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| Continue Navy Training | The only Atlantic firing range where the most powerful Navy can bomb from sea, land and air simultaneously.
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| Navy tape 1.00.42 | (Machine Gun fire 3’)
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| Seth Cropsey (Fmr. Navy Under-Secretary) LR | 20.03.17 | It’s absolutely unique. There is no other place that offers the same ability to conduct different warfare skills in concert. There is no other place that allows that.
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| Robert Rabin (Vieques Protest Leader) RL | 6.07.00 | What the US Navy does here is wrong, um and the military presence has had a devastating impact on the environment, the economy, the ecology.
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| Robert Rabin briefs crowd in fort: 3.20.14, 3.29.51
| Robert Rabin is a key figure in the protest movement committed to sabotaging the jewel of US Navy training grounds.
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| Robert Rabin (Vieques Protest Leader) Speech (Spanish – requires text) | 3.21.33
3.21.44 | You are all here, a part of this process because what is so important is solidarity to assist the children of Vieques.
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| Robert Rabin briefs crowd in fort: 3.20.14, 3.29.51
| The movement surfaced among the island’s nine thousand residents in the late seventies …
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| Tape 3 | (NS – Applause for Rabin in meeting 3’)
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| Garcia Base gates, protest camp, police, etc.: 3.00.36 & Sanes’ cross 6.28.05 | … but took off in the late nineties after a mis-directed navy bomb killed a civilian - David Sanes.
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| Elizabeth Roebling (US Protestor) RL | 3.16.11 | War is bad enough, but to practice for war on your own people, in an inhabited island, is wrong, and you don’t have to stand for it. I mean, it should not be the cost of affiliating with America, that you have to have your children die.
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| Garcia Base gates, protest camp, police, etc.: 3.00.36, 3.19.23, 4.08.34, 6.31.46 Crosses outside Camp Garcia: 3.02.07, 3.02.28 & 3.10.00 & 6.29.11 | Now the anti-Navy forces have staked out the entrance to the bombing range, and armed themselves with an array of disturbing health findings, suggesting Vieques suffers higher - cancer rates, infant mortality and heavy metals in the environment.
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| Robert Rabin (Vieques Protest Leader) RL – Thought track with base externals through to cut | 6.09.35
6.09.10 | The only significant difference between Vieques and the rest of Puerto Rico is that we have the US Navy bombing here for over half a century. (*cut*) The Navy has used napalm on Vieques. They’ve experimented here for many, many years with depleted uranium, and probably with things that we’ll never know about.
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| Gordon England (US Secretary of the Navy) | DUB 1.01.27 | We have no, no data that would support the claims regarding any of the health issues that have been discussed regarding Vieques, and training on Vieques.
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| Capitol Hill external: file
Armed Services Committee cutaways – dub tape | On Capitol Hill in Washington, the House Armed Services Committee doesn’t appreciate disruption to its Navy’s training schedule, based on health evidence many members consider spurious.
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| James Hansen (republican – Armed Services Committee) | DUB 1.01.07 | And we’ve checked out every darn one of these and we can’t find one scientific thing that backs up the health issue.
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| Car trip internals: 4.09.25 | Tape 4 | (NS driving 2’)
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| 4.17.47 | And this is how the people of Vieques carry on their war against the US Navy; little trespass missions. We’re in a convoy of six or so vehicles taking citizens and some prominent visitors to I don’t know where, but presumably where they can break on to the US Compound, the US ground, and disrupt the bombing and force some arrests.
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| Clayton Powell and others out of cars: 4.19.05 | Tape 5 | (Footsteps, chatter, etc. as walk to Navy ground, begins 2’)
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| Robert Rabin (Vieques Protest Leader) RL _ Thought track with walk | 6.01.30 | It’s a, it’s a strategy that’s been used over many months now to get people into the Navy’s restricted zone ah to be arrested relatively quickly.
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| The walk to Naval ground: 5.00.51, 5.03.33, 5.04.10 | 5.09.14 | (Whispering for people to move forward 2’)
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| Robert Rabin (Vieques Protest Leader) RL – Thought track | 6.01.40 | … to bring attention to the issue; dramatise the problem of the navy presence.
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| Masked soldiers on walk to Navy land (Spanish, needs text) | 5.04.57
5.05.06 | So I want you three behind me, and I want the press behind them until we get up to the fence.
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| The walk to Naval ground: 5.00.51, 5.03.33, 5.04.10 | On today’s mission, a New York legislator and son of a prominent civil rights activist.
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| Adam Clayton Powell Jnr. is about to join fifteen hundred others already arrested in the battle for Vieques.
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| Adam Clayton Powell Jnr. (New York State Legislator) at meeting point | 4.22.27 | Nobody wants to go to gaol, but I’m resigned to the fact that that’s what I have to do for the Navy hopefully one day, in the near future one day, leave, and I think this pressure is working.
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| 5.10.50 | (Running steps and chanting 10’)
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| Run as group makes it through: 5.10.50
| As you’ll see, this ‘pebble in the shoe’ approach of dealing with the Navy has been strikingly effective.
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| Protestors chant prior to release (Spanish – requires text) | 5.10.56
5.11.15 | Navy, Navy go away. With your bombs and your shrapnel. Navy go away. Vieques yes. Navy no. Vieques yes. Navy no.
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| 5.13.53 | (Cutting through fence 3’)
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| Soldier cuts through fence to remove Navy ‘no trespass sign’: 5.13.53
| Every time one or more make it through, they force the Navy to stop the bombing and clear the range.
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| Masked men banging sign (Spanish – requires text) | 5.14.56
5.15.01 | This is ours now. (bang, bang) This now belongs to us. |
| Protestor through fence just prior to arrest (Spanish – requires text) | 5.12.42
5.12.57 | So tell us now why you’re there. We are here representing all of the young people so that they can see that we too are young, giving ourselves to the cause of Vieques. (clapping)
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| Naval officers arrest group: 5.17.02
| The people of Vieques have made the Navy’s life here, untenable …
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| Naval officer on radio | 5.18.15 | Ten four; we’ve got two detained and one. Ten Four, standby.
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| … but they’ve also sold their cause to a much larger audience.
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| Soldier after arrests | 5.20.57 | I’m going to go check down here.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua – Thought track | 16.04.58 | The implications are that if the Navy leaves ...
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| Soldier after arrests | 5.22.44 | Alpha Two’s here so just load ‘em up in the vehicle and take ‘em out.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua | 16.05.02 | … Puerto Rico then will become sovereign and an independent country, because the United States doesn’t need Puerto Rico anymore.
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| Radio studio internals: 16.25.37, | 16.27.44 or 17.06.21 | (Spanish Radio intro to Garcia-Passalaqua)
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| 17.05.01, 17.06.28, 17.07.51 | Veteran Puerto Rican political analyst, Juan Garcia Passalacqua hammers the point on his radio and TV shows ...
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| Juan Garcia- Passalacqua (Radio Studio In Spanish – needs text) | 16.33.56
16.34.06 | The Navy says even if it wins the referendum in Vieques, it’s leaving. Why? Because there is a hostile environment in Vieques.
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| Singer on radio | Even would be hit-makers have latched onto the surge in pro-Vieques sentiment.
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| Singer – Spanish | 17.11.56 | (Singing) Vieques, yes, Navy, no. Vieques, yes, Navy, no. Vieques, yes, Navy, no.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR – Thought track with continued internals of radio station, to cut | 16.05.39
16.05.47 | This is a historic, tremendous, earth-shaking development for the people of Puerto Rico (*cut*) Psychologically difficult for half of the people of Puerto Rico; gratifying for the other half, which is the amazing thing here. (chuckle) We’re split down the middle.
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| Driving shot through San Juan ghetto: 12.24.48
| They call it the Barrio, or ghetto. Almost two thirds of Puerto Rico’s near four million people live below the poverty line, many in federal housing projects like this one …
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| Ghetto housing externals: 14.12.23, 14.15.25
| … an imposing reminder of the dangers for Puerto Rico in toying with it’s US relationship.
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| 13.13.09 | (Music track from ghetto pub)
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| Woman dancing outside Ghetto pub: 13.09.32 & San Juan ghetto pub activity: 13.10.55
| Washington sinks thirteen billion US dollars a year into the Puerto Rican economy.
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| Almost half comes from US programs Puerto Ricans don’t contribute to; the sweetener for the American Military’s Caribbean stronghold.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR | 16.18.09 | The people of Puerto Rico receive six billion dollars a year in exchange for twelve military bases in Puerto Rico, and that’s the deal. That’s a lot of money in this economy. It is - it is the economy.
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| Punctuate with military activity | Navy Tape 59.59 | (Tank on Vieques Road 2’)
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR | 16.19.09 | If the bases go, the funds go. If the bases stay, the funds stay.
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| Punctuate with military activity | Navy tape 1.02.57 | (Amphibious landing craft docks 2’)
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| Housing project external | 13.08.03 | (Car blasts horn at man crossing Ghetto street)
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| Children playing outside Catalina’ ghetto home: 14.13.15
| In the Barrio, most want America to stay.
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| Vox Pop RL – in San Juan through house bars | 13.16.12 | I like Puerto Rico and I like United State. I like two flag. I like Puerto Rico and I like United States.
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| Olga Garcia (Ghetto resident) RL | 14.04.03 | They provide us with funds for food; with ah special grants to get our kids in school, go to college, which I see which is a very good help from the United States.
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| Cutaways of family: 13.26.23, 14.00.35, 14.08.56, 14.12.13 | It’s a link sealed in blood.
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| Pictures of Catalina’s sons in military: 14.12.47, 14.13.08 & McClintock walks with Tim in front of War memorial: 9.23.15, 9.24.21
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| Barrio resident Catalina Colon’s two sons served in Vietnam and many hundreds have died under the Stars and Stripes, a flag with no star for Puerto Rico.
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| Catalina Colon (Ghetto resident) RL | 13.32.18 | I have my children there. My children go to school there. I love it; America.
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| Olga Garcia (Ghetto resident) RL | 14.04.29 | We don’t ah regret or we don’t feel bad about the United States, the way they treat us. It’s just the way they are behaving in the bombing with our brothers of Vieques.
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| Tim Lester PTC | 15.09.57
15.10.21 | That the Vieques bombing has begun to reverberate here in San Juan is one thing. To reverberate thousands of kilometres to the North in the United States, is another. Why would Washington care about a US territory that doesn’t even elect a Member of Congress let alone vote for President? Well, Washington does care because it’s found that Vieques matters in places nowhere near the bombing range.
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| 21.13.29 | (Siren in Time Square 2’)
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| Time Square: 21.12.48
| New York. In some respects Puerto Ricans have more influence here than at home.
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| One point seven million Puerto Ricans live in the Big Apple,
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| 21.13.12 | (Fans yelling in Time Square2’)
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| Puerto Rico areas of New York: 21.04.35, 21.00.51
| … not to mention those in Chicago, Florida and elsewhere.
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| There are almost as many living in the continental US as in Puerto Rico.
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| On Manhattan’s lower east side, and in other cities where they hang the Puerto Rican flag, one issue has blossomed into an unusually potent rallying call; a way to declare their ethnicity - Vieques.
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| Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez (Hispanic federation) RL | 20.27.22 | There has been no issue that has brought the Puerto Rican together and that had that much unanimity in the raising of voices.
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| Lorraine and Tim walking in New York: 20.33.30, 21.00.30 | Hispanic Federation President in New York, Lorraine Cortes has watched senior politicians and public figures recognise Vieques is galvanising Hispanic and even African American voters.
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| Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez (Hispanic federation) RL | 20.31.49 | I really do think that the relationship between the United States and its US citizens on Puerto Rico will change dramatically, all stimulated by Vieques.
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| Jesse Jackson (Civil rights leader) RL | 2.08.09 | It’s becoming an issue that binds and connects Latinos all across the board, because it’s a real, overt expression of colonialism, and people are rejecting it.
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| Jesse Jackson walking with son and daughter outside prison: 1.01.15 | Reverend Jesse Jackson is in San Juan – and he’s not alone, on an issue that’s attracted names like Kennedy and Clinton.
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| Jackson and family reunited with Jacqueline Jackson: 1.03.18 | In the wake of a fuss over his marital infidelity, the civil rights figurehead chose not to invade the bombing range.
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| Protestors at Jackson release | 1.10.14 | (Protestors chant at Jackson release)
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| Protestors at Jackson release: 1.10.14
| His wife Jacqueline did, sentenced to ten days prison; this, her release day.
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| Jacqueline Jackson (Released protestor) presser | 1.15.42 | I willingly decided to become a part of the human shield that was formed to stop the bombing.
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| Jesse Jackson (Civil rights leader) RL | 2.07.12 | The Navy has no right to use Pan, to use Puerto Rico for a warm up for fighting imaginary wars in Europe. If you must fight a war in Europe, then practice in Europe.
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| (check next section) | |
| Angel Sanes (Navy Employee) LR | 8.27.44 | You could die anywhere. You could die in the street. A car came down and hit you in the street. Anybody could come down with a gun and kill you with a gun. Y’know, it’s not really happen like everybody say, y’know.
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| (check above section) | |
| Garcia Base gates, protest camp, police, etc.: 3.00.36, 3.19.23, 4.08.34, 6.31.46
| But with millions of votes at stake in the US and big guns fighting their media battle; the tiny Vieques protest finally had the US President cornered.
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| US President - file | He scrapped plans for a Vieques referendum and ordered the Navy cease bombing from May 2003.
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| George W Bush (US President) CNN 14/6/01 | DUB 1.00.20 | I have made the statement loud and clear that within a reasonable period of time that the Navy will find another place to practise.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR | 16.07.15 | And the President of the United States who needs Hispanic votes in New York and in Florida because his brother is running in Florida in a few months, said ‘hey guys, y’know, if these people are affirming their ethnicity, and I need Hispanic votes, the hell with the Navy.’
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| Vieques township – street shots and faces: 7.23.21 | … but by taking away the chance for Vieques to vote on the issue, and forcing his Navy to move, the President has fully satisfied no-one.
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| Elizabeth Roebling (US Protestor) RL | 3.13.29 | All he did is said ‘Oh yeh, we’re going to lose the vote.’ Well, we knew he was going to lose the vote, but if you’re raping someone, you don’t say ‘Oh, OK, well I’m going to stop in two years.’ These people are being raped. Stop now.
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| Gordon England (US Secretary of the Navy) | DUB 1.08.06 | It’s very, very important for our Navy and Marines where ever we are located, to have a good relationship with our neighbours.
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| Robin Hayes (Republican – Armed Services Committee) | DUB 1.05.24 | … but we cannot give up Vieques. We cannot give up this asset. We don’t have the luxury of time to analyse every possible site where we might cobble together something that might hopefully work.
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| Armed Services Committee cutaways – dub tape | On Capitol Hill, Republicans in the Armed Services Committee have gone, well – ballistic, fearing the Vieques precedent will white ant the US military where ever it trains.
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| Edward Schrock (Republican – Armed Services Committee) | DUB 1.04.29 | If we put a crack in the dyke here and we allow this to happen, where’s it going to stop? |
| Curt Weldon (Republican – Armed Services Committee) | DUB 1.02.06 | That’s what we’ve done in Vieques. The stupidest thing I think that I’ve ever been a part of on this Committee. This is setting a precedent that is going to come back and bite us in the rear end time and time again.
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| Vieques sun set from fort: 2.15.42, 2.24.05– clouds, etc. | MUSIC | (Re-introduce lightish Spanish inst. From opening 2’)
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| Vieques has compounded the American Military’s uncertainty – not only can it’s host turn against it; when the political winds shift, so too can its President.
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| … and there are new fears for Puerto Ricans.
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| George W Bush hasn’t ordered the Navy out of Puerto Rico, just off Vieques, but might one lead to the other.
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| Seth Cropsey (Fmr. Navy Under-Secretary) LR | 20.05.51 | Um, that’s a legitimate concern. Ah, the people in Puerto Rico have to think long and hard about what relationship they want to have to the United States. Obviously we’re not in a position to dictate that; we shouldn’t be; we’re not.
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| Juan Garcia-Passalacqua (Political Strategist) LR
(Two shots / cutaways of Garcia-Passalaqua: 16.22.11) | 16.20.12
16.13.40 | The state-hooders are saying, ‘Please stay; keeping sending the six billion. We’ll put the American Flag in the chapel or anywhere. Don’t go.’ The Americans are saying ‘It’s costing us too much. You don’t want the bases. We won’t send you the money.’ (*cut*) I think what is going to happen after this is over is the United States is going to say ‘OK guys. With the American Flag or with the Puerto Rican Flag. Tell us which way you want to go.’ And there’ll be a referendum between the two flags.
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| Two flags: 12.28.38, 17.17.22 | 17.19.48 | (Flags flutter in breeze)
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| Here so few want America gone, yet Vieques has made a re-think of the relationship with the US almost inevitable.
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| 7.30.03 | (Waves on Esperenza beach 3’)
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| Esperenza beach, fishing harbour: 7.28.09
| On this tiny island, Puerto Rico has slipped closer to the independence it hasn’t had for half a millennia, and still doesn’t want.
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