A Democratic Solution to the Vieques Stand-off Hispanic-American Offers Approach to Support National Security

(Washington, D.C.): For the first time since the accidental death last April of a Navy civilian employee precipitated a crisis over the live-fire training range on the island of Vieques off Puerto Rico, the notion that all Hispanic-Americans oppose the resumption of critical military training there has been powerfully challenged by one of their own.

In an op.ed. article in today’s Washington Times (see the attached), Patrick Ortega, a product of the barrios of South Central Los Angeles who has founded and now serves as President of the Civic Family Institute in Los Angeles, spoke for millions of Hispanic-Americans when he registered the following dissent:

Mr. Clinton is wrong if he thinks that denying the men and women who wear our country’s uniform the best possible preparation for combat before they are sent into harms’ way will improve the electoral prospects of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Al Gore among Hispanic voters. The vast majority of us are as supportive as are Americans of other ethnic origins when it comes to our troops and the national interests they are asked to defend at great personal risk and sacrifice. (Emphasis added.)

Fresh from a visit to Vieques and Puerto Rico — where he conducted scores of interviews with activists, political and religious leaders, military personnel and ordinary citizens — Mr. Ortega has concluded that the sentiments of many, if not actually most, of the people of Vieques are not being accurately represented by those who insist that the range be shut down and the Navy expelled.

This view appears to be shared, moreover, by the radicals leading the campaign to close Vieques: According to Mr. Ortega, they adamantly oppose the idea of conducting a plebiscite of the Viequenses about the continued use of this unique facility by the Navy and Marine Corps.

In light of the need for U.S. naval and amphibious personnel to secure indispensable live-fire training at Vieques, the Center for Security Policy urges that President Clinton respect the strong opposition of his military advisors to the proposed termination of such operations on the island. He should, instead, adopt the Ortega solution: “Hold an honest plebiscite among the people most immediately affected — the Viequenses.”

As Mr. Ortega put it:

[Such a plebiscite] should be held a few months from now, affording an opportunity for both the U.S. military and its opponents to make their best cases. While there is no guarantee how such a referendum will come out, if it is genuinely free and fair, I believe that a majority of the people of Vieques will see the right thing for their community and the country to be a resumption of live-fire training on their island by America’s armed forces committed to conduct such training in a safe and responsible manner.