[NukeNet] Report on Vieques documentary interviews on contamination

[Wild Clearing]

Kindly read and forward

Vieques interview notes with activists on depleted uranium  
contamination – for Stop-DU meeting and other forums:

 From Wes Rehberg

The interviews and the visit to Vieques are part of a documentary I’m  
making on DU contamination dangers – U.S. Navy contamination from  
weapons testing on this Puerto Rican island was the key theme of the  
interviews. The interviews were conducted during my Sept. 18-24. 2007  
journey throughout the island.

The key interviews were with six people:
Nilda Medina, former science teacher, long-time activist and  
organizer and now developer of cooperative enterprises, who has been  
imprisoned for her activism against the Navy presence on two-thirds  
of the island, the weapons testing there, and who now speaks to the  
health problems of contamination;
Ismael Guadalupe Ortiz, activist since he was 19 (now aged 63),  
activist and organizer, addressed UN committee on colonialism twice,  
was imprisoned four times, who sees contamination now and the  
necessity of its cleanup as the cause for new occupations of Navy  
land by activists;
Andres Nieves, cinema photographer in US, moved to Vieques on  
retirement, documented via video more than 1,000 hours on Vieques  
problems for Fort Conde Marisal Museum archives, also an activist,  
has been tested positive for contamination;
Zaida Torres, nurse at Vieques hospital, whose child died of cancer,  
and who addresses issue of contamination and the need for health  
services and remedies on the island;
Robert Rabin, a former Bostonian who has lived in Vieques for more  
than two decades, is director of the museum mentioned above, is a key  
activist, organizer and educator via the museum, and who has also  
spent time in federal prison for his activism.
Tania Cruz Morales, youth activist who speaks to problems related to  
contamination, including psychological;
I also spoke off-camera with a man who works on the decontamination  
project for USA Environmental, one of the Navy contractors  
responsible for cleanup – briefly, he offered a contrast about the  
exposure and said he has also been involved in Iraq and Kuwait recent  
cleanup efforts. The contrast is this: He has to wear an array of  
protective gear, including a protective mask that he says is capable  
of filtering contaminants at a sub-micron level – uranium oxide and  
ceramic uranium oxide are such contaminants; but if he’s so  
protected, then the danger of exposure is clearly evident, including  
the danger to the people of Vieques, despite Navy and other  
disclaimers about such a danger. (This part I’ll have to narrate into  
the documentary)

Summary:

  It would be more comprehensive to provide individual summaries of  
what each said, but in the interests of space and time, I’ll address  
the key points they made:
The Navy remedies for decontamination are inadequate. Not only are  
they inadequate, but the Navy is exploding unexploded ordnance in the  
open air as part of the “cleanup,” further spreading contaminants. In  
addition, the Navy disclaims responsibility for the contamination,  
saying it’s part of the natural Vieques environment. The activists’  
response is that the Navy can be the only source – there is no  
industry on the island except for a small GE plant, and the types of  
contaminants and the extent are not naturally occurring. These  
include uranium oxide, lithium, mercury, lead, arsenic, antimony  
(gunpowder) – some of which has also entered the food chain. The  
contamination is on land as well as in the surrounding seabed, has  
been found in fish as well as measured in sea grass at some distance  
from the test proving grounds sites. Soil, water, food-chain and the  
air carry the contaminants.
There is a considerable need for medical resources to serve people  
affected – people have to travel by ferry to the main island of  
Puerto Rico (1¼ hour trip each way) and then by public transportation  
to receive chemotherapy and dialysis treatments, for example  
(diabetes is linked to the contamination as well). The contaminants  
affect the lungs, kidneys, bones, heart, stomach, pancreas, and other  
organs. Vieques has a rate of cancer at least 26 percent higher than  
the main island of Puerto Rico, and now possibly measurable at 50  
percent higher.
In the face of opposition by the U.S. government, the Puerto Rican  
government and the U.S. military to comprehensive cleanup and health  
services related to contamination, it would be easy to give in to  
despair, but this is self-defeating. Activists must remain optimistic  
that their cause will bear the results they want accomplished.
The solutions are not immediate and short-term. They are long-term  
because of the pervasiveness of the contamination and the health  
problems.
The problems must not be elided or submerged in people’s  
consciousness, thus education and continued activism is essential.  
There’s a tendency, for example, to view the cancer problems  
fatalistically rather than the result of practices that are specific  
to the island.
The Navy must yield the land ultimately back to the people (some has  
been "turned over" to the U.S. Department of the Interior as a  
wildlife preserve) – the Navy originally expropriated two thirds of  
this island, cramming its 10,000 inhabitants in the center – the  
island is 21 miles long and 4 miles wide. The land, cleaned up, and  
the seabed, cleaned up, would be a valuable resource for people and  
their lives. (Ironically, as in Puerto Rico, tourism is the number  
one economic producer in Vieques – in Puerto Rico’s mainland; the  
number two industry is pharmaceuticals).
Basically unspoken except in Andres’ case, these activists have been  
exposed to the contaminants themselves and so have put themselves at  
high risk.
Wes


Wes Rehberg
Wild Clearing
www.wildclearing.com
www.nonviolentways.org





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