Full disclosure : Yours truely was involved in some NYC organizing for Vieques before all the celebs started doing it.

It has been six years since grassroots struggles on and off the island of Puerto Rico led to the end of Vieques being used as a U.S. Navy bombing test sight. In the years of struggle that included many non-celebs being arrested and a whole community of the fishing island being negatively impacted in terms of health and livelihood, Vieques was a symbol of one face of U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico. And now it seems, the U.S. Navy wants to reestablish Vieques as a military test site all in the name of the war on drugs.

As reported by the Associated Press, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi stated that he was open to re-establishing a “low-intensity” military presence in Vieques. The move would be a part of Puerto Rico’s moral obligation, as Pierluisi put it, to national defense.

The AP also reported that U.S. military leaders and Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, have said that Vieques could serve a strategic purpose for the Armed Forces.

Even though the bombing has ended on Vieques, the land and environment is still contaminated, with both Federal and island forces arguing over who is responsible for the clean up of a land that claims high cancer rates and birth defects due in part no doubt to the use of bombs with depleted uranium among other things.

The idea that Puerto Rico is a strategic locale for the U.S. military is nothing new. Ever since the U.S. invaded (yes, invaded) Puerto Rico in 1898, the island has offered the U.S. a gateway into Latin America at the expense of the Puerto Rican people.

It is also not the first time that the war on drugs has been invoked as a “good” reason for the U.S. military presence on Puerto Rico and specifically in Vieques. I already pointed out that the Obama administration has a former Raytheon man in the Defense Department. Raytheon wanted to establish radar sites on Puerto Rico in the name of the war on drugs. Mass protest stopped the sites from being developed but obviously not the desire to come up with some other excuse to increase military presence on the island.

And I blame Mexico. Well not Mexico the people there, pero rather the increased media and U.S. government focus on the country due to the growing drug related violence. The narco crimes, which in many ways have been exacerbated by the Mexican’s government militarization, have prompted the U.S. to use Mexico as it’s new drug war baby. Violence? Blame Mexico. Drugs? Blame Mexico. Plans to militarize the U.S./Mexico frontera are are the agenda again and this time it’s not just cuz of scary undocumented immigrants. It’s now also the drugs and violence that those scary immigrants force on the U.S. (Please ignore lopsided U.S. drug policy). Puerto Rico is the new old frontera.

Since the U.S. will lose Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Puerto Rico, a colony with a fancy commonwealth name, is even more important to the U.S. as a force in Latin America. Also we cannot ignore the choice that people in Latin America, most recently El Salvador, in moving left on the political spectrum as an attempt to exorcise the ghosts of Reagan era imperialism. Puerto Rico as a place to monitor Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and other Latin American nations who despite the rhetoric of change coming from Washington D.C., are still seen as the enemy of U.S. interests.

The solution goes beyond just resisting the U.S. Navy reestablishing themselves on Vieques. The solution lies in allowing Puerto Rico to be in charge of it’s own political destiny. Puerto Rico’s colonial status allows the U.S. to use the island at will. And don’t bring me that tired old story of how Puerto Ricans have voted for the current Commonwealth status in referendums that really are nothing more than glorified opinion polls. Until decolonization happens, as recommended time and time again via the United Nations, Puerto Rico will continue to be used as pawn against herself and her sisters in Latin America.

Via / El Diario la Prensa