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Every Friday in January from NOON - 1 P.M:
Join the Living Billboards at the 4 corners of 6th @ Lamar (Whole Foods/Waterloo Records intersection).
Series of multimedia report back events TBA
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:WE NEED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER from Clinton removing the U.S. Navy from Vieques before he leaves office on JANUARY 20TH. Call the White House Comment line toll free(it only takes a moment): 1-800-663-9566 (M-F, 9-5)and email: president@whitehouse.gov
EVENTS REPORT:
An open house/gallery exhibit by Alan Pogue was held January 1, 2001 from 5p.m. to 8p.m. at the Johnson/Pogue House. At the event was an exhibit of Pogue's photos from Vieques, video screening of Johanna Bermudez' short film, "Vieques: An Island Forging Futures", and performances by Lourdes Perez and Raul Salinas.
OCTAAV HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATIONS TO VIEQUES
Press Release: LOURDES PEREZ JOINED BY PHOTOGRAPHER ALAN POGUE, RAULRSALINAS, 'INDIGO GIRL' EMILY SALIERS AND OTHER ARTISTS IN HUMAN RIGHTS DELEGATIONS TO VIEQUES, PUERTO RICO
A press conference was held Tuesday, November 21, 2000 at 3:00 p.m. in front of the Governor's Mansion in Austin, Texas. OCTAAV members demanded that the U.S. Navy leave Vieques and announce delegation in front of international press stationed there during election coverage. A Delegation Send-Off was held Tuesday, November 21, 2000 at 7 p.m. at La Pena Gallery in Austin, TX.
Recent cash donations and expenditures: $2000 from Adrienne Barbee, $100 from Modesta Trevin~o, $20 from Gabriela Gutierrez, $11 from Petra Matos. A silent art auction for Vieques was held at the sold out, Nov. 18th Austin concert of Boricua singer/songwriter Lourdes Perez. Original artwork, photos, books and recordings were donated by Peter Ortiz, Alan Pogue, Gabriela Gutierrez, MujerArtes, raulrsalinas, Red Salmon Press, Joyce Protzman, the late Keith Curry and Sharon Bridgforth. The auction raised $600. The OCTAAV delegation hand delivered a cash donation of $1600 to Comite ProRescate y Desarollo de Vieques on Nov. 26 and the remainder helped to cover full and partial airfare and expenses for 7 delegates. OCTAAV also donated $100 toward medical expenses for Rolando Garcia, a Viequense stricken with complete loss of body hair and immune deficiency after working 3 weeks in the Navy bombing range during practices. A separate donation was given to CPRDV by Emily Saliers on Dec. 8.
Tune into Sancocho Boricua, a Puerto Rican music and news program for updates and live interviews from Vieques. Sancocho Boricua airs updates from Vieques and can be heard on 91.7 fm Thursdays 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in Austin, Texas and is hosted by Linda Irizarry Crockett and the Puerto Rican Radio Collective.
Lourdes Perez sang and spoke about Vieques to a supportive crowd of nearly 6,000 people on Wednesday, Oct. 18th at the Nader/LaDuke SuperRally at the Toney Burger Center in Austin, Texas. Perez and Annette D'Armata met with Nader and requested his formal statement supporting the removal of the Navy from Vieques, which his campaign released 1 week later.
The Dance for Vieques held at the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, TX raised over $1,800 (100% of the proceeds) to help send an OCTAAV Human Rights Delegation to Vieques.
Over 200 people turned out in the heat wave to dance, eat, listen, watch and send saludos live over the cell phone de la lucha to women protesters in front of Camp Garcia.
Special thanks to main organizer/spoken word artist Corrie Sublett-Berrios and to the musicians who, once again, donated their creativity and labor for the people: Cubano Bop, Combinao, Phil Vieux, Hector y su Orquesta La Clave, Songo All Stars with Willie Hernandez, and DJ Howie and DJ Antonio. Gracias also to: MACC, Austin Latino/a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Organization, Tomas Salas, Clemencia Zapata, Joe Songo, Lourdes Perez, Jordana Barton, Borinquen Restaurant, Jalisco Bar, El Sol y La Luna Restaurant, Arnoldo Garcia, Martha Duffer, Joe Jimenez, Lisa Nickle, San Juanita Alcala, Cary Prater, y muchos mas.
OCTAAV E-INFO: octaavmail@yahoo.com
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ACTION!
Please continue to contact the white house:
1-800-663-9566 (M-F, 9-5 eastern; press 0 for live operator)
Flood the White house with emails demanding an end to the US Navy occupation of Vieques:
president@whitehouse.gov
vicepresident@whitehouse.gov
firstlady@whitehouse.gov
If you would like to receive informative flyers/posters about Vieques so that you can post them around your town or hand them out at events, please write to us with your postal address at: octaavmail@yahoo.com.
60 years ago, the U.S. government expropriated 2/3 of the fertile, INHABITED, lands of Vieques island, one of the 2 smaller islands of Puerto Rico (a U.S. colony). From one day to the next, Viequenses were forced out of their homes and farms and this land (the eastern and western thirds of the island) became a U.S. Naval base. Since that time, the U.S. Navy (AND its allies) have used Vieques to perform constant bombing, air raid and firing practice and to test DDT, Napalm, radioactive uranium and every other biological/chemical weapon that has been used in U.S. wars. The remaining 10,000 residents, confined to middle of Vieques, surrounded by constant “war” and experiments, have a 26% higher rate of cancer than the main island and have had their primary income and food source - fish - contaminated. Areas of the rare ecological system (which includes a phosphorescent bay) are devastated and their cement homes have deep cracks as if from a large earthquake. On April 19,1999, a civilian was killed by a “stray” bomb, causing long-held fear, suffering and resentment to boil over into a powerful coalition movement to oust the Navy - a coalition never before seen in Puerto Rico. Hundreds of Puerto Ricans entered the bombing range, set up camp, and refused to leave, causing the Navy to suspend maneuvers for over 1 year.
It was the first year of peace that most Viequenses have ever had in their entire lives.
This peace was ended on May 4, 2000, when Clinton ordered Federal Marshalls and Marines to remove the peaceful protesters. Seven protesters remained in hiding as human shields; nonetheless, in complete disregard for their lives, Clinton ordered practices to resume. The seven have since emerged, but almost daily dozens more are arrested for re-entering. Announcements that full scale bombing with so-called “inert” bombs (actually 500-1000 lbs of less accurate concrete) will begin again at any moment keep Viequenses in a state of constant alert. The military says that Vieques is the only place it can do its combined “practices,” It is repugnant to think that our “defense’ requires the death and destruction of our 10,000 sisters and brothers in Vieques. Please join us and an international community of people of conscience, including the Dalai Lama, Jesse Jackson, Ruben Blades and thousands more in putting an immediate end to the destruction of Vieques, its precious 10,000 human beings and ecosystem. Vieques has suffered enough! Contact us and we’ll make it easy for you to add your voice.
U.S. NAVY OUT OF VIEQUES NOW!
NOT ONE MORE BOMB!
OCTAAV is a human nucleus in solidarity with the struggle to remove the U.S. Navy from Vieques, Puerto Rico. OCTAAV is comprised of Texas-based, international artists and activists of diverse race, class and religious backgrounds who are committed to:1. transmitting current and historical information on the human rights/ecological crisis in Vieques to their individual constituencies; 2. activating and expanding a “Quick-Response Donor Network” to provide funds and materials to activists in Vieques as needed;
3. engaging performing and visual arts, lobbying efforts and ceremony for a lasting peace in Vieques.
CONTACT: tel: 512-442-5986 * email: octaavmail@yahoo.com
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For chronology of events in Vieques and other current information, see the website:
http://www.viequeslibre.org
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Committee Pro Rescue and Development for Vieques
Our generation should be the wall of contention
between a rigid demarcated past and a safer future.
Today we, the women of Vieques, Puerto Rico, find
ourselves in the midst of a dilemma. Our beloved
island Nena is drowning in a sea of disadvantage and
oppression. We, the viequenses' women feel the pain
of not been able to give birth in our own island of
Vieques, because that right has been taken away by the
US Navy. The pain of seeing our husbands and sons
risking their lives challenging the most powerful war
machine in the world, the United States Navy. The
fishing industry is our sole source of income and
without it, our livelihood we cannot survive.
We are suffering because our children are being forced
to abandon the island municipality of Puerto Rico,
like refugees in the night, because there is no
possibility of economic future for them on the island
Nena. We are
suffering because in each family there are two or more
cases of cancer due to the rampant toxic contamination
of our Island by the Navy. The economic stranglehold,
socially, physically and morally is ignored by the
landlords of power and terror. But we, like all human
beings have the Right to Life, liberty and the pursuit
of Happiness. This is why, we, the women of Vieques,
Puerto Rico have awakened and are now standing on
our two feet.
We are making a call to all women not to ignore the
suffering of your sisters and brothers from Vieques.
For in the future you don't feel guilty and said
"I didn't know what was happening down there."
Don't close your eyes and ears, much less your heart
to the clamor of our Vieques Island. Shout to the
world; you have heard the cry of the people from
Vieques. Don't become an accomplice to the immoral and
physically ill treatment of your sister and brothers,
son and daughters, grandparents and ancestors in the
Nena Island.
We, women of today, are witnesses to the devastation
of the Navy's presence on Vieques, Puerto Rico. We ask
all other women to understand our oppressed situation
and help us struggle against it. We are on the right
path for peace and justice, do not ignore your
responsibility to protect areas of the world that are
threatened by the harassment's and abuses of power
from the military.
We need women throughout the world to hear our cry
for peace in Vieques,Puerto Rico. Take responsibility.
Make a commitment to join in solidarity. Don't
participate in the genocide the US war machine, the
Navy, is engaging in against our humble and
defenseless country, knowingly, converting, themselves
into promiscuous violators for the peace that God had
thought us.
Our role in this struggle is to use our will to
provide a better tomorrow for Peace for the next
generation. Moreover, we have been giving the sacred
task to put in our children hands the seeds our
ancestors and parents for 60 years have been
harvesting. We call upon you, to
fertilize the seeds sooner rather than later so that
Peace will be a reality in our lives!
The one that dares plant a seed in her or his heart,
and has faith, trust and the perseverance needed to
struggle, can visualize at the end. . .THE REWARD!
Get the Navy out of Vieques Now!
Write or call President Clinton and let your voice
be heard:
Women throughout the World should read this letter.
Reproduce it and translate in any language. Send it
around the World.
Any donations in cash or checks should be send to:WHAT IS HAPPENING IN VIEQUES?
OCTAAV website: www.angelfire.com/journal/octaav * SEE ALSO: www.viequeslibre.org
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF LETTER FROM MARIA ELENA NAVARRO
TO THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD....
SRA Maria Elena Navarro (Helen)
Gladiola Street, Bo. Esperanza
Vieques, Puerto Rico. 00765
Tel/Fax 1 212 531-1835
1 787 741-3461
E-mail josejmelendez@aol.com
T0: You women of Puerto Rico and the World
From: Viequenses Women in the Rescue for Peace in
Action
202 456-2896
202 456-2889
202 456-6594
fax: 202 456-6707
and tell them to
"Get the Navy out of Vieques Now!"
Viequenses Women In the Rescue For Peace in Action
c/o SRA. Maria Elena Navarro
Gladiola Street, Bo. Esperanza
Vieques, Puerto Rico. 00765
ALERT! 6-24-2000:
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Today the U.S. Navy resumed bombing Vieques, knowing that their are civil rights activists inside the bombing range acting as human shields against further destruction of the island and its people." We denounce this human rights atrocity and ask you to join us in emailing, calling and faxing the president, vicepresident, first lady, navy officials and the press demanding an end to the Navy presence in Vieques. Pick up the phone and call the specific Clinton staff assigned to Vieques (Jeffrey Farrow and Maria Echaveste) and tell them that under no circumstances do you want your "defense" to be at the expense of the lives, health and homes of 10,000 Viequenses and the entire ecosystem of the island.
OCTAAV LINKS
Boricua Vocalist/Composer Lourdes Perez
ViequesLibre Super Website on Vieques
