Javier Ruiz’s allocution at his civil disobedience
trial:
June
14, 2001
Dear Members of this Court, Dear Honorable Judge,
I have been accused of entering the “Naval Ammunition Supply Depot (NASD) in Vieques, Puerto Rico… without first having obtained permission from the Commanding Officer…” on October 1st, 2000. I was detained, handcuffed & kidnapped by the US Navy and my constitutional rights were violated. During the 2 days that I was captive, my rights were never read, I was never told that I had been arrested or why were they detaining me (until I saw the judge) and I was not allowed to make a phone call or talk to my lawyer, etc. We kept asked the people who kept us captive to respect our right to make a phone call and they all blamed the other agencies for not allowing us to call. That included the Harbor Patrol (military police), US Marshal’s and the Federal Court. When we told Federal Judge, Jesus Castellanos that we were not granted with our constitutional rights he said (and I quote) “that is not my problem” and we were not allowed to call from the court either. Is a judge supposed to watch for the laws to be obeyed or are they just supposed to punish the people who exercise their democratic rights?
For almost 8 months, I have been sanctioned and have been restricted from visiting one of the municipalities of Puerto Rico (another violation of my constitutional rights). Now I am finally having the opportunity to defend myself and hope to be heard at this courtroom. I should not be standing here, I don’t fell like have done anything wrong.
As I have stated before, I have been accused by the US NAVY for entering into their territory without their permission. They invite a lot of people in, but they have not been keeping a record of who has been granted permission to go in. There are two gates that give access to the NASD (the restricted area). According to the records kept by the Navy, that morning, several vehicles entered the restricted area (with permission), though the South Gate, carrying unidentified passengers. The record of the vehicles that entered the restricted area through the North Gate is missing. They don’t know whom have they granted permission to enter so they cannot accuse me of entering into their territory without their permission.
There is still a reasonable doubt, and besides… that land no longer belongs to he military… it was returned to the people of Vieques. They already admitted that they arrested several members of the US media that had been invited (by them) to cover the event.
I have always been a peace advocator. A lot of people ask me if I get scared when I protest the negative things that the biggest, strongest and most abusive military force in the world is doing to my country. The answer that I give them is that I am scared of many things. Every time I eat a piece of fruit, vegetable, meat, etc. I get scared that it might be polluted by the military activity in Vieques. A big percentage of the agriculture in Puerto Rico takes place on the Southeast corner of the Island (downwind from where the US Navy have been burning toxic waste and shooting bombs on top of the fuel and unexploded materials, left behind by previous bombs.) According to the 1998 Census of Agriculture, prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Statistics Service, the Region with the second biggest area, dedicated to agriculture is Region 5, which consists of the 15 municipalities on the Southeast of Puerto Rico. It is also the area with the most farms used for Pasture and Grazing. 65% of the time, the winds blow from the shooting range to the west, carrying particulated pollution from the shooting range in Vieques, to the “Isla Grande”. The tap water from Vieques comes from the main island because it has been (scientifically) proven that the drinking water in Vieques has been polluted by heavy metal particles coming from the shooting range.
I am a civil engineer. I was about to work on the design of an off-stream water reservoir at Rio Blanco in Naguabo (Puerto Rico). Right now, the water supply in that area is not enough to meet the demand. Because of the topography of the area, Rio Blanco carries big amounts of water in a very inconsistent way (the average flow is small and the peak flows are big). Building an off-stream water reservoir is critical in order to obtain a proper water supply and would help control floods in the area. As everybody knows, the Navy has an illegal water intake that extracts big amounts of water from the river, without having the required local permits. What most people don’t know is that they are disposing most of that water, downstream from where the reservoir intake is supposed to be. The NAVY’s pipe is affecting the feasibility of the project, so the Southeast area is still having water problems. In order to build the reservoir, we need to get rid of the NAVY’s intake (and pipe). Technically, we could build the reservoir and allow the NAVY to get water from our reservoir, but in order to do that, the NAVY needs to obtain the permits. The Federal Court is not allowing us to deal with the issue. People in the Southwest are still running dry.
As it has been scientifically proven, the low frequency sound waves, produced by the cannons as they shoot, destroys the internal organs of the human body and has the capability of traveling through air or water, for several miles without getting dissipated. Many years ago, the military made some research to build low frequency antennas that would be used to communicate with their submarines. When they discovered the catastrophic effects of low frequency radars, they discontinued using that kind of antenna. Today, only 4 of those antennas are still active and one of them is located in Aguada, Puerto Rico.
Everybody knows all the damage that they are causing to human life. The only justification that they use is that they say that the “national security depends on Vieques“. It has been proven over and over that Vieques is not necessary for national security, but I am going to prove it again, with known facts. The United States is changing the way that they fight wars and, the battle groups, (that are the ones that train in Vieques) are no longer useful for the US military. On a battle group, the main unit is the supercarrier that cost $5 billions and is vulnerable to the enemy attacks. In order to protect the supercarrier from the enemy missiles, that are proliferating, it is necessary to get 6 surface ships to escort them (costing $1 billion, each), and 2 submarines (costing $1.8 billions each) and it is also necessary to use a big percentage of the embarked aircrafts, leaving fewer planes for the offensive action. One of the main points on President Bush’s platform is to get rid of the unnecessary, inefficient part of the military. He also proposed to close several military bases. We already have more efficient ways to fight wars. So, why is it so important to keep the battlegroups active and training in Vieques? That is because the weapons industry, that is very influential within the Congress and the White House, is pressuring to keep the government purchasing and using those obsolete weapons. This trillion dollars market is the source of wealth for a few executives. It is known, but hard to prove, that a lot of corruption goes on within this market. This is not what I call “Law & Order”.
There are rumors that the White House wants to deal with our political status before dealing with the problems in Vieques. The status of Puerto Rico has to be fixed, but the solution is not to force us to decide between getting an unfavorable statehood or being kicked out and become an unprepared republic. Before our political status changes, we need them to help us develop our own economy. We don’t want them to give us food; we want them to teach us how to go obtain that food. Before we change our status, we need to get prepared.
In general, physical force has been becoming less important every day. In the past, the stability of a country used to depend on the military force of that country. Today, in the 21st Century, the stability is determined by other factors like diplomatic relations and control of the information resources and trade agreements. 50 years ago, when physical force was the most critical factor, the typical family was controlled by domestic violence. If the wife said something that the man would not like; he would beat her up so that she would have to keep her moth closed. That is just no longer the way that things work. Today, things are different. It is no longer necessary to sacrifice the health and the human rights of US citizens in order to ensure a proper military force.
I am a proud Puerto Rican but I am also proud to be an American citizen. All the things that the Navy is doing in Vieques are unconstitutional and are totally un-American. That kind of situation is taking the USA in a bad direction. I know that the big problems (like Vieques) will not get solved in court, but the judges have a big responsibility on their hands. We are all making history and it is up to us to decide weather we build a good or a bad future for ourselves. Before you make a decision I want you to remember something; the United States was created by civil disobedients and what made it the most powerful nation in the world was the people who protest for their rights, not the military who kill people. Recently, the US was withdrawn from the Civil Rights Commission of the United Nations. It is up to us to watch for civil rights in the US and recover what we have lost.
Note:
As expected, the judge found us guilty for the misdemeanor charge of trespassing.
We were ordered to stay under the custody of a Federal Bureau of prisons for the “time served” and had to pay a Special Monetary Assessment of $10.
That day, President George W. Bush,
ordered the NAVY to leave Vieques by May 1, 2003.
On January 9, 2002, he restated his position (that the NAVY should leave Vieques).
I am happy o know that I am
part of history.
We have to stay active to make sure that the presidential orders are followed.