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From: mcgeer@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Rick McGeer)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: One for our side
Message-ID: <10873@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Fri, 1-Nov-85 21:55:58 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.10873
Posted: Fri Nov  1 21:55:58 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 21:36:26 EST
References: <973@decwrl.UUCP> <12580@rochester.UUCP>
Reply-To: mcgeer@ucbvax.UUCP (Rick McGeer)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 58

In article <1630@uwmacc.UUCP> myers@uwmacc.UUCP (Latitudinarian Lobster) writes:
>many to despise the US.)  Regardless of its legal status (which is best for
>many groups to leave in limbo), Puerto Rico is very much occupied
>territory since it was wrested from Spain several dozen years ago.

By that argument, all of the United States is occupied territory -- the east
from Great Britain, the West from Mexico, and teh midwest from various
chilled Indian tribes.  Forget it!  

>There
>has always been an active movement, supported by UN resolutions, to make
>Puerto Rico independent,

(1) There has always been an active small movement; and
(2) The UN is more than happy to spend its time kicking around the world's
decent nations and praising its more bestial organizations.  UN resolutions
have all the moral authority of the agreements of the local gangsters.

>which the US is as eager to repress as it is to
>not allow successful progressive governments in the rest of Latin America.

EVIDENCE?  The last time I looked, the independence party was running in
the territory's elections.  They kept getting drubbed, but they sure did
try...periodically some people get tossed in the jug, but it's always for
bomb-throwing and the like, which I hardly consider political crimes.  And
I don't know what you mean by "progressive" governments, but I suspect
anti-American is a pretty good approximation.

>Every source I have ever heard of considers Puerto Rico part of Latin
>America, which trancends national boundaries.  Having lived in San Jose,
>California (working for Big Blue) for a summer, it's clear that it is part
>of Latin America, too ;-)

Again, by that argument, most of the southwest is Latin America, including
East LA.

>
>Vieques was taken over without any consultation with the people who lived
>there -- they were forceably moved en masse to the least desirable part
>of the island.  Most of the people had been fisherfolk, but their livelihood
>has gone down the drain as their nets have been torn away by propellers and
>fish destroyed by constant practice bombardments.  You might be interested
>to know that Vieques was where the invasion of Grenada was practiced a
>year or two before the actual event.

Were they compensated?  If not, they certainly have a case.

>
>What is Kahoolawe?  Were there people there before it was bombarded?

Kahoolawe (pronounced cah-O-o-lah-v-ay) is an island ~10 miles southwest
of Maui.  It is uninhabited (and always has been, I gather), and from the
mid-fifties to the present day has been used as a target by the US Navy.
Some Hawaiians are upset about it: it is not clear to me that the number
upset is anything like a majority of the peoples of the Islands: Hawaii is
pretty much kept afloat by the military.

						Rick.