Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Vieques leaders return to fight for the land
SAN JUAN (EFE) – So that the communities of Vieques don’t lose before the "foreign millionaire developers" the space that they recuperated after years of civil disobedience against the U.S. Navy, Vieques leaders demanded Tuesday a clear regulation for the use of the lands.
Representatives of the Vieques community and the Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques (CPRDV) demanded from the Planning Board a clear regulation for the use of the lands that protects the natural resources for this and future generations.
The CPRDV said the decision to designate most of the Vieques territory as a Special Planning Area "opens the door to developers and speculators, whose projects usurp and negatively impact the coastal, agricultural, and cultural resources".
This is why the CPRDV recommended a Land Use Plan as a starting point to creating a regulation in keeping with the vision of a sustainable development in the hands of the community.
"The Master Plan for the Sustainable Development of Vieques, Law 153, articulates the vision of a development of our community as part of the fight for peace," activist Nilda Medina said in a press conference.
For activist Robert Rabin, a Land Use Plan is needed, but “urgent action” is also needed so that the "mega hotel projects” that are "displacing our people" "don’t replace the families of Vieques, achieving what the Navy couldn’t do".
Among the concrete situations that they denounced Tuesday is the intention of moving the port of Isabel II to Mosquito, "creating another urban focus in a place that doesn’t have anything", which the community leaders say assumes to displace the urban center of Isabel II.
