1. The Issue
2. Description
Context & The Puerto Rican Milieu; Prioritization: Social
versus National Defense
The issues of overseas sales and exports of defense-
related technology and products; and importantly, anti-drug
smuggling efforts, are highly relevant and thus a dominant
underpinning and centrality in this controversy. Indeed the issue
of narcotics-trafficking in the hemisphere at large, and the
arguable threat it presents to democracy, democratic institutions
and their development and consolidation in the region are very
closely linked (Note 1). But this very case in particular also
brings into very sharp relief the legally-defined issues of
autonomy and sovereignty; prominent in any examination of the
United States-Puerto Rico relationship, and particularly relevant
in terms of Puerto Rican's desire for self determination and
personal or island choice of a preferred relationship with the
United States.
It becomes apparent that the issues of sovereignty and democracy are seen by opponents of the radar project to be an important factor, if not integral to this case. Scholars have also noted that sovereignty is an increasingly contentious issue in its own right within the domain of state behavior in the international system (Note 2). It is visible in heightened environmental awareness as a result in some measure of the globalization of environmental issues; seen for example in such international fora as the UN Environmental R¡o Summit where environmental issues have both become visibly internationalized and elevated to notable prominence in terms of public exposure and concern.
A Situation Unfolds
As of 1996 the political status of Puerto Rico was seemingly
as far away as ever beyond the horizon from final or renewed
definition, despite its prominence in political debate on the
island and occasional but recurring interest in Washington DC (Note
3). However, the fears of a substantial number of Puerto Ricans of
cultural envelopment or submersion by the United States' as
cultural hegemon and `over-Americanization', despite nearly 100
years of association and 50 years of autonomy, are seen in
organized opposition to greater integration with the mainland.
Nationalist and separatist sentiment on the island and the
recurrent debates between the island's three major political
parties regarding sovereignty, identity, status, development and
nationhood made the ongoing plans for the installation a
politically explosive 1996 election year issue in the Associated
Free State (Estado Libre Asociado).
The reasons offered for opposition to this project are centered around arguments regarding the potential effects on the health of the local population living and working in proximity to the proposed site of the Relocatable-Over-The-Horizon-Radar (ROTHR) installation in the Lajas (pronounced Lahas) Valley, located in the southwestern region of the island. An integral second part of the project would be located offshore on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. The official Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and review process is central to this skepticism expressed by environmental, health and political critics of the project alike, the results of which have been openly questioned and refuted by opponents including residents and observers (Note 4).
Further compounding the problems with the statement's findings and review process was the decision of the Environmental Quality Board to absent itself from public hearings on the impact assessment report, attended by U.S. Navy officials. These hearings were repeatedly postponed initially and when eventually held, on several occasions were interrupted by protesters. On at least one occasion a public hearing ended early due to safety concerns on the part of the officials and representatives from the Navy, the Department of Defense, and Raytheon Company, who left the meetings via a side entrance at the Lajas municipal theater meeting site, after the very vocal meeting was disrupted by anti-ROTHR demonstrators (Note 5).
The proposed project's construction itself critically involves the erection of a series of aluminum radar masts arrayed in a line 1.5 miles in length at the Lajas site. The area of the site would comprise 1,000 acres of land to be leased by the Navy, only 99 of which would be used for the construction of the site. This array would serve as the receiver, to work in unison with a 200-kilowatt signal transmitter. Notably, this integral second part of the project was to be located on the island of Vieques, two thirds of which is already occupied by the United States Navy Note (Note 6). It is relevant to note that Puerto Rico is already the site of over 200 radio transmitters and receivers. Interestingly, plans to build a Voice of America (VOA) relay station in 1985, also in the southwestern area of the Puerto Rico, in the municipality of Cabo Rojo were also thwarted by civil opposition at that time, though the plans for the project were eventually scrapped as a result of the budget-cutting Gramm-Rudman Act of that era (Note 7).
Public Health, Ecology and Agriculture
Substantial concerns exist about the apparent health threat
posed by the electromagnetic waves, microwaves and radiation
produced in the everyday operation of telecommunications equipment
and hardware which are integral to this kind of radar technology.
Such waves have been reputed to be significant factors in high
incidence of leukemia, cerebral and stomach cancers, in
addition to being related to heart abnormalities, problems in human
reproduction and spermatazoidal patterns, the contribution to
higher incidence of tumors, metabolic alterations and changes in
embryonic and fetal development (Note 8). Genetic alterations to
cellular structure and tissues have also been indicated in studies
on the effect of low frequency waves in wildlife and plants (Note
9). Given the public outcry against the project vis-a-vis
health concerns, it was also offered that even on consideration of
these possible effects on the population, interested parties should
be sure to differentiate between waves produced by electrical power
lines, electromagnetic waves and those produced by radio
frequencies (Note 10).
The Environmental Impact Group Review conducted jointly by Federal and island authorities during 1994. The purpose of this assessment group was to investigate the long-term environmental consequences of the proposed installation with reference to its impact on the ecological, agricultural and archaeological sites which exist within the area (Note 11). In August 1995, Harvard- educated epidemiologist Carmen Ortiz Roque publicly commented that the Naval Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) failed to address the potential of damage to the local ecosystem, and furthermore failed to provide a list of plants and organisms which could be potentially affected by the construction of the installation. This was in contrast to the EIS submitted prior to the development of a similar site in Texas (Note 12).
State Support
A number of Puerto Rican government agencies including the
Puerto Rico Development Company, the Puerto Rican Police Department
and the National Guard were offered in full support of the narco-
trafficking project to the United States Navy, by the Governor of
Puerto Rico, Dr. Pedro Rossell¢ during the period between January
and June of 1994 (Note 13). Initial hesitancy to make government
documents regarding the radar available to the public at large has
in turn contributed to allegations by opposition parties,
politicians and activists of collusion between the Navy, the
Governor's administration, the pro-Statehood island congress and
the radar contractors Raytheon. Some opponents claim that members
of this group attempted to skirt the regulatory process by offering
incomplete findings to the Environmental agencies involved (Note
14). This possibility, strengthened in the minds of the public by
a series of allegations of congressional corruption and scandals in
Puerto Rico, has clearly worried and outraged a substantial number
of the local and island population whose health and perhaps
livelihoods might be potentially affected by the installation.
Solidarity with opponents who reside on or near the proposed site
was made very clear in a series of demonstrations against the
installation in different parts of the island, while
proponents rallied behind the Governor (Note 15). A protest march
in San Juan, whose numbers calculated by organizers were estimated
in the thousands, was noted by authorities as one of the largest in
recent years (Note 16).
Motives for the installation have also been questioned by pro- autonomy and pro-independence political groups and constituencies due in part to the existence of a surveillance blimp in the very same vicinity as the proposed site. This blimp has been in place for a number of years already and also operated by United States' Federal agencies; officially for purposes of containing or reducing the trafficking of narcotics. Furthermore doubts regarding the effectiveness of locating the ROTHR in the Lajas Valley have been voiced by opponents of the installation. Based on considerations that three similar ROTHR systems are already in place at mainland sites in Maine, Virginia and as mentioned above, Texas; opponents of the installation maintain that despite almost continuous operation of the systems in Maine and Virginia (the Texas ROTHR having been more recently constructed in 1995), little effect on the continuous and increasingly grave problem of drug smuggling in the region has been realized (Note 17). The Navy on the other hand thoroughly refuted such an analysis noting that the Virginia radar was instrumental in 83 per cent of arrests for trafficking transiting the Caribbean from April 1993 to March 1995.
The location of the radar at Lajas and Vieques is confused all
the more on consideration of official reports that more than 70 per
cent of illegal narcotics enter the United States through Mexico
and not via the Caribbean route (Note 18). Also at issue is the
amount of narco-traffic that failed to be intercepted. Yet another
contention is that if the radar were installed it would fail to
adequately if at all, serve the Caribbean and Puerto Rico due its
apparent focus on the South American mainland placing the actual
utility of the project to Puerto Rico and its neighbors vis-a-
vis curbing illegal drug trafficking in some doubt (Note 19).
Compounding a Condition: The Development and Evolution of
Nationalist Opposition
The Ponce Massacre of 1937, occurred at a time when Puerto Rico was still governed through US tutelage, prior to the autonomy ushered in during the Mu¤oz Mar¡n era. The massacre, in which 17 nationalists and two members of the heavily militarized police force of the time died after a peaceful protest became violent, regularly serves as a symbol of externally sanctioned imposed restrictions on civil liberties and perhaps even an institutional abuse of authority amongst many nationalists and autonomists (in this case by US-appointed Governor Winship). During the period prior and leading to the granting of Puerto Rican autonomy in the early 1950's, militant nationalist and independence political and militant activity was countered by state action in the form of repression, arrests and a gag-order on all nationalist organizations and their members (Note 20) and effectively silenced any unequivocal opposition to any relationship with the United States as a result (Note 21).
Experimentation with and use of herbicides and defoliants such as Agent Orange during the Vietnam era, which have produced documented harmful long-term effects in those exposed to these chemicals and agents have been and are unpopular with many in Puerto Rico as they are on the US mainland, but furthermore they have contributed not insignificantly, to anti-establishment sentiment. Puerto Rican men, by virtue of being US citizens, were subject to the Vietnam-era draft and as a result large numbers of veterans and their families are aware, as is society at large, of the after-effects of the use of such chemicals; these are effects which have been well documented, exposed and publicized world-wide. In 1993, public efforts to test newly devised defoliants on the island for possible use on the coca crops of South America were denounced and opposed by church and civic groups (Note 22). Many of the elderly in Puerto Rico can recall a time when the island was used as a test-market for unapproved pharmaceuticals and the externally imposed racial segregation of the King Sugar era (Note 23).
Charges by residents of public housing regarding the use of excessive force by the Puerto Rican police, narcotics agents and National Guard service-members during anti-narcotics maneuvers in public housing areas have periodically appeared since the adoption of the joint operations anti-drug trafficking measure in 1993 (Note 24 and 25). These alleged abuses and excessive force can also be seen as fueling controversy by reinforcing currents of thought to the effect that official, policing and military agencies are unanswerable to the society they serve, despite official claims of success in the battle against smugglers and dealers on the island. (Note 26).
Lt. Commander Mike McCloskey said in the fall of 1995 to the effect that the ROTHR project was the number one Clinton administration priority. McCloskey's public position on the ROTHR was characterized to the effect that its implementation, based on previously made agreements and support from Puerto Rican authorities and agencies, would go ahead despite the sentiments of the protesters and residents of the Lajas region. The commanders claims of misrepresentation seemingly went unheeded. (Note 27) In any event, the Commander was reassigned and replaced shortly thereafter by Army Reserve General Jorge Arzola (Note 28). Arzola in turn would later be replaced in this critical position by retired Admiral Diego Hern ndez who later took the public liaison job, substantially involving further local investigative hearings.
The official purpose for the installation of the ROTHR is to provide the United States Navy, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency and related Puerto Rican agencies including the National Guard and police force with both intelligence and surveillance capability, principally in order to track and intercept seagoing vessels and aircraft carrying illegal cargoes of narcotics. However, clearly an immediate other use would also be to stem the simultaneous tide of illegal immigrants from less-developed regional neighbors. In the case of Puerto Rico and in particular the western and southwestern coastal areas of the island, the vast majority of these aliens embark from the Dominican Republic, though would-be immigrants from other countries have also been apprehended by authorities from the Immigration and Naturalization Service on occasion (Note 29). Some opponents of the ROTHR contend that naval involvement in the project is indicative that the radar would be used less for anti-drug smuggling activities than for military purposes (Note 30) and have exploited military norms regarding secrecy to this end. It was also posited that in an era of shrinking defense budgets and the absence of a Cold-War adversary to justify spending, that the Pentagon has a need to justify such a project through its participation in anti-narcotics trafficking activity (Note 31).
Interestingly, the Lajas area is also debated by some numbers of local and island residents to be an area of extraterrestrial activity, much of which has become the stuff of legends, due to several seemingly inexplicable physical characteristics and imprints on the local landscape.
The Vieques Question
While one part of the proposed installation project is the
Lajas valley in the southwest of the island, another apparently
integral part of the project would be located on the smaller
island of Vieques (pronounced Viyekez), situated off the
southeastern coast of Puerto Rico and a Puerto Rican possession.
Since 1941, approximately two-thirds of this smaller island has
been utilized both for a naval reservation and as a firing and
testing ground for the United States Navy who conduct bombing and
strafing exercises from air and sea on the site (Note 32). As the
greater part of Vieques; an island of less than seventy square
miles, is off-limits to civilians there is considerably intense
resentment of the Navy presence there. Unemployment among the
population is high, economic activity is minimal. Public efforts
to initiate the development of the island are limited, although the
principal watchdog non governmental organization concerned with the
project has noted that the Puerto Rican Resident Commissioner in
Washington DC, Carlos Romero Barcel¢ intimated in the fall of 1995
that the Navy would or should return property to those dispossessed
and displaced by the Naval base (Note 33). In recent years the
Department of the Navy publicly pledged that in the future its
projects and work would include greater involvement of local labor
and emphasize the participation of local businesses, contractors
and residents of Vieques. This has not been translated into
results and has been noted by both opponents of the ROTHR project
and stateside observers (Note 34). Furthermore, clearly alleged
environmental hazards presented by the Lajas installation would be
replicated to some extent also at Vieques.
Conceding that the transmitter to be located at Vieques would emit some electromagnetic radiation in its transmission of signals to the Lajas site, the Navy has said that it would be located at a safe distance from the local population (Note 35), and would involve minimal alteration of the landscape including the removal of brush and minor earthmoving]. Furthermore, the issue of the project's intended purpose of combating drug trafficking drew the ire of opponents when local Vieques law enforcement officials noted that the island was also a transit point of choice for drug smugglers precisely due to the Navy's presence there (Note 36).
With reference to the size of the Lajas site and the area encompassed, eight parcels of privately-owned land comprising approximately 1000 acres have been surveyed and were, initially at least, considered suitable for the construction of the site (Note 37). On an island with a population density of over 1,000 inhabitants per square mile, one of the highest in the world, the implications are great for local residents should the suggested health concerns be accurate.
Politics, Political Development & Grass Roots
Demarcation
Lajas and the surrounding municipalities
of the southwestern region of Puerto Rico [
See Map 4] comprise a part of the island
where opponents of statehood until 1996 maintained a slim but
perhaps stable majority, and statehood advocates had not been
recently successful in election to political office in the area
(Note 38).
Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States in 1898 following the Treaty of Paris in the wake of the Spanish American War of that same year. Article IX of that Treaty permitted the US congress the right to determine the civil rights and political status of island inhabitants (Note 39). Puerto Ricans were later granted United States citizenship in 1917 as part of the Jones Act (Note 40).
While relations between the island and the mainland would be affected by legislation enacted in Washington over the ensuing three decades, the relationship would not be significantly altered until President Truman signed PL 600, initially introduced as H.R. 7674, in July 1952. PL 600 concerned the nature and conduct of relations between the United States and Puerto Rico and was put forward recognizing the principle of government by consent, in addition to the right of Puerto Ricans to an electorate approved constitution of their own making. This legislation set in motion the constitutional phase on the island which was to yield debate and an eventual referendum on the issue. Approval of the referendum was followed by the federal Constitutional Convention which created the Associated Free State with Commonwealth status.
This proposition was again submitted to the Puerto Rican electorate in March of 1952 and was overwhelmingly supported by a margin of over 4 to 1 (Note 41). PL 600 passed as a joint resolution in the United States Congress as PL 447 on July 7, 1952, after debate on two brief opposition efforts. While being "adopted in the nature of a compact" between the people of Puerto Rico and the United States, PL 447 was consistent with the United States Constitution, the 1917 Jones Act and included the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act (Note 42), providing that the United States remains sovereign over the island while permitting self-government. Most recent high-profile examples of these ongoing and frequent debates are the formal renunciations of United States citizenship by a number of independence advocates seen since 1993 (Note 43), and the recently resurgent nationhood debate (Note 44).
Other Contemporary & Related Environmental Issues & Cases in
Puerto Rico.
In 1994, an oil tanker ran aground less than a mile offshore
from the northern coastal beaches of the capital city of San Juan.
The subsequent oil spill ruined the beaches, the primary attraction
for overseas tourists, in Isla Verde and Condado, spelling
disastrous effects for receipts from the tourism and related
industries recently industries of focused revitalization by the
Rossell¢ administration of the NPP (Note 47). The damage however
was minimized by swift reaction to the crisis by the island
government supported with Federal aid and the clean-up was effected
almost immediately with the beaches declared safe for bathing
within several weeks (Note 48). On the south coast, oil-processing,
storage and refining plants which pepper the coast-line and
landscape have notably contributed to damage of the surrounding
habitat and ecology, and in 1994 plans were announced to construct
a $550 million gas fired energy plant in the Penuelas area; where
several of these fuel depots are already located (Notes 49-54).
Finally, public awareness of the diminishing numbers of certain species of wildlife, in particular, the endangered Manatee or Sea-Cow population, has grown in recent years. This must be due in at least small part to the highly publicized crisis in Florida where numbers of deaths have risen due to both accidents and disease. The survival of the Puerto Rican parrot and national symbol the coqu¡, have also been the subjects of debate by experts (Note 50, 51, and 52). While clearly there has been public outcry regarding the environmental impact of a series of proposed large- scale developments and pollution, none of the above environmental issues to date have taken on such a noticeably partisan mantle as the ROTHR proposed for Lajas and Vieques. As can be seen indeed the west as a region as a whole has clearly suffered inexplicably in terms of damage and pollution with little obvious public or state recourse. Furthermore `clean-up' or reclaiming and general preventative efforts are less in evidence than reaction to larger- scale developments and mishaps on and around the island.
3. Related Cases:
Defense and Narcotics
(1). SIVAM
(2). COLCOCA
(3). COCA.HTM
(4). COLDEFOR.HTM
(5). GUANTAN.HTM
Regulatory
(6). FINTECH.HTM
(7). SFUND.HTM
(8). CONTROL.HTM
Agriculture & Fisheries
(9).BANANA.HTM
(10).TUNA.HTM
(11).TUNA2.HTM
(12).GILLNET.HTM
Tourism
(13).JAMTOUR.HTM
(14).ECOCOSTA.HTM
(15).CUBA.HTM
Air & Water Pollution & Oil Spills
(16).CORAL.HTM
(17).ECUADOR.HTM
(18).CHILEAIR.HTM
(19).TIJUANA.HTM
Keywords
(1). Trade Product = ELECTRONICS (Defense), NARCOTICS
(2). Bio-Geography = TROPical DRY
(3). Domain: = PUERTO RICO CARIBBEAN [N/S+AMER]
(4). Environmental Problem = Pollution Land [POLL]
4. Draft Author: Justin J. O'Brien, November, 1996.
B.LEGAL Cluster
5. Discourse and Status: DISagreement and ALLEGations and
INPROGress
In March of 1996, it was leaked from the San
Juan government that the proposed project was shelved. As of the
date of writing, this can be considered to have been at least
temporary. The project appeared as of April 1996 to be mothballed,
but in November the debate on the island persisted at an intense
level and the utility at least of one alternative site is being
explored by retired US Navy Admiral Diego Hernandez in the southern
region of Juana Diaz (Note 59).
The allegations offered by the opposition and mentioned earlier include collusion between the agencies and officials involved to avoid clarity regarding the potential hazardous and damaging effects of the installation to the population and the environment, in order to effect the swift initiation of the project guarding against potential protest from the inhabitants of the local areas.
6. Forum and Scope: PUERTO RICO and BILATeral
In the context of regional or hemispheric relations, the
Organization of American States is on record as having recently
offered that the political status question is entirely an internal
United States matter (Note 60). On the other hand, if one considers
the development of the existing concept of Commonwealth and status
in the case of Puerto Rico in the early 1950's, with the direct
involvement of the United Nations in the process (Note 61) and the
resulting declaration on the status of Puerto Rico, then we are
presented with a clear vision of a matter of international concern.
Additionally, opponents of the project made known their readiness
to approach UN representatives to internationalize the issue in
that forum (Note 62).
The examples and accounts of environmental activism and domestic political constituency clearly makes the ROTHR project an internal Commonwealth affair notwithstanding the greater context of the debate on degrees of United States Puerto Rico integration. The international dimension is compounded by the actions of independence activist Jan Mari Bras when in an effort to spark a resurgence in flagging independista activism, he renounced his US citizenship at a US Consulate in Venezuela, and requested US Department of State recognition as a Puerto Rican citizen. (Note 63)
7. Decision Breadth: 2
This case affects both the United States and Puerto Rico.
However, the issue of drug-trafficking increases the number of
parties potentially affected and involved, to include other states
affected by both smuggling and abuse of illicit drugs, and used as
transit points in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, in
particular the major Coca and Cocaine-producing countries of
Bolivia and Colombia.
8. Legal Standing: TREATy (The Puerto Rico Federal
Relations Act)
While the purpose of the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act is
self-explanatory, United States Federal and Puerto Rican state
legislation require lengthy and comprehensive Environmental Impact
Studies prior to the approval of such projects as the ROTHR.
The United Front for the Defense of the Lajas Valley (Frente Unido Pro-Defensa del Valle de Lajas) is the primary non-governmental organization involved in promoting public awareness of the proposed project. It was created to actively promote transparency in the regulatory and political processes inherent in the case and protests the project precisely due to the environmental concerns illuminated both above and below. This non- profit group is not expressedly partisan, though much of the text provided in the NGO's information manual can be construed as of a pro-autonomy/independence/nationalist bent by virtue of its many references to United States', and in particular Navy and military impositions on the Puerto Rican people, as opposed to, for example, solely referring to transparency in the environmental impact review process and scientific studies alone. Much of the literature provided also makes marked references to the cultural differences which set Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans apart from North Americans evoking an identification with anti-statehood if not anti-American sentiment. A number of the members of the organization and other anti-ROTHR activists readily describe themselves as independentistas.
Both the United Front and the Vieques Committee signed a pact in August 1995 declaring their mutual opposition to the project and noted that efforts to internationalize the controversy at the United Nations by "channeling the issue" through United Nations representatives from Colombia, Peru and Venezuela were a distinct possibility. Also at this time a spokesman for the United Front indicated that an informative publication was being prepared for mailing to the different consulates located on the island (Note 64)
C. GEOGRAPHIC Filters
9. Geography
a. Continental Domain: North America
b. Geographic Site: Southern North America
c. Geographic Impact: PUERTO RICO
10. Sub-National Factors: YES
11. Type of Habitat: TROPical DRY
Puerto Rico is situated at the apex of the Greater and Lesser
Antilles in the north-eastern Caribbean Sea, between the northern
tropic of Cancer and the equator.
While the island receives
substantial rainfall and boasts the sole US tropical rain forest,
the southwestern area of Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques are
noted for their largely dry terrain.
OCEAN - The island of Puerto Rico is situated with the Atlantic to its north and the Caribbean to its south. Although in this case evidence offered to date does not suggest that the ocean would be directly affected in an ecological sense, the proposed ROTHR project would permit the surveillance of air and seagoing traffic in South America for purposes of curbing the illicit trafficking of narcotics, a great proportion of which transits the Caribbean Sea en route to North America and the islands themselves.
IV. TRADE Filters
12. Type of Measure: REGulatory STandarD
Federal and Puerto Rico environmental quality and protection
agencies are responsible for the implementation of regulatory
standards and approval of planned projects. The Draft Environmental
Impact Report has been openly and vigorously questioned by
opponents of the planned radar. As mentioned earlier, allegations
of administrative corruption abound in this case.
13. Direct vs. Indirect Impact:
[DIR]ect impact in terms of the project itself .
[IND]irect with reference to trade in illicit drugs.
14. Relation of Measure to Impact
a. Directly Related to Product: Yes DEFENSE
b. Indirectly Related to Product: Yes HEALTH
c. Not Related to Product: No
d. Related to Process: Yes Pollution air
15. Trade Identification Project: ELECTRONICS
16. Economic Data: HIGH
Although the project itself is estimated at $9 million, it has
been suggested that Raytheon, a $9.2 billion organization and a
principal Defense-Systems contractor to the US Department of
Defense, was contracted to create 4 radar systems at a cost of
$200-300 million in 1989 (Note 65).
About 8% of Puerto Rican land is considered to be compatible with efficient mechanized agriculture (Note 66). The Lajas Valley constitutes less than one per cent of this. However, when the irrigation system is taken into account, in terms of potential productivity the Lajas Valley area translates into over 11% of land for use in efficient mechanized agriculture and a quarter of Puerto Rico's irrigated farmland (Note 67).
Clearly the project itself would generate at least short- term employment prospects in construction and related activities. It is also estimated that it would create 20 permanent jobs at the Receiver site in Lajas in addition to 20 more at the Vieques site (Note 68). At the same time however, this would reduce the amount of, and allegedly cause damage to, the aforementioned agricultural lands in the surrounding region of Lajas, to ill effect on the productivity levels of the land.
17. Impact of Measure on Trade Competitiveness: LOW
Regardless of poor publicity for the manufacturers of the
ROTHR, Raytheon; the United States Navy; the Environmental
Protection Agency; the pro-Statehood New Progressive Party and
Puerto Rican Governor, Dr. Pedro Rossell¢'s administration, there
is little evidence that trade competitiveness would or will be
significantly affected, by the ROTHR affair. Raytheon is
considered to be very closely linked to the US Department of
Defense as a manufacturer and developer of defense-related
technology and systems. Several multi-million dollar contracts
have been awarded to Raytheon in recent years for the supply of
radar systems.
18. Industry Sector: ELECTRONICS
19. Exporter and Importer: USA and PUERTO RICO
Although Puerto Ricans enjoy unlimited access and ease of
travel to the United States by virtue of their citizenship, certain
items and goods are taxable by the State on importation. Official
importation of defense-related materials renders them not subject
to taxes or duties in Puerto Rico.
E. ENVIRONMENT Clusters
20. Environmental Problem Type: Pollution Land
The problem relates firstly to the potentially damaging
effects of electromagnetic waves on the health of the local
population of the Lajas Valley. The proposed project would also
almost certainly impact upon the landscape in terms of the
development and construction of the proposed installation to
include the erection of 372 pairs of aluminum mast-like antennae.
As mentioned above scientific studies have shown that mutations in cells and tissue in both flora and fauna have frequently resulted from over-exposure to radiation emitted by electromagnetic waves. It has been suggested by opponents to the project that this will also have a potentially hazardous effect on both plant life and any fauna as may inhabit the area also. This bodes poorly for the eco-system and habitat in the immediate locality of the proposed site. Several wildlife refuges and nature preserves are located in the immediate vicinity of the proposed site also. These include the phosphorescent bay at La Parguera, the Laguna Cartagena, the Boquer¢n Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge and the Department of Natural Resources Refuge.
The installation poses a debated threat to fertile agricultural lands served by an irrigation system constructed and entered into service in the 1950's, presently managed and administered by the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Efforts to develop the Valley's agricultural productivity were begun in 1993 but to little effect to date. This has been primarily due to most of the land being owned and leased by private citizens. As pointed out by the Under-Secretary for Agriculture, the government can facilitate the development by citizens by offering incentives, but the individual landholder has to want to do so (Note 69).
Furthermore, considering the irrigation system in place in the immediate vicinity, problems of erosion and sedimentation in addition to concerns about pollution of the water have also been raised given the sizeable earthmoving exercise inherent in its construction. Opponents of the project have noted that reference to these issues has been absent from the official Environmental Impact Statement.
21. Name, Type and Diversity of Species
22. Impact and Effect: HIGH and PRODuct
23. Urgency and Lifetime: LOW and 100's of years
24. SUBSTITUTE: ALTernative
In the absence of a resolution of this dispute, which has clearly
taken on a vociferous political mantle, the advisability of
pursuing the initiation and construction of this project is clearly
debatable. This is true given both environmental concerns and the
political nature of the issue. All the more so given the
legitimacy of area residents concerns. With the above in mind the
following are alternatives which could be explored in the devising
of potential substitutes for ROTHR. Federal lands in Puerto Rico
have been suggested as preferable by PDP officials while
Independentistas have suggested that they are disposed to resort to
civil disobedience in order to counter the construction of such a
radar installation anywhere in Puerto Rico (Note 70). The location
of the receiver at other non-Puerto Rican sites in the Caribbean is
also being explored (Note 71).
26. HUMAN RIGHTS: YES
Due to the US domestic political and congressional context, in
addition to the internal island political context; both with
respect to Puerto Rico's status and the United Nations 1952
resolution on the matter, human rights and Puerto Rican's right to
self-determination are important elements in the ROTHR case. The
legal concerns and the overlapping of responsibilities between the
Puerto Rican Commonwealth and the US Federal government,
transparency in terms of the environmental impact studies and
impartiality in the review process conducted by and between the
Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board and the United States Navy,
and the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency are
also salient.
27. TRANSBORDER: NO
28. Relevant Literature
Day, J., "Law halts USMX Project", The Denver Post, C,1:2,
July 17, 1995.
"Drought doesn't stall Puerto Rico tourism", Houston
Chronicle, H,12:3, Aug.14, 1994.
Garc¡a-Passalacqua, J., "The United States: Ethnocentric or
pluralistic?", Washington Post, A,23:1, June 7, 1996.
Gunson, P., "Sea brings hope and hell to the desperate with no
future", The Guardian, 1,13:1, June 5, 1996.
Kane, B. and R. Bernard, "Puerto Rico: Nation or State?",
Progressive, Sep 1989,v53n9, p.32-35.
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