Navy says it is ready to resume Vieques bombing

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico - The U.S. Navy by Saturday evening had not carried out plans to conduct a military exercise on Vieques island, as up to 200 protesters threatened to invade the range if bombing started.

According to plans the Navy filed with the Puerto Rican government, five warships plan to fire up to 600 shells at the range and aircraft would drop between 550 and 830 dummy bombs - including 500-pound and 1,000-pound bombs - during two to five days of exercises to start ''approximately'' Saturday. The exercise would be the largest since a fatal accident last year.

''This is one more triumph in the fight against the Navy,'' activist Hector Pesquera said at a meeting of protesters Saturday near the Navy facility, Camp Garcia.

Navy spokesman Lt. Jeff Gordon would not say when the exercises would begin. He said the Navy typically gives two hours' notice to warn area fishermen. But Gordon said this week that the Navy is not obligated to do so - an apparent attempt to ward off protesters.

Protesters still have vowed to block the exercises. They will be chosen to enter the range, but only after bombing has begun, to avoid a spontaneous rush of demonstrators that could put lives in jeopardy, Pesquera said. Inside the camp, police and military guards could be seen.

Activist Carlos Zenon compared the tense situation to a ''psychological war,'' but said the protesters would not give up.

''We're prepared for tonight or whenever it happens,'' Zenon said. ''If the Navy comes to the range, we are going to interrupt the exercises - it's now or never.''

Opposition has mounted since news was published last week of plans for the biggest exercise since a Marine Corps jet fired two bombs off target and killed a civilian guard on the range in April 1999.

Dozens of protesters invaded the range in protest, some camping there for more than a year. Federal officials evicted them last month. Since then, more than 200 demonstrators have been arrested for trespassing on the range.

Islanders say five decades of live bombing have caused environmental damage, contaminated water supplies, stunted tourism, destroyed fishing grounds and led to a high cancer rate.

The Navy says Vieques is the only place its Atlantic fleet can hold simultaneous land, air and sea exercises using live fire before deploying abroad.

President Clinton has ordered the Navy to use dummy bombs instead of live munitions and to abandon Vieques by May 2003 if the island's 9,400 residents vote to expel it in a referendum expected next year. If the Navy wins, it gets to use live munitions again.

On Friday, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled the exercises posed no danger to citizens who live roughly 10 miles away from the target area.