The Second Round of Expropriations in Vieques, 1947-48

César Ayala Casás

Sociology Department

University of California, Los Angeles

cjayala@ucla.edu

We Want a Sugar Mill

Martineau Tract

Santa María

Resettlement Tract

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Montesanto Resettlement Tract

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Airport

Non-Navy Owned Land.

Occupied Pending Acquisition as of 1947-48: Acquired 1950

Temporary Grants to the Department of Interior issued July 1944 and January 1946 and revoked September 1947.

Excessed in 1944. Assigned by W ar AssetsAdministration to the Department of Interior for disposal. Licenced to Government of Puerto Ricoby Federal Works Administration. Santa María Resettlement Tract Recalled and Use Permit Revoked in 1947. Montesanto Resettlement Tract and Martineau Tract also recalled but temporary revocable l icence in 1944 remained in effect. Martineau Tract used by Puerto Rico Agricultural Company.

Acquired from 1941-1943.

ViequesU.S. Navy Historical Land Tenure Patterns

SOURCE: Department of the Navy. 1979. Continued Use of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility Inner Range (Vieques): Draft Environmental Impact Statement. N.p., Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton: Ecology and Environment.

SOURCE: Department of the Navy. 1979. Continued Use of the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility Inner Range (Vieques): Draft Environmental Impact Statement. N.p., Tippetts-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton: Ecology and Environment.

Four Periods Expropriations and Prosperity Fall 1941 to

July 1943 Misery– July 1943 to January 1946 PRACO, Partial Recovery, January 1946 to

Fall 1947 (only 18 months) Second Expropriations Oct 1, 1947 onwards

Second Expropriations In the Fall of 1947 Viequenses learned that

the Navy wanted Vieques for amphibious landing practices.

This was justified with the doctrines of the Cold War

Truman Doctrine was announced in March 1947

Local Expression of Truman Doctrine Vice admiral Barbey laid out the new cold war policies of the

United States to Lions Club held at the Condado Hotel in San Juan, the 15th of October, 1947.

There was “dangerous communist infiltration” in the world. The Atlantic was a possible future theater of conflict. This delicate situation called for preparation for a “possible

attack from overseas.” The Navy would benefit Vieques economically, but even if

both PRACO and the economy of Vieques where affected, “above all else there is the issue of our security in the face of the serious situation which we are living”

Local Government had already been told […]the transfer to the Navy is already settled

and the only point under discussion is how to bring it about, especially the issue of the relocation of the families which have to be resettled in another place in Vieques or in Puerto Rico.” [1] Van Vranken, Jean. 1947a. “Piñero discute hoy el caso de isla de Vieques: la Marina desea las tierras antes del día quince de noviembre.” El Mundo, 10/1/1947.

Meetings at Navy Ships The meetings between Governor Jesús T.

Piñero and the Navy took place in Navy ships, not on land in La Fortaleza. This was emblematic of the power relations and the pecking order.

Puerto Ricans were not admitted to the US Navy Navy asks Piñero what would be Puerto Rico’s position on

the sugar quotas, an issue of major concern to the island’s main export industry.

U.S. Congress had ultimate economic power over the island’s economic fate.

Governor Piñero, on his part, pointed out to the press that Puerto Ricans were in fact barred from joining the U.S. Navy, because there was no recruiting station in the island

Piñero was pointing to the colonial paradox of the Navy wanting the land of a people it was not eager to admit into its own ranks.

The news of the coming expropriations stirred up conflicts in Vieques PRACO had invested in Vieques It nevertheless behaved like a paternalistic

landowner, Vieques cattle ranchers considered it as such

This was also a characteristic of the Puerto Rico Land Authority and of the “agrarian reform” program of the Populares in 1940-45.

PRACO as well as the Land Authority “The Land Authority’s acquisition of land from

corporations under the 500-acre limitation has represented little more than a transfer of land from one big owner to the other. And in the process of operating this large holding of land, the Land Authority unwantingly has had to assume many of the characteristics and the problems of the very same corporate entities it was obliged under the law to destroy.”

Nathan Koenig, A Comprehensive Agricultural Program for Puerto Rico (Washington, D.c.: United States Department of Agriculture in Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, GPO, 1953: 257-258.

The cattle ranchers organize…

Leoncio T. Davis and Juan A Gómez

Complex conjuncture The local Puerto Rican government was struggling to gain the right for

Puerto Ricans to elect their own governor. The insular authorities had to renegotiate the sugar quota, they were

hard–pressed to oppose the federal authorities. PRACO faced the opposition of the cattle ranchers, as they were not

content with the existing contract between themselves and PRACO. The Navy faced both the opposition of the insular government and the

potential opposition of a social movement of the displaced ranchers of Vieques.

All of these conflicts were unfolding under the rapidly changing political climate in Washington, which instead of continuing the expected policy of disarmament, was beginning to rearm for the Cold War.

Three way struggle Navy Expropriates PRACO PRACO tries to liquidate accounts with

ranchers Ranchers oppose PRACO and meet with

NAVY Navy senses big division between PRACO

and government of PR on the one hand vs. ranchers of Vieques on the other

Navy offers land to ranchers… for “free” PRACO operated under the profit principle and

charged the cattlemen a rent of 50% by weight to graze its cattle

The magnanimous Navy was offering to let the ranchers graze their cattle on its land for free.

This was a unilateral agreement in which the Navy had no obligations whatsoever to continue their land services to the ranchers

Faced with economic ruin, how could the cattlemen of Vieques contemplate refusing the terms offered by Admiral Barbey?

Ranchers break their contract with PRACO arguing “breach of contract”

When the conflict erupted, the Navy was able to woo the ranchers to its side

Cattle is fenced in in Western part through Navy-Rancher Cooperation

Get Vieques ready for maneuvers

Vieques is now ready for maneuvers… Maneuvers Begin… with 65th InfantryIn February of

1948 The Navy brought to the island the 65th Infantry of

the U.S. Army, a Puerto Rican force of seasoned veterans from World War II, to participate in joint maneuvers with the Marines.

The local press then reported on the excellent work done by the 65th Infantry during the maneuvers.

1951 Navy : “we are not in the business of cattle ranching.” But in 1951, with Vieques secure and after 3 years of

maneuvers, the Navy did not feel pressure to defuse a social movement of small ranchers. The Navy answered through a spokesperson that PRACO had offered a higher sum than the Asociación de Pequeños Ganaderos de Vieques[1] and that, in any case, the Navy “was not in the business of grazing cattle” and furthermore that it had determined that “temporary agreements with a private association had to be renegotiated with a government agency” (Santana, 1951).

[1] The leadership of the Asociación de Pequeños Ganaderos de Vieques indicates that it was the same organization previously referred to as Asociación de Ganaderos Menores de Vieques.

Problems with Maneuvers begin The first reports of the press highlighted a problem which would

henceforth plague Vieques residents for decades The proximity of the explosions and their effect on the civilian population.

An immense explosion in Vieques during the maneuvers caused a stir in the town of Isabel Segunda

“The tremendous explosion caused such a great shudder in the surrounding zone and the boom was so strong that many people in the town of Isabel Segunda thought an atomic bomb had been detonated” (Combas Guerra, 1948).[1]

[1] “La explosión tremenda ocasionó un gran estremecimiento en la zona a su alrededor y el estampido fue tan fuerte que mucha gente en el pueblo de Isabel Segunda creyó que se había procedido al lanzamiento de una bomba atómica.”

Eliseo Combas Guerra, “ Boricuas hacen excelente labor en maniobras. Arbitros que intervienen en las mismas así lo han expresado. Aproximadamente 16,000 hombres participan en los ejercicios de la parte

este de Vieques. Práctica de desembarco dio impresión de verdadera guerra.” El Mundo, 2-19-1948

Statement about agrarian reform of Populares Parcelas on the one hand (in Vieques, slums) Proportional profit farms in PR, PRACO in

Vieques, both government owned and run No local initiative or local control Grassroots farmers and ranchers against it Little land to independent farmers Inefficient state owned, paternalistic

corporations

About resistance to Navy Puerto Rican interests split, Ranchers vs. PRACO/

Government of Puerto Rico Navy Exploited these divisions successfully 55 years after these events the Navy withdrew from

Vieques A movement of Puerto Ricans in Vieques, Puerto

Rico, and the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United States pressed for its withdrawal

Unlike 1947-48, impressive unity and scope of the movement or resistance

For article, list landowners, maps http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/ayala/vieques/