According to Jeffries, the Navy is happy to look for a new site but does not want to be tied down to a particular date of withdrawal from Vieques.
On the other side, signers of the Harvard petition call for immediate withdrawal, claiming that the Navy has broken promises before, including its MOU pledges to reduce the amount of bombing and to clean up bombed sites. The Navy, though, says it has kept these promises.
To activists like Perl-Matanzo, the Vieques situation also raises concerns about issues of Puerto Rican political rights. Puerto Ricans, though they are American citizens, have no representation in Congress and cannot vote in presidential elections.
And, Perl-Matanzo said, many Puerto Ricans--including himself--do not therefore consider themselves U.S. citizens.
Because of this, the bombing of Vieques amounts to a "tyranny of the U.S. Navy and of the U.S. president," Perl-Matanzo said.
By signing Perl-Matanzo's petition, Harvard professors join numerous public figures in calling for the Navy's withdrawal from Vieques, including First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Womack and Coatsworth will serve as panelists at a forum on the topic entitled "Vieques: Will Clinton Take the Road Less Traveled?"
The forum, which will take place on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Science Center D, also features Manuel Rodriguez Orellana, the Puerto Rican Independence Party's special envoy to Washington.
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