Calderon To Press Clinton on Vieques

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) â€” Puerto Rico's new governor plans to pressure President Clinton to halt Navy exercises on Vieques island before he leaves office on Jan. 20. <br><br>Gov. Sila Calderon

Monday, January 15th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) â€” Puerto Rico's new governor plans to pressure President Clinton to halt Navy exercises on Vieques island before he leaves office on Jan. 20.

Gov. Sila Calderon will cite a new study, requested by the Puerto Rican government, that shows a high rate of a heart-damaging disease among a sample of the island's 9,400 people, said her press secretary, Cecil Blondet.

All but one of 50 people on Vieques examined by doctors showed abnormal thickness in a heart membrane, Blondet said Sunday. A control group of the same number examined in another part of Puerto Rico showed no evidence of the disorder.

The disease can be caused by noise and vibrations associated with jets and bomb explosions, Blondet said.

Navy spokesman Jeff Gordon said he had not seen the study but was familiar with similar research that drew a link between sonic booms from Navy training and medical problems on the island. He said the studies were part of a ``disinformation campaign.''

``We have seen a barrage of intellectually dishonest studies recently,'' Gordon said. ``None of them have been able to survive scientific peer reviews, or hold up in court.''

Calderon already has angered federal officials with plans to offer a local referendum that includes the choice of the Navy leaving Vieques immediately.

Her appeal to Clinton comes as the president works franticly in his final days, making changes by executive order. For example, he banned road building and most logging in nearly a third of the federal forest land in 38 states.

President-elect George W. Bush has said he will stand by an agreement that would let residents decide in a Nov. 6 referendum whether the Navy should leave Vieques. The pact, reached after months of negotiations, would delay any Navy withdrawal until May 2003.

Vieques residents live between an eastern Navy training ground and a weapons depot. Decades of resentment over the Navy's presence boiled over in April 1999, when a Navy jet dropped a bomb off target and killed a civilian security guard on the bomb range.

The Navy has since stopped using live bombs. But if islanders vote in the referendum to allow the military to stay, the Navy can resume using live ammunition.

The Navy says Vieques is a vital training ground for its Atlantic Fleet because it provides the opportunity for simultaneous bombing, shelling and beach assaults.