Protesters Urge Navy to End War Games

Waving white flags and handing bags of soil to a Pentagon delegation, hundreds of protesters demanded that the Navy stop its war games on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. “Don’t lose hope!” Manuela Santiago, mayor of this 51-square-mile island, urged the noisy crowd, which waved Puerto Rican flags and banners as the commission held hearings into the controversy. The delegation was created on orders of President Clinton. A civilian security guard was killed in a Navy bombing accident on the island April 19. Since the death of David Sanes Rodriguez, a Navy employee, protesters have occupied the bombing range, which is littered with unexploded ordnance.