The Beginning of the Fishermen's War
A Practice Amphibious Landing on Bahía de la Chiva That Never Happened
from a conversation with Carlos (Taso) Zenón

Excerpted from "Vieques, A Photographically Illustrated Guide to the Island, Its History and Its Culture"

In 1975, the fishermen of Vieques formed the Vieques Fishermen's Association. The group was not created to oppose the presence of the US Navy in Vieques, but rather to address more immediate problems such as the lack of a dock and a proper location to clean, process and sell fish.

Most fishermen in Vieques used fish traps as a mainstay of their art. The traps, locally called nasas, are made of chicken wire and reinforced with saltwater-resistant wooden sticks cut from local trees. They are generally set in 60 to 150 feet of water and are attached to a line, which leads to a floating buoy about one foot in diameter. The traps are hauled by hand about once every two days.

A major problem for the Viequense fishermen was that the large naval ships were running over the fish trap buoys and cutting the line leading to the traps. When this happens, the traps, which represent a good deal of time and money to the fishermen, are lost forever.

One night in 1977, 131 fish trap buoys were cut.

It was at this juncture that the Vieques Fishermen's Association entered the political arena. The Association brought a lawsuit against the United States Navy for the loss of these traps.
Hoping to squash the case before it went to trial, the Navy asked for, and was granted, a change of venue, so that the trial would be heard in Virginia instead of Puerto Rico. This was a severe problem for the fishermen, who lived simply did not have money for such luxuries as airlines and travel expenses.

Nonetheless, the fishermen were able to get together the airfare and sent a delegation including the president of the Association, Carlos (Taso) Zenón. They found lodging in the cheapest of motels, ate as economically as possible, and to the surprise of Navy attorneys, appeared at court.

At the hearing, the judge was sympathetic to the fishermen. He admonished the Navy lawyers for their tactic of forcing the poor fishermen who he knew had little money and who spoke Spanish to travel to the mainland United States to appear in court. The judge found for the fishermen and the Navy had to reimburse them for the lost fish traps.

The fishermen were emboldened. It was their first real victory against the Navy. In February of 1978, the Navy announced that 20 member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be conducting maneuvers in and around Vieques for 28 days and that during that time no fishing boats would be allowed to leave port.

In response, Taso and a delegation of fishermen traveled to the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base on the Big Island and met with the Admiral in charge, William Flanagan. During the meeting it was explained that a 28-day moratorium on fishing would deal a devastating blow to the fishermen. They had no other means of support and they would not be able to provide for the needs of their families.

The Admiral's response was that the fishermen should apply for food stamps. Taso looked the Admiral in the eye and said, "You don't know my people. You are going to have problems."

The delegation returned to Vieques and called an emergency meeting of the Fishermen's Association. Taso told the assembly that Admiral Flanagan suggested that they could all line up for food stamps at the welfare office. The expression on the faces of the fishermen clearly expressed how they felt about giving up fishing and collecting welfare instead. Then Taso announced, "We are going to fight."

One of the fishermen asked exactly how they could fight against the battleships, helicopters and planes of the NATO forces. Nonetheless, the fishermen came up with a plan.

The Navy announced to the press that the NATO exercises would begin with an amphibious landing at Bahía de la Chiva where 2,500 fully armed Marines would be brought ashore in less than 45 minutes.

The fishermen made their own announcement. They told the media that the Vieques Fishermen's Association was not going to allow even one Marine to land on Bahía de la Chiva that day.
The newspaper and media people were intrigued. They sent reporters and photographers from major newspapers and television and radio syndications to be on hand to document the confrontation.

On the morning of the planned amphibious assault, 18 fishing boats left Esperanza en route to Bahía de la Chiva. Each boat had two men aboard. In addition, two larger boats carrying the reporters and photographers from the news media joined the flotilla.

The two opposing forces met just offshore from the idyllic tropical beach known to the Viequenses as Bahía de la Chiva and to the Navy as Blue Beach. On one side were the giant warships of the NATO superpowers, and on the other, the small open wooden fishing boats of the Viequense fishermen.

The image of the Navy boats running over the fish trap buoys and cutting the lines with their propellers may have inspired the fishermen's strategy, because each of their boats carried aboard a fish trap buoy attached to a line, except that this time the line did not have a fish trap at the other end. It had a length of heavy iron chain. At a signal from the commanding officer, the Marines climbed down rope ladders onto amphibious landing craft which, one by one proceeded at full throttle toward the beach.

A Viequense fishing boat sped toward the first approaching amphibious landing craft as if it was going to crash into the large vessel head on. At the last minute, the Viequense captain deftly maneuvered his little boat so that it veered off passing just to one side of the bow of Navy boat.

The other fisherman aboard then threw the fish trap buoy into the water. Then the captain turned the little boat around in a tight circle and sped in front of the oncoming landing craft. Meanwhile, the other fisherman let out the line until he was left holding only the chain. At this point, the captain stopped the boat and the two fishermen waited. When the line handler on the little boat felt the tug of the line getting caught in the assault craft's propeller, (something like the feel of a big fish hitting a hook, I suppose) he let go of the chain. Then the inevitable happened. The line wrapped around the propeller shaft until the heavy chain was sucked into the propeller.

Bang! The first assault craft was put out of action.

The second landing craft met the same fate and then the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth. They were all stopped dead in their tracks.

Meanwhile, the Admiral, forced to accept the superior military strategy of the Viequense fishermen, called a halt to the exercise and just as Taso had declared to the press, not one Marine had landed on Bahía de la Chiva that morning.