VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- Protesters camped out on a Navy bombing range on Saturday girded for a possible confrontation with U.S. authorities after two Navy ships headed toward Puerto Rico.
Protesters warned that some colleagues will scatter into the brush if U.S. authorities try to dislodge them from the bomb-littered range on Vieques island that they have occupied for a year."We don't have weapons -- the danger for them is the bombs that they themselves have put there," said Carlos Zenon, leader of a protest camp in the heart of the bombing range.
Civilian security guard David Sanes Rodriguez's death on the range by two bombs dropped off target in April 1999 prompted the protests.
U.S. federal authorities reportedly were planning a raid this week to arrest the activists and allow the Navy to reclaim its prime live-fire Atlantic training ground.
The amphibious warships USS Bataan and USS Nashville left their home port of Norfolk, Va., on Thursday evening, officials said, and could be in the vicinity of Vieques by Sunday.
The removal operation is being planned by the Justice Department in collaboration with the FBI and the Coast Guard. No military forces were to be used to remove protesters, government officials said Friday.
The protesters are blocking implementation of an agreement by President Clinton and Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello to order the Navy out of Vieques by May 2003 if island residents vote in a referendum to expel them.
Demonstrators say there are about 60 people on the bombing range. If those activists are arrested, more will be sent in by cutting through fences and using small, fast fishing boats to defy an expected blockade of the island.
"We're not worried so much about the numbers of protesters," said Vieques fisherman Ismael Guadalupe. "The important thing is continuity and always having someone there to prevent the exercises."
While Sanes' killing sparked the occupation, Vieques residents say the roots of resentment toward the Navy -- which purchased two-thirds of the island 60 years ago -- go much deeper.
"They took my family's land away," said 73-year-old Pablo Hernandez, whose home on the island's west end became part of a munitions depot. "Now I am fighting for justice to be done."
Residents complain Navy bombing has polluted the island and stunted economic development. Since the Navy took over, the island's population has shrunk from 30,000 to 9,400.
The Navy says Vieques is irreplaceable: the only place where the Atlantic Fleet can practice live shelling, bombing, amphibious assaults, submarine warfare and ship-to-ship attacks at the same time.