A Methodist pastor in Puerto Rico, the 64-year old Mercado traveled from his home in Fajardo to the nearby island of Vieques in mid-February, staying in a rustic cabin on a picturesque Caribbean beach. White sand stretched toward rocky headlands in the distance. Pelicans soared above the water on the lookout for colorful fish swimming through the coral reef just offshore.
Yet the huge bomb–one of thousands laying about in a landscape pockmarked with craters and littered with the debris of warmaking–kept Mercado mindful of the reason he came to Vieques: to convince the U.S. Navy to quit using the island for military maneuvers and bombing practice.
The cabin where Mercado slept is part of a camp established by Puerto Rican Protestants on the east end of the 21-mile long island. Although the Navy prohibits entry into the area, the "evangelical obedience camp" is constantly staffed by pastors and lay people from several Puerto Rican Protestant churches. Set up in early November, it's currently one of 14 such camps on the bombing range. The others are built by labor unions, political parties, professional and student groups.
One camp, built in early February, is sponsored by the Roman Catholic diocese of Caguas, of which Vieques is part.
On Sunday, February 13, Protestant and Catholic protestors together celebrated a worship service in a small wooden chapel constructed on the bombing range. As participants hugged each other while passing the peace at the end of the worship service, a U.S. Navy helicopter flew low overhead, videotaping the scene.
Although the scores of protestors come from different backgrounds, they all are willing to commit civil disobedience to force the Navy to leave.
"This land first belonged to God, and God gave it to the people of Vieques for their welfare and for them to live in peace," declared Mercado, a Vieques native and a U.S. Army veteran. "Then the Navy came along and we Viequenses have been pushed around, massacred, and thrown off our own land. Yet the Navy says that this land belongs to them and that we're the ones who are trespassing."
Mercado said he's not afraid of going to jail. "It would make things even clearer for the Navy to drag us out of here. The world would see that those who preach democracy are the first ones who squash it. The best thing the Navy could do is pack their bags and leave," Mercado said during an interview in the restricted zone.
Like many natives of Vieques, Mercado left the island as a young man to seek a job elsewhere. Since the Navy seized two-thirds of Vieques in 1941, islanders have suffered from economic hard times. The Navy presence provides few jobs. Military activities also contaminate the environment and contribute to alarmingly high cancer rates.
The campaign to drive the Navy off Vieques has been simmering for decades, but came dramatically to life last April after a civilian guard at the bombing range was accidently killed by a stray bomb. Mercado said that death was just the latest in a string of deaths over the years, recalling relatives and friends who were killed by land mines or beaten to death by drunk soldiers.
"We were forced to live behind locked doors after dark in order to avoid contact with the Marines, who would harass island women and try to drag them away," Mercado recalled.
Compared to the past, however, when the main supporters of the anti-Navy campaign were environmentalists, fishermen, and independence activists, today the struggle of Vieques has gone mainstream. Many believe that a clear majority of Puerto Ricans wants the Navy off Vieques.
"When people spoke out against the Navy in the past they were labeled as communists," Mercado said. "It was part of an environment where people believed they couldn't criticize the government of the United States. We were taught to be submissive under the boot. So people were afraid to speak out. Until now. Thank God the people have opened their eyes. I know lots of people on Vieques who weren't opposed to the Navy in the past, but today are speaking out and even risking arrest to get the Navy off Vieques. If we can maintain our unity, the Navy won't be able to remove us from here. They'll have to give us back what they stole."
Mercado was joined at the protest camp by Franklin Guerrero, a Puerto Rican native and a clergy member of the Northern Illinois annual conference.
"I came here to support the campaign of evangelical obedience, of obedience to Jesus, which at times conflicts with the paradigms and laws of states, or, to use Biblical language, of Caesar," declared Guerrero, who currently serves as an executive secretary for Latin American and the Caribbean at the New York-based United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.
"The presence of so many people here shows that Puerto Rico is no longer for sale," said Guerrero. "Vieques and the rest of Puerto Rico should no longer be used as a military laboratory. There are more than three million people living here. They are human beings, U.S. citizens, yet their civil rights have been systematically violated. To liberate Vieques from the Navy will give a strong example to the rest of the country that it can eventually be liberated from the extensive presence of the U.S. military here."
Guerrero claimed that Vieques, "although it's one of the smallest islands in the hemisphere, could become a metaphor for all of Latin America. When people join together in common cause, not around the ambitions of particular groups, but rather to support dignity and justice and create space for life for ourselves and our children, then the power of what seems small can have big results, and we shall begin to overcome those who claim to have power."