Why Raid on Vieques Could Hurt Al Gore

This year the macarena's not going to cut it; Al Gore had better work on his salsa moves. With the Cuban-American political leadership already enraged at the administration over the Elian Gonzalez case, Wednesday's raid on protesters at a Navy base in Vieques could certainly dampen Puerto Rican enthusiasm for getting out the Gore vote. U.S. marshals and FBI agents began in the early hours arresting protesters who're trying to stop the U.S. Navy from reopening its bombing range on the island, among them nuns, priests, labor leaders and U.S. congresspeople from Illinois and New York. The base is being reopened on a presidential order after the White House negotiated a deal with Puerto Rico's governor to resume limited testing with dummy bombs and hold a referendum sometime in the next three years, in which residents would be asked to vote up or down on a proposal to maintain the bombing range in exchange for a $40 million aid package to the island, which is populated by some 9,400 people.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's pollsters have clearly found that Vieques is one instance in which the First Lady oughtn't be standing by her man. Mrs. Clinton has opposed the administration's decision, saying "a small, inhabited island should not be used for target practice" and supporting the call by a number of Puerto Rican politicians that the referendum be held before any bomb testing resumes. But with the Navy determined to reopen its primary Atlantic combat training facility, this time there's no easy exit for Al Gore from the administration's line, because siding with the protesters means slapping down the military. The Latino vote has become something of a holy grail for presidential candidates in '90s — Democrats have been working hard throughout the decade to register and get out the Latino vote, regarding its as a core constituency that can keep the presidency in their hands for some time to come, while Governor Bush's popularity among Texan Latino voters was one of his earliest selling points among GOP leaders. Vieques' coming hard on the heels of Elian may giving the vice president something of a sleepless springtime.