Word: standoff
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Last week, for the second time in 13 days, Washington was forced into a standoff on America's tropical fringe. But while the Elian raid has torn Miami asunder, the Vieques episode could help Puerto Rico unify. For the past century, the island has been a U.S. commonwealth--a hybrid that gives its 4 million people many of the benefits of Yankee citizenship, such as U.S. military protection, but without the full burdens of citizenship, such as federal income taxes. It has also left them with a murky political identity, fractured among those who want independence, statehood or the status...
...considered vital by the military, became the focus of nationalist protest after a security guard was killed by a stray bomb last year. But Clinton's bombing-for-cash deal with the local political establishment appears to have left more nationalist-minded Puerto Ricans unimpressed, creating the current standoff. The protesters may not be able to stop the Navy from resuming its bombing exercises, but they're hoping the spectacle of federal agents dragging off passive resisters will make the political cost of removing them prohibitive to the Clinton administration. Local politicians are warning that arrests at Vieques will trigger...
...almost surreal dimension of the standoff, while rebels and government troops square off almost within spitting distance of one another, TV crews and photographers have had access to the hostages, showing images of the 10 captives from Europe, Lebanon, South Africa and Malaysia pleading for the Philippines army to back off and negotiate a solution. That might be difficult, however, since the Abu Sayyaf group holding the hostages hasn't made a clear set of demands, prompting the government's appointed mediator to threaten to withdraw...
...Miami prosecutor had taught her to handle the torrid politics of her hometown. And Reno, who has no children, sees herself as their special advocate. It still haunts her that within weeks of taking office in 1993, she relied on other people's advice in handling the standoff in Waco, Texas, which ended in a disaster that killed about 80 adults and children. This week is its seventh anniversary. And this time, says a Justice Department colleague, "she wanted to see for herself" what the situation...
...Reno had been under pressure from the Clinton administration and her own department to end the standoff, and she'll be hoping that her decisive action - which passed without casualties - will have redeemed her from charges in Washington that she'd mishandled the situation by failing to follow through on ultimatums. President Clinton comes out looking like the decisive leader who prodded his attorney general into action, even though his intervention came rather late in the game. And candidate Gore, well - he looks like the Vice President everyone loves to ignore...