[Colleen Mcedwards, Cnn Anchor:] Now to a new confrontation looming this morning between the U.S. Navy and protesters in Puerto Rico. The Navy is set to resume bombing exercises at its range on the island of Vieques, but hundreds of protesters are believed to be heading for Vieques and a few have already invaded the bombing range. CNN's John Zarrella is on the island.
[John Zarrella, Cnn Correspondent:] Colleen, no confrontation yet, but that certainly could be the case before the day is out. Behind me you can see Camp Garcia, which is the Navy military bombing range, and the security guards outside here, about 10 of them right now, in front of the behind the barricades and the gates, then the concertina wire, the fence line that leads to Camp Garcia. In the distance we can see the two destroyers off in the distance that are part of today's exercise, and they may be involved in some ship-to-shore bombing before the day is over. There will also be area bombardments by A-4s. And, you know, as you mentioned, somewhere out there in Camp Garcia we are told by the organizers of the demonstrations here that there may be up to 70 people who have infiltrated who have gone inside and say they're going to stay there when these bombs fall. Now, we have to emphasize that these are inert bombs, so they are not going to explode. But certainly, if the people are around and they should get hit, they would likely get killed. We don't know what the Navy will do if, in fact, there are people in there. Now here on this side of the street, we've got about 50, maybe 75 protesters that have gathered so far. A lot of them have spent the night here some of them sleeping on cots, some of them sleeping in tents. And there was a protest until the wee hours of the morning here on Vieques Island and also yesterday in San Juan there was a protest. The people here just want the bombing stopped. Now, a few years ago, a civilian security guard was killed here on the island by an errant bomb, and that's what really set the people off in Puerto Rico. Since then, some real nationalism, some real sentiment has grown here on the island for the U.S. Navy after six decades to finally stop the bombing. But, right now, no indication that that will happen anytime soon. John Zarrella reporting live from Vieques Island, Puerto Rico Colleen.
[Carol Lin, Cnn Anchor:] Thank you very much John. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com