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MIAMI - The Port of Miami refused to allow a Greenpeace ship to dock Monday, saying it poses security problems.
Greenpeace, an environmental activist group, requested a one-week berth for the 237-foot Esperanza, a retrofitted Soviet navy icebreaker used to highlight its campaigns. It wanted to resupply the ship, change its crew and conduct onboard tours.
The Esperanza was in an anchoring area outside the port, said Rose Young, deputy campaign director of Greenpeace USA. If the organization cannot persuade the port to reverse its decision, Young said, crew members will use inflatable boats to visit land and resupply the ship.
The request to dock originally was denied in early October. Juan Kuryla, an assistant port director, said port officials decided the ship poses "undue security concerns."
In an Oct. 14 letter to Greenpeace, port director Charles A. Towsley cited the ship's intention to hold tours in a restricted area of the port and "an apparent inability, or unwillingness, to abide by applicable laws and security regulations" to explain the denial.
Towsley wrote that the presence of the Greenpeace vessel would force the port to increase its security requirements.
Towsley also cited a pending criminal case against Greenpeace. The organization pleaded innocent in August to charges that its activists illegally boarded a container ship approaching Miami's port in a protest against contraband Amazon mahogany in April 2002.
It has requested a jury trial on illegal boarding and conspiracy charges carrying a possible $20,000 fine. Six Greenpeace members have settled misdemeanor charges over the boarding.
Steve Bass, assistant Miami-Dade County attorney, said the ship was asked to leave a port in Vancouver, Canada, where it last docked, after activists there tried to illegally board another ship. He said this action also factored into the Miami port's decision.
Young said the Esperanza is headed to Europe, but needs to dock first.
"The ship has got to come in," she said. "We're not doing an action here. ... They have to come in, pick up supplies, crew changes, get off the ship for a while."
Young said the port's decision is political and violates free speech rights. She called the idea that the ship is a security risk "laughable."
"We're just coming through on innocent passage. I can see if we'd done an action or something, but we didn't," she said.