Name: U.S. ramps up Caribbean presence, Vieques residents recall memories
Uploaded: 2025-11-06T15:09:43.504Z
Duration: 2 min 26 s
Description: The U.S. has ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean, leading to unease among residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The island, once used as a U.S. military bombing range for sixty years, still suffers from contamination and restricted access due to unexploded ordnance.

The U.S. has ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean, leading to unease among residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The island, once used as a U.S. military bombing range for sixty years, still suffers from contamination and restricted access due to unexploded ordnance.

Vieques

The U.S. has ramped up its military presence in the Caribbean, leading to unease among residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico. The island, once used as a U.S. military bombing range for sixty years, still suffers from contamination and restricted access due to unexploded ordnance.

Despite a Pentagon cleanup effort and the cessation of military activities in 2003 following local protests, many residents remain wary of renewed military activity. Vieques continues to experience higher cancer rates than the rest of Puerto Rico, and nearly half the island remains off-limits due to lingering hazards.

U.S. ramps up Caribbean presence, Vieques residents recall memories

Vieques is an island of tropical splendor, where fishing boats cut through crystal blue waters and wild horses roam free. It's also a landscape littered with unexploded ordnance and remnants of napalm, depleted uranium, heavy metals and toxic chemicals from six decades of serving as a U.S. military bombing range. After years of local opposition led the Pentagon to stop its activities on the island in 2003, Vieques has returned to its agrarian roots. Now many residents view the return of U.S. military ships and planes with unease. Where I live was real close to the military base, so we were all the time listening to the machine guns and the bombing and all that stuff. You know, we would wake up in the middle of the night and all we heard was like ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. The island has a 27 percent higher cancer rate than the rest of Puerto Rico, according to a 1999 Puerto Rican Health Department study. Emilio Garcia Ortiz's family has been especially hard hit. My mother died 36 years ago of cancer. My brother died of cancer. Two of my daughters had cancer, but they are survivors. Nearly half the island remains a forbidden zone. This is as far as Vieques residents can go on their own island. Beyond this point are unexploded bombs and debris. After spending two decades and nearly $400 million cleaning it up, the Pentagon estimates it will take another $400 million to finish the job by 2032. On the country's mainland, many welcome the return of U.S. troops to reactivated bases they left two decades ago. But for those who protested against the nearly daily bombing in Vieques, the familiar camouflage uniforms returning to Puerto Rican soil can be triggering. So much labor sacrificed to get the Navy out of Vieques, and it was finally done in 2003. So again, for many people, it is very heartbreaking. On this island, there is now a nearly universal appreciation for the serene sound of silence. John Hendren, Al Jazeera, Vieques, Puerto Rico.

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