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Vieques, January 2013.
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The small Carribean island boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
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That is home to generations of men and women who survive from the bounty of the ocean and the land.
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It is also the stomping ground of thousands of feral horses.
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Vieques is a municipality of what is now known as Puerto Rico,
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a colony of the United States of America.
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Viequenses like all Puerto Ricans are citizens of the American empire,
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but this so-called privilege does not guarantee them the right to their land.
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In the 1940's the US Navy forcibly evicted the people of Viques out of the east and west sides of the island.
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And installed naval bases and uses pristine beaches as heavy weaponry target ranges.
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They tested experimental weapons, fired missiles with depleted uranium, and deployed napalm and agent orange.
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NATO member nations also had access to these lands for bombing military excercises.
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At the end of the 20th century, a navy bomb struck and killed civilian security guard David Sanes.
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After 50+ years of bombings, abusive behavior by US service men,
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and general disinterest by the Puerto Rican government,
the people of Vieques had had enough.
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Go back to your home, back you motherfucker!
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They launched a campaign of civil disobedience and sabotage, that was joined by thousands of international sympathizers,
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with the departure of the navy as the main objective.
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Vieques's feral horses aided in this effort.
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On May 1st, 2003, as US president George Bush boasted about victory over Iraq aboard a navy aircraft carrier,
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the same navy was quietly closing it's doors on Vieques.
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This year people in Vieques are supposed to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of this victory.
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The navy did not return the lands that were stolen, and instead transferred them to the US Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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This federal agency set up rules that prohibit the locals from harvesting coconuts and trapping crabs and other sea animals.
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Notwithstanding the navy's withdrawal, the presence of US customs and border agents reminds us that the militarization of the zone continues.
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While videotaping a border patrol vehicle we were told by a border cop that if we didn't delete the footage we would be arrested.
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Even though the navy abandoned its large military basis and bombing ranges, it still retained a key piece of military infrastructure:
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the navy's ROTHR installation,stands for:
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Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar
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a communications surveillance facility that allows the US to intercept communications past the equator
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and deep into South America, with the pre-text of fighting the war on drugs.
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But the biggest legacy that the navy left behind is the thousands of unexploded missiles and bombs
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that litter the beautiful coastal ecosystem of the island.
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Missiles the navy promised to clean up 10 years ago.
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We took a fishing boat to one of the bombing ranges to see for ourselves,
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and it didn't take long before us to be meters away from undetonated munitions.
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The same munitions, that some say cause the abnormally high cancer rate in the local population.
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The people we met admit that the battle is not over and that the future of Vieques doesn't lie in petitioning the government.
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But in the same efforts of self-organization and resistance that kicked out the world's most powerful navy off their land.
