![]() ![]() Navy and return control of the island to Puerto Rican citizens. When Vieques was not included on the list, the grassroots movement was revitalized in its fight to evict the U.S. The people of Vieques hoped that the two Navy sites on the island would be among those closed. began to reassess its presence at various bases around the world. Navy two decades earlier had failed after violence broke out and the Puerto Rican governor was forced to sign a good-neighbor agreement with the United States to guarantee continued financial support (see “Puerto Ricans protest United States Navy presence on Vieques Island, 1977-1983”).Īfter the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the twentieth century, the U.S. Additionally, the municipality faced an unemployment rate above 50% and more than 70% of the population lived below the poverty line. In 1998, 23,000 bombs were dropped on the island and live training took place 180 days out of the year. During World War Two and the Cold War, Vieques and other Caribbean islands served as important military locations for the U.S. ![]() Other countries also used the island for training purposes. ![]() Navy, the island was used for live-fire practice, air-to-ground bombing, ship-to-shore shelling and various other maneuvers. Thousands of the island's 10,000 inhabitants had been forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to the center portion of the island, surrounded by training grounds, weapons depots, and bomb sites on both sides. By the end of the twentieth century, the U.S. Since 1938, the United States Navy has occupied a significant portion of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, a fifty-two square-mile island eight miles east of the mainland of Puerto Rico. ![]()
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