POST-NAVY VIEQUES

"Now that the United States Navy is gone, the residents of the Puerto Rican island-town of Vieques face pressing social and environmental problems. The "boom" of bombs might be a thing of the past, but Vieques residents are now bracing for another "boom": the real estate boom. On the other hand, the pollution left behind by the military, which includes the controversial depleted uranium ordnance, is another major challenge facing the Viequenses, as the island's residents refer to themselves.

Now that the bombing is no more, the Isla Nena, as Puerto Ricans are fond of calling this island, is
becoming a real paradise for Americans and Puerto Ricans from the main island who are rushing to buy
land and houses, and to open businesses.

These new arrivals, which include San Juan residents looking for a good beach house, Americans anxious to open a bar or restaurant, and speculators, are causing demographic and economic changes in Vieques which can transform the character and soul of this island-town in a permanent way, for good or ill.

There is great concern in Vieques and in the main island of Puerto Rico that Vieques could end up like
its island-town neighbor Culebra, a few miles to the north. Culebra was also occupied by the US Navy and used for target practice until a civil disobedience campaign forced the firing range's closure in the
1970's. After the military left, Culebra has experienced an unsustainable and uncontrolled
development boom that threatens to turn that idyllic island into an uninhabitable boulder in a not too
distant future. Many Puerto Ricans fear that land peculation will do in Vieques what the Navy could not
do: turn the Viequenses into foreigners in their own land, this time not for the sake of national security
but by the functioning of private enterprise."

Full story by Carmelo Ruiz-Marrero here...http://carmeloruiz.blogspot.com

Director, Proyecto de Bioseguridad http://www.bioseguridad.tk
Research Associate, Institute for Social Ecology