Vieques
U.S. fighter jets this week began dropping inert bombs on Vieques Island for the last time. The Navy has announced it will abandon a controversial bombing range on the Puerto Rican island and begin training instead in Florida and North Carolina. Local protesters launched a campaign in 1999 to drive the military out, after an errant bomb killed a civilian guard. Activists held sit-ins on crater-pocked beaches to keep ships and planes from firing. The Navy stopped using live explosives to quell charges that contaminants from the site were driving up local cancer rates, a claim the Pentagon refuted. Luis Angel Torres of the Socialist Workers Movement gloated a bit as activists protested the final month of exercises. “The people’s struggle has forced them out.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meatThe Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human bloodUnder the radar Drugging the bugs
