[CPEO-MEF] Vieques perspective

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In Vieques, Puerto Rico, La Lucha Continua
Residents struggle for control after the U.S. Navy's departure.

Liv Gold
Dollars & Sense: The Magazine of Economic Justice
November/December 2006

Last spring, I came across an article in Caribbean Edge magazine on 
Vieques, a small island seven miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. 
According to the article, Vieques' "lush green rainforest, pristine 
beaches, and crystal clear waters" are "the perfect place to relax and 
experience the quiet charms of a truly unspoiled Caribbean island."

They must have mistaken a different island for Vieques, I thought. 
"Pristine" and "unspoiled" could not possibly describe the Vieques I 
knew of, a U.S. aerial weapons testing ground for over 50 years whose 
residents had a 30% higher cancer rate than Puerto Ricans do, a 381% 
higher rate of hypertension, and a 95% higher rate of cirrhosis of the 
liver. And phrases like "perfect place to relax" and "quiet charms" 
hardly seem apt to describe a place that has been the site of 
demonstrations and arrests, and whose future continues to be contested 
terrain.

Of course I could have been wrong—and there was only one way to be sure. 
In June, I packed my bags and headed to Vieques.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/1106gold.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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