[Military Environmental Forum] MUNITIONS, HEALTH: Vieques, PR

[Lenny Siegel <Lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

‘Everyone dies of cancer’: the Puerto Rican island poisoned by the US navy
For decades Vieques was a bombing range, leaving a legacy of cancer clusters and unexploded munitions. Now residents fear the US military wants to reopen its bases

By Vani Subramony and Charlie Kolodziej
Guardian
July 1, 2026


When the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles (10km) off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi.

Driving to Esperanza, a town on Vieques’s southern coast, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a barbed-wire fence. Gato notes the wildlife preserve, riddled with unexploded munitions, and the health centre, recently built but without doctors. He mentions a woman walking by, whose husband recently died of cancer.

A 2003 study by the Puerto Rican department of health reported that the cancer rate in Vieques was 27% higher than the rest of the archipelago between 1990 and 1994, 35% higher between 1995 and 1999, and 18% higher from 2000 to 2004 – with the increase for males being even higher at 40

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jul/01/cancer-island-us-navy-vieques-puerto-rico

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)





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