Residents of Vieques, Puerto Rico, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government seeking justice and restitution for severe illness resulting from nearly 60 years of bomb and missile testing. About three-quarters of the island’s 10,000 residents are part of the lawsuit.
Starting in 1941, the U.S. Navy used the site for weapons testing, military exercises and munitions storage.
The Navy acknowledged its use of depleted uranium at least once in 1999. A growing national and international protest movement forced the Navy out of the island in 2003.
Inhabitants of the island face a 75 percent rate of cancer due to napalm, mercury and lead exposure. The U.S. is attempting to claim sovereign immunity to the lawsuit while denying any link between the military’s actions and the plight of the people of Vieques.
Puerto Rico came under U.S. control in 1848 following the Spanish-American War, and the Puerto Rican liberation struggle continues to this day.
