Since translation is not the problem, we must assume they cannot hear us. Vieques is an offshore island municipality of Puerto Rico. It is controlled, like the rest of Puerto Rico, by the United States. More than 9,300 people live in Vieques. Combat planes bomb and strafe the island.
Destroyers bomb it from the sea. . . .
Maneuvers have included, on occasion, practice with depleted uranium shells, napalm, and cluster bombs. The coral reef and, with it, the fishing industry have been splintered. Seventy-two percent of the population lives below the poverty line, with 40 to 50 percent unemployment. Ominously, the cancer rate in Vieques is 27 percent higher than the rest of this Caribbean colony, according to a 1998 study by the Puerto Rico Department of Public Health. Opposition to the Navy was galvanized in April 1999 when David Sanes Rodriguez, a civilian security guard, was killed and four others wounded by a stray bombardment.