Ten years ago May 1, the people of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and their supporters defeated the most powerful military machine ever, through mass civil disobedience and without firing a single shot. On May 1, 2003, the U.S. military put a stop to six decades of nonstop bombing, munitions dumping, war games, and poisoning the small island seven miles from the coast of Puerto Rico, activity that involved depleted uranium, Agent Orange, napalm and heavy metals. Vieques, and the bases were officially closed. People from all over the world supported the struggle on Vieques, and the activists and residents have an incredible victory to celebrate.
There were decades of resistance, civil disobedience and arrests, while the U.S. military “rained down” a trillion tons of ordnance over the course of six decades on an island scarcely the size of Santa Catalina in California or Nantucket in Massachusetts. But those hoping and laying the groundwork for greater resistance were given an opportunity on April 19, 1999, when a U.S. Marines pilot missed his target and killed civilian security guard David Sanes Rodriguez. That spark lit a fire of nonviolent resistance that brought together Viequenses, Puerto Ricans, and supporters from the United States and around the world. A campaign of non-violent civil resistance that began in 1999 lasted four years, including a year-long occupation of the bombing range, and saw over 1,500 people arrested. The Navy was forced to close the bombing range on May 1, 2003. Peace-loving people had won the first of their demands for the island: demilitarization.
