Editing Vieques, Puerto Rico (section)

===Protests and departure of the United States Navy===
{{Main|United States Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico}}
[[File:Radar in Vieques, Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|Radar in Vieques, Puerto Rico]]
The continuing postwar presence in Vieques of the United States Navy drew protests from the local community, angry at the expropriation of their land and the environmental impact of weapons testing. The locals' discontent was exacerbated by the island's perilous economic condition.
[[File:Fuera la Marina de Vieques Ya, Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|{{lang|es|Fuera la Marina de Vieques Ya}} (translation: Navy out of Vieques now) sign on structure]]
Protests came to a head in 1999 when Vieques native [[David Sanes]], a civilian employee of the United States Navy, was killed by a jet bomb that the Navy said misfired. Sanes had been working as a security guard. A popular campaign of [[civil disobedience]] resurged; not since the mid-1970s had ''Viequenses'' come together ''en masse'' to protest the target practices.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te1cUiXUweYC&q=vieques+1970s+cristobal&pg=PA216 |title=Puerto Rico under Colonial Rule: Political Persecution And The Quest For Human Rights |date=June 2006 |editor-first1=Ramón |editor-last1=Bosque-Pérez |editor-first2=José Javier Colón |editor-last2=Morera |location=New York |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-6417-5 |page=216 |via=Google Books}}</ref> The locals took to the ocean in their small fishing boats and successfully stopped the US Navy's military exercises for a short period, until the US Navy and two [[United States Coast Guard|US Coast Guard]] cutters began controlling access to the island and escorting boaters away from Vieques.

On April 27, 2001, the Navy resumed operations and protesting resumed.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/205643445/|title=On this date: "Five years ago..."|date=April 27, 2006|page=2|newspaper=Northwest Herald|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> At this point over 600 protesters had already been detained.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Jacobs|first=Andrew|date=April 29, 2001|title=Tiny Island Turns Into a Symbol of Discontent|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/us/tiny-island-turns-into-a-symbol-of-discontent.html|access-date=July 11, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

The Vieques issue became something of a ''[[cause célèbre]]'', and local protesters were joined by sympathetic groups and prominent individuals from the mainland United States and abroad, including political leaders [[Rubén Berríos]], [[Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.|Robert F. Kennedy Jr.]], [[Al Sharpton]] and [[Rev. Jesse Jackson|Jesse Jackson]], singers [[Danny Rivera]], [[Willie Colón]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/quagmire.htm |title=Vieques vigil a quagmire: U.S. pressed on whether to close Navy range |first=James |last=Anderson |date=October 18, 1999 |newspaper=[[Miami Herald]] |access-date=July 21, 2019 |via=Latin American Studies.org |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321101734/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/puertorico/quagmire.htm |archive-date=March 21, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Ricky Martin]], actors [[Edward James Olmos]] and [[Jimmy Smits]], boxer [[Félix Trinidad|Félix 'Tito' Trinidad]], baseball superstar [[Carlos Delgado]], writers [[Ana Lydia Vega]] and [[Giannina Braschi]], and Guatemala's Nobel Prize winner [[Rigoberta Menchú]]. Kennedy's son, Aidan Caohman "Vieques" Kennedy,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-07-28-0107280098-story.html |title=Newest Kennedy A Vieques Namesake |date=July 28, 2001 |newspaper=[[South Florida Sun-Sentinel]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130110203/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-07-28-0107280098-story.html |archive-date=January 30, 2019}}</ref> was born while his father served jail time in Puerto Rico for his role in the protests. The problems arising from the US Navy base have also featured in songs by various musicians, including Puerto Rican rock band [[Puya (band)|Puya]], rapper [[Immortal Technique]] and [[reggaeton]] artist [[Tego Calderón]]. In popular culture, one [[subplot]] of "[[The Two Bartlets]]" episode of [[The West Wing]] dealt with a protest on the bombing range led by a friend of [[White House Deputy Chief of Staff]] [[Josh Lyman]]; the character was modeled on future West Wing star [[Jimmy Smits]], a native of Puerto Rico who was repeatedly arrested for leading protests there.

As a result of this pressure, in May 2003 the Navy withdrew from Vieques, and much of the island was designated a [[National Wildlife Refuge]] under the control of the [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service]].<ref name=":0" /> The island was also placed on the [[National Priorities List]] (NPL), the list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action (cleanup) financed by the federal Superfund program. Closure of [[Roosevelt Roads Naval Station]] followed in 2004, and prior to [[Hurricane Maria]] the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station was reopened.

A report by the Government Accountability Office was published in 2021 and estimated there were "8 million items of material potentially presenting an explosive hazard, and approximately 109,000 munitions items: 41,000 projectiles; 32,000 bombs; 4,700 mortars; 1,300 rockets; 18,000 submunitions; and 12,000 grenades, flares, pyrotechnics, and other munitions" that had been removed from the testing site, and that further cleanup was expected to continue by 2032.<ref>{{cite report |date= March 26, 2021 |title= Defense Cleanup: Efforts at Former Military Sites on Vieques and Culebra, Puerto Rico, Are Expected to Continue through 2032|url= https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-268.pdf |publisher= United States Government Accountability Office |page= 15-16 |docket= GAO-21-268 |access-date= December 25, 2024|quote=}}</ref>