Military Power and Popular Protest: The U.S. Navy in Vieques, Puerto Rico

by Katherine T. McCaffrey

Residents of Vieques, a small island just off the east coast of Puerto Rico, live wedged between an ammunition depot and live bombing range for the U.S. Navy. Since the 1940s when the navy expropriated over two-thirds of the island, residents have struggled to make a life amid the thundering of bombs and rumbling of weaponry fire. Like the armys base in Okinawa, Japan, the facility has drawn vociferous protests from residents who challenged U.S. security interests overseas. In 1999, when a local civilian employee of the base was killed by a stray bomb, Vieques again erupted in protests that have mobilized tens of thousands individuals and transformed this tiny Caribbean Island into the setting for an international cause célèbre. Katherine T. McCaffrey gives a complete analysis of the troubled relationship between the U.S. Navy and island residents. She explores such topics as the history of U.S. naval involvement in Vieques; a grassroots mobilizationled by fishermenthat began in the 1970s; how the navy promised to improve the lives of the island residentsand failed; and the present-day emergence of a revitalized political activism that has effectively challenged naval hegemony. The case of Vieques brings to the fore a major concern within U.S. foreign policy that extends well beyond Puerto military bases overseas act as lightning rods for anti-American sentiment, thus threatening this countrys image and interests abroad. By analyzing this particular, conflicted relationship, the book also explores important lessons about colonialism and postcolonialism and the relationship of the United States to the countries in which it maintains military bases.

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2002

Reviews

[Gabby N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and well researched. I wrote a term paper for my environmental justice class on this topic, and this only deepened my knowledge and analysis of the power dynamics between the navy and Viequenses. McCaffrey has continued to write about this injustice and others in Latin America, and was a valuable source for my paper!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for background ahead of teaching my Corals, Conservation and Colonialism class with its trip to Vieques. I found the book to be thorough, thoughtful and of great use in providing a historical background to the ways class, nationalism, and power have intersected to create the cauldron of the Navy’s occupation. The only criticism I have is that I wish there was a second edition that explored the dynamics of having the navy base transferred to the Dept of the Interior and if these same themes are now recapitulated under the guise of conservation instead of national security