0:00:09.496,0:00:12.766
Vieques, January 2013.

0:00:12.766,0:00:16.917
The small Carribean island boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

0:00:16.917,0:00:21.534
That is home to generations of men and women who survive from the bounty of the ocean and the land.

0:00:21.534,0:00:25.292
It is also the stomping ground of thousands of feral horses.

0:00:25.292,0:00:29.035
Vieques is a municipality of what is now known as Puerto Rico,

0:00:29.035,0:00:32.205
a colony of the United States of America.

0:00:33.255,0:00:36.822
Viequenses like all Puerto Ricans are citizens of the American empire,

0:00:36.822,0:00:40.720
but this so-called privilege does not guarantee them the right to their land.

0:00:41.267,0:00:47.289
In the 1940's the US Navy forcibly evicted the people of Viques out of the east and west sides of the island.

0:00:47.289,0:00:53.123
And installed naval bases and uses pristine beaches as heavy weaponry target ranges.

0:00:53.123,0:00:58.829
They tested experimental weapons, fired missiles with depleted uranium, and deployed napalm and agent orange.

0:00:58.829,0:01:04.399
NATO member nations also had access to these lands for bombing military excercises.

0:01:04.399,0:01:10.171
At the end of the 20th century, a navy bomb struck and killed civilian security guard David Sanes.

0:01:14.581,0:01:18.750
After 50+ years of bombings, abusive behavior by US service men,

0:01:18.750,0:01:24.508
and general disinterest by the Puerto Rican government, [br]the people of Vieques had had enough.

0:01:24.508,0:01:27.293
Go back to your home, back you motherfucker!

0:01:27.659,0:01:33.304
They launched a campaign of civil disobedience and sabotage, that was joined by thousands of international sympathizers,

0:01:33.304,0:01:35.906
with the departure of the navy as the main objective.

0:01:35.906,0:01:38.269
Vieques's feral horses aided in this effort.

0:01:47.081,0:01:54.819
On May 1st, 2003, as US president George Bush boasted about victory over Iraq aboard a navy aircraft carrier,

0:01:54.819,0:01:58.423
the same navy was quietly closing it's doors on Vieques.

0:01:58.423,0:02:02.279
This year people in Vieques are supposed to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of this victory.

0:02:13.218,0:02:19.539
The navy did not return the lands that were stolen, and instead transferred them to the US Department of Fish and Wildlife.

0:02:19.898,0:02:26.088
This federal agency set up rules that prohibit the locals from harvesting coconuts and trapping crabs and other sea animals.

0:02:38.453,0:02:46.306
Notwithstanding the navy's withdrawal, the presence of US customs and border agents reminds us that the militarization of the zone continues.

0:02:46.306,0:02:53.141
While videotaping a border patrol vehicle we were told by a border cop that if we didn't delete the footage we would be arrested.

0:03:03.243,0:03:10.034
Even though the navy abandoned its large military basis and bombing ranges, it still retained a key piece of military infrastructure:

0:03:10.034,0:03:13.031
the navy's ROTHR installation,stands for:

0:03:13.031,0:03:15.506
Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar

0:03:15.506,0:03:20.857
a communications surveillance facility that allows the US to intercept communications past the equator

0:03:20.857,0:03:25.098
and deep into South America, with the pre-text of fighting the war on drugs.

0:03:26.908,0:03:30.624
But the biggest legacy that the navy left behind is the thousands of unexploded missiles and bombs

0:03:30.624,0:03:35.280
that litter the beautiful coastal ecosystem of the island.

0:03:35.280,0:03:38.148
Missiles the navy promised to clean up 10 years ago.

0:03:38.148,0:03:41.274
We took a fishing boat to one of the bombing ranges to see for ourselves,

0:03:41.274,0:03:44.750
and it didn't take long before us to be meters away from undetonated munitions.

0:03:44.750,0:03:49.776
The same munitions, that some say cause the abnormally high cancer rate in the local population.

0:04:11.232,0:04:17.789
The people we met admit that the battle is not over and that the future of Vieques doesn't lie in petitioning the government.

0:04:17.789,0:04:24.074
But in the same efforts of self-organization and resistance that kicked out the world's most powerful navy off their land.