Vieques Residents Fear Lasting Military Cancer Legacy

Residents of the Puerto Rican island of Vieques are expressing renewed concern that the United States military could restore its presence on the island, even as communities continue to deal with the environmental and health consequences of decades of military exercises.

The anxiety has grown following the reopening last November of the Roosevelt Roads military base in nearby Ceiba, 21 years after its closure. Some islanders believe recent United States foreign policy actions in the Caribbean have heightened the possibility of renewed military activity in Vieques.

For more than six decades, the United States Navy used Vieques as a bombing and training range, occupying more than 70 per cent of the island from the 1940s until bombing exercises ended in 2001. The military withdrew completely in 2003, but thousands of unexploded bombs and other munitions remain scattered across the eastern section of the island and surrounding waters. Cleanup efforts under the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund programme are expected to continue until at least 2032.

Residents argue that the island continues to bear the long term effects of contamination. A study by the Puerto Rican Department of Health found cancer rates in Vieques were 27 per cent higher than elsewhere in Puerto Rico between 1990 and 1994, 35 per cent higher from 1995 to 1999 and 18 per cent higher between 2000 and 2004. Among men, the increase reached 40 per cent. Researchers have suggested that carcinogenic metals left in the soil and water may be responsible for the elevated rates.

Dr. Lorena Estrada Martínez of the University of Massachusetts has studied the long term impact of military activity since 2020 through research initially funded by an Environmental Protection Agency grant. Although the project lost funding in 2025, she hopes to complete the work.

Stories of illness remain common across the island. Carlos Ventura, 65, who was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma in 2024, said, “In our neighbourhood, our community, almost everyone has died of cancer, one house after another.”

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  Puerto Rico