When the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi.
Driving to Esperanza, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a barbed-wire fence.
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Gato notes the wildlife preserve, riddled with unexploded munitions, and the health centre, recently built but without doctors.
He mentions a woman walking by, whose husband recently died of cancer.
A 2003 study by the Puerto Rican department of health reported that the cancer rate in Vieques was 27% higher than the rest of the archipelago between 1990 and 1994, 35% higher between 1995 and 1999, and 18% higher from 2000 to 2004 – with the increase for males being even higher at 40%.
Experts suggest that the main cause of the surge may be contamination of the soil and water with carcinogenic metals in part of the island that was occupied by the US military until 2003.
From the 1940s until 2001, the US navy practised bombing and shelling techniques in Vieques, expanding its control to more than 70% of the island.
Ever since then, thousands of bombs and smaller explosive devices remain scattered across the island’s east side and in the surrounding waters, leaving about a third of the island off-limits to its own residents.
The navy is overseeing the cleanup under the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund programme, which is projected to continue until at least 2032, according to the US Department of War.
