On a trip to Puerto Rico last week, state Rep. Geraldo Reyes of Waterbury saw Campamento (Camp) Santiago full of U.S. soldiers and military aircraft lined up at an airport in Ponce.
“I didn’t like it,” said Reyes, a Democrat who previously chaired the state legislature's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus. “I believe that the United States is taking advantage of Puerto Rico because of the fact that they can use that island as they see fit.”
The issue has raised alarm for many Puerto Ricans in the United States as tensions rise with Venezuela.
“They're putting the Puerto Rican population in jeopardy with their neighbors in the Caribbean,” Reyes said. “This is not Puerto Rico that's against Venezuela. This is the United States of America, and it’s the United States of America imposing its will by now wanting to open up the camps that they already had closed in Puerto Rico.”
Hartford Councilman Amilcar Hernandez said he's concerned about the lack of transparency around the U.S. military's operations.
“The history of Puerto Rico and U.S. military presence has always been stained by the atrocities the U.S. government has committed to the people of the island under the pretext of protection and economic development,” Hernandez said in a written statement.
He added that the military operation revives fears on the island that stem from historical displacement of Puerto Ricans and permanent damage to local ecosystems by the military.
“In my opinion, although the U.S. military insists these actions are about protecting democracy, deterring narcotics traffickers, and maintaining regional stability, based on historical facts, I say that Puerto Rico is again being used as a strategic pawn in the projection of U.S. power,” Hernandez said.
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, a national advocacy organization for Puerto Rico, sent a letter via email Monday calling on U.S. Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth to “halt the ongoing militarization of Puerto Rico and to immediately end all plans to expand military operations on our archipelago.”
The organization also demands that defense officials fully clean and restore all former bombing ranges and military sites in Puerto Rico.
Eight other civil society organizations in Puerto Rico and the United States signed the letter. Fifteen U.S. senators and representatives were copied on the email.
Old wounds
The Caribbean has played host to an increasing number of fighter jets, Air Force drones and troops in recent months. Hegseth visited Puerto Rico in early September as the U.S. military launched a training exercise for Marines, and scaled up its presence in the region to support operations against drug cartels.
A 1999 incident at the Vieques Naval Training Range rekindled anti-military sentiment when a Puerto Rican security guard was accidentally killed in a bombing during a military exercise. President George W. Bush ordered naval facilities on the island shut down by May 2003.
Scientific research later showed a higher incidence of cancer and other health problems among Vieques residents than people on Puerto Rico, a circumstance many locals attributed to military exercises on the island. The region also suffered environmental damage and a lack of economic development.
These issues are addressed in more detail in the letter, which said, “Puerto Ricans have been waiting for the Navy … to fulfill its responsibility and commitments to fully clean and restore all former bombing ranges and military sites in Puerto Rico.”
Luis Ponce Ruiz, co-founder of Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora (BUDPR), said the letter was meant to start a movement to prevent a repeat of the past.
“We know that with this current … administration, they're probably not even going to answer our letter," Ponce Ruiz said, "but we wanted it to be a first signal of a unified front that will then show Americans and Puerto Ricans that us as a people, as a nation, will not be sitting idly while these abuses continue.”
Ponce Ruiz said they’ve already heard back from some representatives on the House Committee on Natural Resources who shared their interest in the issue. He said BUDPR is considering starting a public petition with the goal of bringing this issue to Congress in the next session.
Learn more
Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora is taking part in a virtual panel on Wednesday, December 17 at 7 p.m. to discuss the growing U.S. military presence in the Caribbean and what that means for Puerto Rico.
