Vieques is a small Caribbean island that boasts some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It is home to generations of men and women, who survive from the bounty of the ocean and the land. It is also the stomping ground to thousands of feral horses. Vieques is a municipality of what is now known as Puerto Rico, a colony of the United States of America.
In the 1940?s the US Navy forcibly evicted the people of Vieques out of the east and west sides of the island and installed naval bases and used its pristine beaches, as heavy weaponry target ranges.
After 50 plus years of bombings, abusive behaviors by US servicemen, and general disinterest by the Puerto Rican government, the people Vieques had had enough. They launched a campaign of civil disobedience and sabotage that was joined by thousands of international sympathizers, with the departure of the navy as the main objective.
On May first 2003, as US President George W Bush boasted of a victory over Iraq aboard a Navy aircraft carrier, the same Navy was quietly closing its doors on Vieques. This year people in Vieques are supposed to be celebrating the tenth anniversary of this victory