CHRONOLOGY OF THE U.S. NAVAL BASE ON VIEQUES
1940s |1950s
|1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s
Photographs | Map
1940s
1941 Congress approves HR 3325 (Public Law 22) and HR 5412 (Public Law 247) allowing the Navy to acquire land for fleet facilities.
April 26, 1942 Puerto Rican legislature approves Law 54 giving the Navy title to 26,000 of the island's 33,000 square acres. Civilians are relocated to a narrow strip of land in the island's center. Loss of agricultural land causes thousands to relocate to mainland Puerto Rico, the U.S., and St. Croix. Population drops from 10,000 to 7,000.
1947 Navy expropriates more land in western Vieques. The U.S. Dept. of the Interior and Navy prepare a plan to relocate remaining residents to St. Croix so the naval base can expand. The plan is not adopted but will resurface 14 years later.
1950s
April 4, 1953 Two marines are acquitted in a military trial for the death of an elderly storekeeper and the beating of his friend. The Vieques Municipal Assembly approves a resolution condemning the acts and calls for the Navy to return its land to the Vieques people.
February 8, 1959 Nineteen people are injured when Marines on liberty try to crash a private party. Clashes between civilians and military personnel are common during this period as is prostitution.
1960s
1961 Navy prepares a plan for the "abolition of the municipality of Vieques." Puerto Rican Governor Muñoz Marin asks President Kennedy to stop the plan.
1964 Navy threatens to take over Vieques' southern coast. A Committee to Defend Vieques, headed by Mayor António Rivera, defeats the plan, but the Navy's refusal to expand the airport causes the Woolnor Corporation to abandon its plan to build a $9 million tourist complex.
1970s
1975 Forced out of Culebra, the Navy intensifies its maneuvers in Vieques.
1978-1980 Fishermen disrupt military maneuvers and file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court charging the bombardment is ruining their livelihood. The lawsuit is dropped in favor of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
1980s
1983 MOU is signed by Navy Sec. James Goodrich and Puerto Rican Governor Carlos Roméro Barceló promising to increase safety, reduce bombing, protect endangered species, and create jobs. The MOU diffuses the anti-military movement for 10 years.
1990s
1993 Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) is established by residents to work for the four D's: demilitarization, decontamination, devolution (return of all Navy land to Viequenses), and economic development. The CRDV sends 3,800 signed postcards to the White House asking that the island be added to the list of military base closings.
1994-95 Roméro files two Congressional bills to turn over 8,000 acres of western land to the Vieques municipal government.
April 19, 1999 Navy accidentally kills David Sanes Rodríguez and injures four others when two bombs miss their target.
April 20, 1999 Navy suspends all operations at the firing range pending completion of its investigation.
April 21, 1999 Puerto Rican politicians demand a permanent end to the bombing.
April 22, 1999 Mount David, the first of many resistance campsites, is staked out at the island's eastern tip.
May 8, 1999 Rubén Berríos, president of Puerto Rico's Independence Party, vows to stay in his camp in Playa Allende until either the Navy leaves or he is arrested.
May 11, 1999 Puerto Rican Governor Pedro Rosselló appoints a special committee to study the Navy's impact on Vieques. Headed by Secretary of State Norma Burgós, the committee will include two Viequenses.
May 15-16, 1999 Congréso Nacional Hostosiano sponsors a two-day protest on the same Vieques beach where 21 people were arrested on the same date 20 years ago.
May 26, 1999 Pablo Connelly and his seven-year-old son are arrested by Navy officials after bringing supplies by truck to the camps. His citation for trespassing will later by dismissed.
May 27, 1999 Navy admits using ammunition tipped with depleted uranium.
June 8 Navy announces it will resume training on waters off the eastern shore of Vieques on June 21. PR Justice Department considers filing an injunction to stop it. PR Special Commission holds public hearings on Vieques.
June 10, 1999 President Clinton directs Sec. of Defense Wm. Cohen to appoint a panel to study the Navy's impact on Vieques. Headed by Undersecretary of Defense Frank Rush, the panel will include two retired naval officers and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton.
June 21, 1999 USS John F. Kennedy battle group begins exercises 50 miles off Vieques using no ordnance.
June 30, 1999 Governor Rosselló adopts all 13 of the Special Commission's recommendations, making official government policy its call for Navy withdrawal and transfer of lands to civilians.
July 4, 1999 The "Todo Puerto Rico Con Vieques" protest march at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Ceiba, Puerto Rico, draws about 50,000 people.
July 15, 1999 Vieques Mayor Santiago endorses the protestors' civil disobedience.
The Navy releases the Pace-Fallon study, which concludes there is no alternative weapons training site to Vieques.
July 16, 1999 Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Río leads a Catholic procession to visit the camps. He condemns Navy study.
July 17-August 6, 1999 Presidential ("Rush") Panel holds public hearings in Washington, DC, and Vieques.
August 3, 1999 Navy concludes its investigation of the accident, which blames the pilot and a range control officer for Sanes' death.
August 11, 1999 Rev. Jesse Jackson visits Vieques.
November 1, 1999 Berríos' letter to Clinton is published in the Washington Post. Clinton's response, in which he notes to Asst. Secretary of State "Sandy" Berger "This is wrong. I think they don't want us there." is leaked to the press.
December 3, 1999 Clinton releases a Vieques "statement" accepting the Rush Panel's recommendations that the Navy resume training with inert weapons for no longer than five years. He offers $40 million in economic incentives. Rosselló rejects Clinton's offer.
December 6, 1999 Reacting to Clinton's offer, protestors set up camp at the Camp García entrance and lock the gates. They will remove the locks four days later because of criticism.
December 7, 1999 Ten people are arrested in anti-Navy protests outside the United Nations. Their case will later be dismissed.
December 8, 1999 John Arthur Eaves law firm in Alabama files a $109 million class-action suit against the Navy on behalf of 55 Vieques cancer patients and property owners.
2000s
January 6, 2000 Actress Rosie Pérez and seven other women are arrested in front of the United Nations. Their case will later be dismissed.
January 31, 2000 Rosselló announces an agreement between his government and the White House in which Viequenses will vote on whether the Navy stays or leaves. Puerto Rican political consensus is broken. Church leaders denounce the agreement as "immoral."
February 4, 2000 Catholic church sets up a camp in the target zone. Evangelical and United Methodist churches join the Catholic church in opposing the agreement.
February 12, 2000 Navy decides to move the March exercises scheduled for the USS George Washington from Vieques to the Gulf of Mexico.
February 21, 2000 "Peace for Vieques" March in San Juan draws between 85,000 and 150,000 people.
May 4, 2000 Federal agents remove 215 protestors from the firing range.
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