Thousands Protest Navy Target Practice

Nearly 50,000 Puerto Ricans marched to a U.S. naval base and demanded an end to the use of the nearby island of Vieques for target practice. The march was called to protest the Navy’s bombing of Vieques, an island municipality just off the coast from the town of Ceiba. While Vieques residents and the Navy have sparred for the last five decades over its use, public opinion across Puerto Rico turned sharply against the Navy war games when a civilian security guard employed by the Navy was killed April 21 by a pair of stray bombs. The Navy owns two-thirds of the island’s 33,000 acres.