Navy Resumes Vieques Exercises
Gunships pounded the firing range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques on Thursday, as opponents pleaded for an end to the bombing and some debated whether Puerto Rico should altogether retire as an outlying 400-year-old military outpost.
Both sides were belligerent: Navy guards fired tear gas, bean bags and rubber bullets at a half dozen protesters trying to break into the range Thursday night; the Navy said people fired a flare at personnel inside the base, and earlier, people aboard a small boat fired a flare at one of its helicopters and crew.
No one was injured in the flare skirmish. But Associated Press photographer Tomas van Houtryve was hit in the arm by a rubber bullet as he ran from guards firing tear gas.
The Navy’s resumption of exercises despite a weekend referendum in which Vieques residents called for an immediate stop infuriated many.
On Thursday, warships fired dummy ammo in the fresh round of Navy exercises on Vieques, an 18-mile-long island off Puerto Rico.
The Vella Gulf, a guided missile cruiser, and destroyer Ross fired 70-pound shells on the range, about four miles from the inhabited areas.
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