Before Washington resigned from the presidency, he stated in his farewell address, "We should stay away from Europe, not concentrate on their wars. We should concentrate on our borders." One hundred years later, other notable individuals were saying very similar things. Years later, around the period of the early 1800's to the 1820's, several countries around the Caribbean and Latin America were winning their independence from countries in Europe (notably France and Spain). In Haiti, Toussaint L 'Ouverture, an escaped Black slave, led an army of slaves against France. The revolt was a success; they would win their independence and most importantly slavery was abolished. In Mexico, Miguel Hidalgo, a radical priest, led close to 80,000 individuals against the Spanish Inquisition in the year 1810 and distributed land to the peasants, and demanded freedom for all slaves. In South America, Simon Bolivar, and Jose De San Martin gathered together an army of workers and slaves to drive the Spanish from the continent of South America.

Bolivar wanted to lead an army to free both Cuba and Puerto Rico, but unfortunately the United States threatened war and Bolivar was forced to back down. Bolivar stated, "This country seems destined to plague America with misery in the name of liberty." It was around that time the United States issued a document that would manifest U.S. imperialism in the years to come. In 1823, the fifth President of the United States James Monroe declared Latin America a United States territory. The Monroe Doctrine was put together right around the time countries in Latin America and the Caribbean were winning their freedom from European nations, who were feeling the effects of war during the Napoleonic War period. This document declared, "Any attack in this area, is an attack on the United States." As Ana Lopez, Historian/professor from City University points out in her book The History of Puerto Rico Series In a Nutshell,"The U.S. wanted to be the only ones to exploit Latin America with no competition from the European nations." She goes on to add, "With this document the U.S. would expand its might to occupy militarily!" Here are some of the invasions the United States have performed:

1816-18, Spanish Florida: First Seminole War whose area was a resort for escaped slaves was attacked by U.S. troops under Andrew Jackson. Spanish posts were attacked, and later occupied, British citizens executed. No declaration or congressional approval was ever authorized.

1846-48, Mexico: The Mexican War, President Polk's occupation of disputed territory precipitated it. War was formally declared.

May 1916-September 1924: U.S. Marines occupied the Dominican Republic to maintain order during a period of insurrection.

Eventually, the subject of Puerto Rico came up, for which the United States had on its mind for nearly thirty-years. In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State Steward stated, "The United States has consistently cherished the belief that someday she can acquire this area by just cause." Thirty-one years later, the Spanish-American War was to take place and then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, who made a name for himself (as an opportunist some might say) during the war by leading the Rough Riders stated, "Do not make peace until we have Puerto Rico." Around this period on May 24th of 1898, U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in a written memo to Roosevelt, said "Puerto Rico is not forgotten and we mean to have it." On July 25th 1898, the United States invaded Puerto Rico on the port of Guanica Bay.

General Nelson Miles, who led the invasion on the island, (who, by the way led massacre of 300 Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890) stated "We have not come to make war upon the people of a country that for centuries has been oppressed, but on the contrary, to bring you protection." MENTIRA! which in English means Lie.

The protection was for the interest of the United States in the area of the Caribbean and Latin America.

1898 to 1917 was a key period for the United States; Theodore Roosevelt, who was the president from 1901 to 1909 stated, "We can sit quietly on our borders." This was the era of "Walk Quietly and Carry a Big Stick" policy. Also during this time, the United States issued in Cuba the Platt Amendment, which gave the United States the right to control Cuban foreign policy and intervene militarily to regulate the activities of the Cuban government. In 1903, the construction of the Panama Canal would go along and finally on the year 1917 the Jones Act was passed, which imposed U.S. citizenship on the people of Puerto Rico. Ironically, Puerto Ricans did not take part in the passing of this bill.

Many would ask how did all of this lead to Vieques; it leads to it in many ways. As Ana Lopez states again in her book, "They considered that the Panama Canal needed to be protected from potential foreign attacks, particularly from Europe. This meant increasing the might of the U.S. Navy to set up key military bases in the Caribbean and Latin America." The key place was obviously the island of Puerto Rico and the island of Vieques.

In the book Colonial Dilemma (a must buy) edited by the brothers Edwin and Edgardo Melendez, in an article by Humberto Garcia Muniz, he stated "Vieques has played a major role in U.S. interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean." Case in point: Dominican Republic 1965, Grenada 1983; in the article by Muniz, it concludes that the rehearsal for "the invasion of Grenada, took place in Vieques (code-named Universal Trek I-83), and finally the invasion of Panama in 1989." Currently, the U.S. Navy controls between 70 to 80% of the land in Vieques, bombing practices go on almost everyday. In a video called Puerto Rico: Hidden Colony, Hidden Struggle, Carlos Taso Zenon, a resident of Vieques who has been active in the struggle for Vieques says, "This is the only place in the whole world in which WW II has never ended. The bombing goes on from 7:00 in the morning sometimes until 7:00 the next day. It's an outrage." The military presence there is not the only problem there. There's also problem of health, and then the desruction fishing industry.

In other powerful video called The Battle for Vieques, fishermen state the problems they've had with the military. "It's frightening, they do this all-year around." Other fisherman stated, "In areas where we often fish there are times we are scared to fish in that area, due to the fact that we might accidentally hit a piece of metal or sharp objects left from the bombing exercises. The Navy hardly never cleans-up after themselves."

"The are times we just have no place to fish in Vieques, the U.S. military is everywhere."

The health problems have been growing in Vieques. In a serious of articles put together by The Amsterdam News, cancer and asthma is the rise in Vieques.

In the articles by Karen Juanita Carrillo and John Price, they interviewed Dr. Rafael Castano, an epidemiologist and a retired professor from the University of Puerto Rico who stated, "The probable cause of the prevalence of asthma among children living on the island is air pollution. We don't have factories-the primary source of pollution is the U.S. Navy." Laura Carreras, supports that claim. "Right after the bombings a lot of people, especially children are wheezing and coughing from asthma. Many people also have "red-eye" after the bombing." Francisco "Pache" Pimentel has a story to tell; according to the articles, Pache has lost up to seven friends to cancer since 1996. He blames the Navy for these deaths. "Every bomb that falls on our island, the dust will come up and the winds blow them east and west across the island. It is poisoning our people." The northern town of Isabel Segunda, according to Pache is often called "Villa Cancer" (Cancer Village) due to the fact that it's so close to the Navy's Camp Garcia.

The Vieques movement has gotten a lot of support. Puerto Rican baseball stars Juan Gonzalez of the Cleveland Indians, Ivan Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers, Singer Marc Anthony, and boxer Felix "Tito" Trinidad, have supported the Vieques movement and demanded that the bombing be stopped. Currently you have to ask yourself, does the United States have any respect for territory? What's going on here is without question is a form of terrorism. Then again when this country does it, it's democracy! If groups like the Young Lords or the Macheteros fight back, they are terrorist.