Annual protests against the U.S. Navy’s use of the island of Vieques as a bombing range have persuaded the military to abandon the site it has used since 1947 in favor of locations in Florida and other places in the U.S. Come May 1 the Navy will no longer use Vieques and will turn over the eastern third of the island to the Department of the Interior for management. A 256-room hotel on the island that was completed in 2001 has now opened because of the Navy’s pledge, a move that will surely alter the ambience of the island, where only small inns and hotels had previously existed. The new hotel is expected to become Puerto Rico’s largest employer.
