Live Roundups Editor's Desk Insights Executive Ops Weather About 🔍
Home › Health › ‘Everyone dies of cancer’: the Puerto Rican island...
Health

‘Everyone dies of cancer’: the Puerto Rican island poisoned by the US navy

The Guardian UK Wednesday 01 July 2026, 12:00 UTC By Vani Subramony and Charlie Kolodziej in Vieques, Puerto Rico 1 min read
Key Points

For decades Vieques was a bombing range, leaving a legacy of cancer clusters and unexploded munitions. Now residents fear the US military wants to reopen its basesWhen the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles (10km) off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi. Driving to Esperanza, a town on Vieques’s southern coast, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a...

For decades Vieques was a bombing range, leaving a legacy of cancer clusters and unexploded munitions. Now residents fear the US military wants to reopen its bases

When the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles (10km) off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi.

Driving to Esperanza, a town on Vieques’s southern coast, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a barbed-wire fence. Gato notes the wildlife preserve, riddled with unexploded munitions, and the health centre, recently built but without doctors. He mentions a woman walking by, whose husband recently died of cancer.

Continue reading...
Puerto Rican (ORG) the US navy (ORG) Vieques (LOCATION) US (LOCATION) Puerto Rico (LOCATION) José Belardo (PERSON) Esperanza (PERSON) Sun Bay (LOCATION) Gato (ORG)
Originally published by The Guardian UK Read original →

Related Stories

Mourners attend funerals for 14 Pakistani children killed in tutoring centre roof collapse

Police are investigating whether negligence during ongoing construction work caused the collapse that left another eight children hospitalised in stable condition. Mourners gathered in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday to bury 14 schoolchildren who were killed when the roof of a tutoring centre collapsed late on Tuesday. Police are investigating whether negligence during ongoing construction work caused the collapse that left another eight children hospitalised in stable condition.

Euronews 12m ago

Health ministry changes conditions for resident doctors in framework statute reform

The draft bill, widely criticised across the sector and still awaiting approval in Congress, offers limited improvements for students. The MIR Spain Association acknowledges progress but deems the measures inadequate. The Ministry of Health has added an extra pillar to its reform of the medical Framework Statute (which has triggered strikes across Spain and criticism from both sides of the ideological spectrum within the sector), focusing on the working conditions of MIR trainee doctors, or...

Euronews 29m ago

Horror as man dies after being run over on beach at Brit holiday hotspot

Horror as man dies after being run over on beach at Brit holiday hotspot The victim, whose identity has not been made public, was sleeping on the sand when he was hit in the early morning on L'Arrabassada Beach in Tarragona A man has died on a beach in Spain after he was run over by a cleaning vehicle while he was asleep. The victim was sleeping on the sand when he was hit in the early morning on L'Arrabassada Beach in Tarragona. It is understood the man was sleeping under a blanket, which...

Daily Mirror 32m ago

House Dem urges transparency by public officials after GOP colleague reveals reason for extended absence

Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that public officials have an obligation to be transparent about lengthy absences, after Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J.,disclosed that his recent monthslong time away from Congress was for treatment for depression. Kean had been missing House votes for months before returning on Tuesday. someone who has lived with depression, I have deep sympathy for anyone struggling with mental illness.

Fox News Politics 45m ago