VIEQUES, Puerto Rico -- (AP) -- The war against the U.S. Navy spans
generations on this 22-mile-long island.

From father to son to grandson, Vieques' residents have taken up the protest
against an occupation of land that began with Navy expropriations in 1940.
Thousands were given $47 an acre then and moved to the main island of Puerto
Rico and nearby St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Today, the Navy controls two-thirds of Vieques' 33,000 acres, leaving islanders to
eke out a living in a 6-mile-wide strip that runs across the island's waist. To their
west is one of the Navy's largest ammunition dumps; to the east is the Navy's
Camp Garcia and bombing range.

Fisherman Carlos Ventura keeps a pair of shoes worn by his late father, Severo,
as a reminder of Severo's own defiant protests. Now Carlos has worn them in
demonstrations protesting a bombing range accident that killed civilian security
guard David Sanes Rodriguez on April 19.

``The old man made us promise him that no matter if he wasn't here, his children
and grandchildren would continue the fight,'' Carlos Ventura said.

The Zenon family has a similar tale. In 1979, Carlos Zenon, then head of the
fishermen's association, led a protest on restricted Navy land and was arrested.
Twenty years later, his son, Pedro, 21, is among a handful of protesters sitting in
on the bombing range to protest Sanes' death.

Residents say the Navy's presence hurts them economically.

Fishermen argue gunnery practice and aerial bombing have ruined fish stocks.
Islands say bombing also deters tourism -- a contention the Navy disputes, noting
that small inns and hotels dot Vieques.

The Navy, meanwhile, employs just 99 civilians on the island, including 72
security guards, 17 laborers and 10 lawn and maintenance workers.

Other job prospects for the 9,300 islanders appear limited. Some 600 people work
in small garment and electronics factories, and the unemployment rate is about
50 percent.
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald