The Navy seized three quarters of Vieques and nearly evicted all remaining inhabitants.

Evidence

Closer to home, in Admiral Rivero’s homeland of Puerto Rico, the Navy carried out repeated removals on the small island of Vieques. Between 1941 and 1943, and again in 1947, the U.S. Navy displaced thousands from their lands, seizing three quarters of Vieques for military use, and squeezing the Viequeños into a small portion of the middle of the island. Military occupation brought few benefits. As productive local economies were disrupted, stagnation, poverty, unemployment, prostitution, and violence became the rule. In 1961, the Navy announced plans to seize the rest of Vieques and evict its remaining eight thousand inhabitants. Officials canceled the expulsion plans only when Governor Luis Muñoz Marin convinced President Kennedy that the expulsion would fuel UN and Soviet criticisms of the colonial relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 202