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Just seven miles off the eastern shore of Puerto Rico, 21-mile-long VIEQUES feels a world away. Despite the controversial construction in 2000 of Martineau Bay, a five-star resort near the airport, its countryside remains untrammelled. Many locals still get around on horseback and chickens still stop cars in the roads, which are devoid of traffic or traffic lights. Since 1948, the western and eastern thirds of the island have been occupied by the US Navy, which uses these portions for bombing practice . The military occupation of Vieques is undoubtedly the most substantive complaint about life under the US flag, protested widely on the Puerto Rico mainland and even by celebrities and politicians stateside. It is indeed disturbing to be sipping coconut juice on an abandoned beach, with the sounds of shelling audible, though of course it's not constant. In 1999, after a local civilian was killed by a stray bomb, President Bill Clinton demanded that military training on Vieques be phased out in five years; nevertheless, bombing has continued, despite suits and protest against it
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