EPISODE: The Devastating Effects of Militarization on Puerto Rico and Her People. How One Activist is Promoting Health Justice for Vieques & Culebra.
GUEST: Monisha Rios, Puerto Rican psychologist, social worker and disabled US veteran.
BACKGROUND:
The U.S. has been overtly and covertly intervening in Puerto Rico’s internal affairs since 1898. Like the Spanish, British, Dutch, and the French, the U.S. understood the strategic value of the Puerto Rican archipelago, which would give their expanding empire a military advantage toward enforcing the Monroe Doctrine, thereby securing its established intent to dominate the Western Hemisphere.
A new wave of militarization began soon after the change of colonial ownership, the implications of which would devastate the island municipalities of Culebra and Vieques. Culebra was militarized in 1901 and expelled the Navy in 1975. Vieques was militarized in 1941 and expelled the Navy in 2003.
FOLLOW OUR GUEST:
Monisha Rios –
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Episode illustration by Indi Maverick
OUR BROADCAST PARTNERS:
WTF is Going on in Latin America & the Caribbean is a Popular Resistance broadcast in partnership with Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team, CODEPINK, Common Frontiers, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Friends of Latin America, InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Massachusetts Peace Action and Task Force on the Americas.