P.R. Tourism in Damage-Control Mode after CNN’s Vieques Report

Puerto Rican tourism officials found themselves scrambling this week to respond to a two-part report on CNN titled “Poisoned Paradise” that revealed lingering health concerns about Vieques, an island that lies seven miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico.

The series offered evidence of widespread health problems among Vieques residents that have been widely attributed to the U.S. Navy’s 62 years of shelling the eastern end of the island for target practice.

It took decades of protests, occasionally violent, and legal maneuvering to force the U.S. government to pull the Navy out of Vieques, after which it was widely assumed that the island’s many miles of pristine beaches would attract a wealth of tourism investments.

This is not the first time that the high cancer rate among the Viequenses has been linked to the Navy’s activities. In fact, the issue has surfaced repeatedly over the years. CNN’s on-air interviews with afflicted islanders were compelling and troubling, and they elicited strong comments, pro and con, from viewers.

Following the CNN airing, Jaime Lopez-Diaz, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co., issued a statement urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Navy “to aggressively step up their important work on Vieques, because our first and primary concern is the health of its residents.”

He also acknowledged that a crucial need “remains to ensure that Vieques’ natural beauty is preserved and affected areas restored” so that the island can evolve into a world-class destination, which “can only be accomplished with the EPA’s environmental restoration experts leading the way.”

Lopez-Diaz called Vieques the “jewel of the Caribbean, a beautiful and natural tourist destination” and said that areas of the island already are benefitting from hotel and other tourist-related development.