After several days of protests that led to scores of arrests, the U.S. Navy continued its controversial training exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. There was a brief halt in the manuevers on April 29, to honor the pope's beatification of Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican being considered for sainthood by the Vatican.

The bombing exercises were given the go-ahead after a U.S. federal judge ruled the Puerto Rican government failed to show irreparable harm would be caused by the shelling.

As of May 1, more than 150 Puerto Ricans were arrested, including Independence Party leader Ruben Berrios and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he and others got past the Coast Guard and sneaked onto Mount David, a hill named after David Sanes, the 24-year-old civilian security guard that was killed by dummy bombs in April 1999. Sanes' death has led to growing outrage and public support to stop U.S. military use of the island.

The 33,000-acre island has about 9,000 residents and has been used by the U.S. Navy as a bombing range for 50 years. Under an agreement brokered last year, the Navy would use only dummy bombs for three years, and intends to hand back 8,000 acres of the island, two-thirds of which it owns. In November, the residents of Vieques expect to vote in a referendum on whether to oust the U.S. Navy in 2003 or let it remain in return for $35 million in improved housing and infrastructure. Marian Ramirez of Alert and Ready Citizens of Mayaguez with Vieques spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari.

For more information, visit the Vieques activist Web site at www.viequeslibre.org.