On the phone with Myrna last Monday, March 5, she stated that the situation is far worse today, post-Irma and Maria. There is no hospital and the small emergency room clinic had to be closed because it was full of mold. She described the health care situation, such as it is, as "like a scene from M.A.S.H. ... with tents."

This tweet gives you a picture:

x More than 5 months after #HurricaneMaria hit #PuertoRico island of #Vieques, @Americares mobile clinic is still meeting needs. Only hospital no longer operates. Other health services limited. Our staff and volunteers filling a critical gap. pic.twitter.com/kCCUbvrtKg Ã¢ÂÂ Michael at Americares (@AmericaresCEO) February 28, 2018

Dr. Spencer Sullivan, president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Advanced Medicine, which was appointed the exclusive medical coordinator for medical research for the citizens of Vieques, wrote this January 2018 op-EC for the Orlando Sentinel titled "Helping the helpless in Vieques."

Washington has taken incremental steps throughout the years to make amends to the American citizens who call Vieques home. President Clinton supported a referendum allowing the residents of Vieques to have a say on the Navy’s activities on the island. President Bush followed through by shuttering military operations in Puerto Rico. Congress has repeatedly appropriated funds to clean up the dangerous contamination on Vieques. In 2004, the EPA designated Vieques a Superfund site, a classification for areas the government deems contaminated with hazardous pollutants. The contamination in Vieques made it eligible for the National Priorities List, which are Superfund sites requiring long-term cleanup Congress should provide directed relief to the residents of Vieques, especially those suffering from the adverse health effects of contamination. There is a proposal in Congress that would legislate a settlement of the claims of the people of Vieques. This settlement would provide the municipality with modest compensation to cover their extensive health-care and treatment costs, and would also fund carefully targeted research to hopefully end the cycle of sickness and suffering on the island. Importantly, this proposal would utilize the Treasury Department's Judgment Fund, a unique fund for the purpose of settling lawsuits and claims against the government, thus not acting as traditional appropriations. This targeted relief would not impact nor diminish other important funding of hurricane relief for Puerto Rico. This targeted relief for the people of Vieques was the right thing to do before Maria made landfall. In Maria’s wake, the situation has only become more ominous.

That's all well and good. However, this doesn’t take into account the Trump administration’s animus directed at Puerto Rico, cuts to the EPA, and slow responses by the government for Superfund site clean-up, not just in Puerto Rico but across the U.S. The hurricanes have made a bad situation worse, as detailed in "The Looming Superfund Nightmare."

In my conversation with Myrna, she spoke highly of the legal help they are getting from the mainland and pointed to the work being done on behalf of Viequenses by a formidable Latina attorney, Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan.

Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan

She is currently the president of the National Lawyers Guild, elected in 2015, and works for LatinoJustice PRLDEF (formerly the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund) a civil rights organization which you may or may not be aware of. Founded in 1972, it was modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was a member of their board of directors from 1980 to 1992.

Bannan is ...

… an Associate Counsel at LatinoJustice PRLDEF, focusing on working with low-wage Latina immigrant workers as part of the organization’s economic justice platform, legal support in the face of the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and human rights advocacy before regional and international bodies. Natasha has worked on gender and racial justice issues, including access to reproductive health, sexual violence and violence against women in conflict zones. Prior to joining LatinoJustice PRLDEF, she worked in the International Women's Human Rights Clinic at CUNY School of Law and the Center for Reproductive Rights. She clerked for the Hon. Ronald L. Ellis in the Southern District of New York and was an Ella Baker Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Natasha graduated from CUNY School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the CUNY Law Review and a Fellow at the Center for Latino/a Rights and Equality.

She wrote “Vieques 12 Years Later: Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied” in 2016

As a result of the extreme health and environmental damage caused by the Navy’s practices, Vieques was declared a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2005, meaning the site requires a special protocol for cleanup and decontamination procedures because of its level of toxicity. Despite such protocols, the Navy and its contractor, CH2MHill, engage in the use of open-air bombing as a means of detonating found munitions. They also engage in the questionable practice of open-air burning of vegetation as an economical means of finding munitions, both of which have been criticized as exacerbating existing environmental and health damage. There exists no adequate civilian oversight mechanism for a community of dominant Spanish speakers who have been isolated and disengaged from participating in the cleanup process and understanding its ramifications. The United States has consistently maintained a position of non-liability for its actions in Vieques. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the Center for Disease Control, has been heavily critiqued by scientists and Congress alike for it’s “finding” of no ‘’credible scientific evidence’’ to support a relationship between decades of military toxic use and civilian health consequences and environmental damage. The Navy continues to insist that open-air detonation of bombs does not contribute to air pollution since the chemicals released are already naturally occurring; however they are quick to caution residents and visitors not to approach or touch such munitions. They have been suspected of engaging in open-air burning of vegetation to quickly locate munitions at a fraction of the cost, an act that the EPA has said would be unlawful under local law (the Navy has admitted that even tearing up the dense vegetation to clear the remainder of the debris would hurt the nature reserve, much less burning it). In the many lawsuits filed against the United States, including one by LatinoJustice years ago, the government has consistently asserted the antiquated defense of sovereign immunity, insisting their actions are justified by national security reasons and therefore not subject to judicial scrutiny. There are no longer domestic forums available for Viequenses to seek justice, which is why we have asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an autonomous organism and quasi-judicial human rights body of the Organization of American States, to look into the situation. After almost 75 years of exploitation, the people of Vieques have been very clear in their demands: return of all federally controlled lands to the people and municipality of Vieques; adequate and thorough decontamination of all land and water; demilitarization of their land; and locally controlled development. None of those demands have yet been met in full. Just this month, a group of independent scientists met in Puerto Rico to discuss their ongoing concern regarding the state of health and environmental damage in Vieques. And their concern is well-founded - the Navy estimated that they have so far removed 90,000 munitions items; 40,000 of which have been destroyed through demolition. However it has been estimated that the cleanup could take another 14 years, and even then the Navy presumes that not all munitions will be found, “regardless of the level of cleanup.” Instead, the Navy has proposed posting warning signs or fencing off areas from the public, which would limit any potential use of the land and relieves them of any responsibility for possible ecological damage that may surface in a toxic site left contaminated and unattended.

During a December 2017 hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), attorneys and island residents presented their concerns.

Khiana Shalis Figueroa Guadalupe testified on behalf of the the people of Vieques, who had to face the health consequences of US military training for six decades. "75 days after the hurricane, there is still no power anywhere in Vieques, beaches are contaminated with black water, debris deposited in clandestine landfills and the only hospital on the Island (municipality) is closed," said Figueroa Guadalupe. In addition, she highlighted the problems of maritime transportation they have. As an example she talked about the case of her grandfather, a cancer patient who has missed "four sessions of chemotherapy for lack of communication and maritime transportation and his cancer has metastasized."

Last week Bannan tweeted out this photo of the community meeting held with lawyers to discuss moving forward in their quest for justice.

x ReuniÃÂ³n comunitaria en #Vieques, hablando de derechos humanos, en defenderlos y en no rendirnos, nunca. pic.twitter.com/b3ig43Kvjr Ã¢ÂÂ Natasha Lycia Bannan (@lyciaora) March 3, 2018

(Translation: Community meeting in #Vieques, talking about human rights, defending them and never giving up, ever)

When I spoke with Myrna on the phone I could hear the sound of waves lapping in the background. She was sitting out on a jetty where she could get a phone signal, which was impossible from her house.

She spoke softly of the great natural beauty of her home island and her deep sadness over the effect of the bombings, not only on humans and animals and plants. She is also heartbroken about the impact on the very bones of Vieques: the coral. She suggested I look into the research of University of Georgia’s Dr. James Porter, who is a professor of ecology and marine science. I did, and found his Ted Talk titled “Pick Up The Bomb” about Vieques coral to be both informative and distressing.

Thinking of her as I write this, I know we will probably never get the chance to meet face to face, though we will be speaking again soon.

She is truly a spirit sister.

Pa’lante, Vieques.