The increased tensions between Venezuela and the United States, which culminated in the militarization of Puerto Rico, have reopened old wounds.

Five thousand troops and a reactivated base are causing concern, especially considering the 60 years that the Puerto Rican island of Vieques was used as a training ground and artillery base. For more than 50 years, a 163 km² area in the Caribbean Sea was subjected to multiple bombing raids by the U.S. armed forces. Every year, from the 1940s to the 2000s, Vieques, a small island that is part of the Puerto Rican archipelago, was hit by 2,000 tons of ammunition. The United States Navy transformed this idyllic corner of the Caribbean, with its clear waters, into a realistic simulation of a war zone: after displacing thousands of inhabitants and seizing two-thirds of the island's territory and resources, the Navy erected a training base and firing range there to conduct artillery tests and other military exercises that instilled terror. The Navy, in that place, established a firing range and training base to conduct artillery tests and other military exercises that terrorized the local inhabitants, who were forced to live amidst explosions in a narrow strip of land.