For decades Vieques was a bombing range, leaving a legacy of cancer clusters and unexploded munitions. Now residents fear the US military wants to reopen its bases

When the ferry docks in Vieques, a small island about 6 miles (10km) off Puerto Rico, the first person many tourists see is José Belardo, known as “Gato”, a retired police chief who now drives a taxi.

Driving to Esperanza, a town on Vieques’s southern coast, he points to Sun Bay, a popular beach, and to large cleanup tents behind a barbed-wire fence. Gato notes the wildlife preserve, riddled with unexploded munitions, and the health centre, recently built but without doctors. He mentions a woman walking by, whose husband recently died of cancer.