Antecedents

Since 1941, the puertorican Island of Vieques has been used as practice and firing range for the troops of the US Navy. Until today 60 years of continuous bombing and military practices have gone by, as a result, we have polluted land, high cancer rates and a denigrating development in all levels among the population of Vieques. Yes, although it may be hard to believe, Vieques is inhabited and its population was “relocated” in the middle of the island, but in the East and West zone the Navy  practice with all sorts of ammunitions: high caliber bombs, napalm, agent orange (used in Vietnam War), bullets covered with uranium, beside to rent the lands to other military institutions such as the Pentagon, armies from European and Latin American nations. From Vieques departed the invasion to the Dominican Republic in 1965, the invasion to Grenada and Panama in the 80’s, the Persian Gulf troops in 1991 and the planes that bombed Yugoslavia in 1999.
But the people of Vieques and the great majority of puertorican have said Enough is Enough! On April 99, a Navy bomb killed David Sanes, and since then, the fight to take the Navy out of Vieques has intensified. For a year hundreds of civil disobedience including political, religious and community leaders, peacefully invaded the restricted lands and challenged the US authorities, claiming in their messages what  is their natural and moral right: Peace to Vieques! On May 4, 2000, the US Government in a crass  violation of civil and human right, evacuated the encampments, arresting the civil disobedience, to allow the Navy to continue its war practices.

Resume of the action

In May 2000, AUMA + Gom@  made a mail art call to support the fight against the use of the Vieques Island in Puerto Rico as a firing range by the US army. The action wanted to be a "virtual bombing" of electronic and snail mail postcards to the government of the United States. For that, we ask to contributors to send a postcard to the US president Bill Clinton and send a copy to Elías Adasme, member of AUMA, to make a virtual exhibition of the works received.
The answer was really conclusive and, in the days before the spread of the call, we received hundreds of postcards and support from a lot of artists. You can see the exhibition in
 
 

Some time later, there was an artistic action where a few Puerto Rican artists, among them Elías Adasme, "invaded" the island as a new way to protest. The island is a military zone and the access is restricted, so the artists were arrested and judged.

Finally, a great exhibition was opened in Puerto Rico with the title Creo en Vieques (I believe in Vieques) and AUMA was there as invited collective. All the postcards receive in the action were showed there. The exhibition was in the Museum of Contemporary Art and was opened the 10th of November till the 9th of December.

You can see some pictures of the exhibition by clicking here.

You can have all the information about Paz para Vieques here.