Puerto Rican anti-war mothers rally against the revival of Roosevelt Roads base

Sonia Santiago Hernández, whose son was sent to Iraq in 2003, leads Madres Contra la Guerra, an organization that has spent two decades urging Puerto Rican youth to avoid military enlistment. In November 2025 the Department of Defense reactivated the former Roosevelt Roads naval station, leasing hangars and piers for a contract worth nearly $2.5 million and allowing F-35 fighters, Marine helicopters and transport aircraft to use its runway.

The group learned of the activity from Ceiba residents who reported shaking homes and a sudden air-space closure affecting Vieques. Hernández ties the base’s revival to the U.S. invasion of Caracas on 3 January 2026 and to SOUTHCOM’s new autonomous-warfare command announced in April 2026. While some locals view the base as an economic opportunity, many recall the high cancer rates on Vieques after decades of naval bombing and fear similar contamination. Governor Jenniffer González-Colón has defended the expanded military presence, and rumors persist that the Department of Homeland Security may convert the site into an immigration detention facility.