Biography
Ismael Guadalupe Torres is one of the founding members of the Vieques Committee for the Rescue and Development (Comité Pro Rescate y Desarrollo de Vieques) and a longtime leader in the campaign to remove the U.S. Navy from his home island. He served 120 to 140 days in federal custody for occupying the Navy bombing range in January 2003.
From 1941 to 2003, the U.S. Navy used the inhabited Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a live-fire bombing range. After Navy bombs killed civilian security guard David Sanes in 1999, a sustained civil-disobedience movement of Puerto Rican residents and U.S. solidarity activists repeatedly entered Navy land to halt training. Hundreds were arrested and dozens served federal prison sentences for trespass, conspiracy, and damage to federal property. The Navy finally withdrew from Vieques in May 2003 — the largest victory in U.S. anti-base activism in a generation.
