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Puerto Ricans expel United States Navy from Culebra Island, 1970-1974

Summary

From 1970 to 1974, Culebra residents, the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), the Rescue Culebra Committee (RCC), the Clergy Committee to Rescue Culebra, and the US-based A Quaker Action Group used beach human-chains, a chapel built on the Navy’s firing range, congressional pressure, and a sustained jail-and-vigil cycle to force the United States Navy off Culebra Island. [source: nv-database] The campaign’s January 1971 Culebra Agreement committed the Navy to find another island for its exercises by 1972 and to stop using Culebra as a bombing site after 1975; the Navy departed in 1975. The source scores the campaign 6 of 6 on demand achievement. [source: nv-database]

Tactics used

Background

In 1970, Puerto Rico was a non-sovereign US territory; residents were US citizens but could not vote in presidential elections and had no representation in Congress. [source: nv-database] At the beginning of the 20th century, the US Navy had eliminated Culebra’s principal town and evicted its residents to build a marine base; in 1941 President Roosevelt claimed exclusive rights to Culebra’s airspace and a three-mile radius. By 1950 the Navy held 1,700 of the ten-square-mile island; the civilian population had fallen from 4,000 to 580; and the Navy owned a third of the land and controlled all coastal transportation. [source: nv-database]

In 1969 the Navy resumed attempts to evict all Culebra residents to expand the base. The year before, Culebra had been hit by directed missiles for 228 days and live-fire exercises had run for over 100 days; misfires caused major damage; and the island was left riddled with craters, unexploded ordnance, and toxic waste. [source: nv-database]

What happened

Citizens of Culebra responded by demonstrating on the island’s beaches in 1970. After a court reaffirmed the Navy’s right to use the island as a military site, residents marched to a local command post and issued an ultimatum, threatening direct action to force removal of the Navy. The Puerto Rican Senate passed a resolution asking President Nixon to reevaluate the Navy’s presence; congressional hearings and investigations continued through the summer. [source: nv-database]

In June 1970, twenty Culebrans formed a human chain to block ship-to-shore missile fire, followed by a three-day PIP-organized encampment that drew 600 people. PIP leader Rubén Berríos Martínez pledged a course of “pacific militancy.” [source: nv-database] Residents then picketed at a proposed demolition site; one of three picket boats had to be towed away to avoid human casualties.

In early 1971, the PIP organized a march to the entrance of the base. With the RCC, the Clergy Committee, and A Quaker Action Group, protesters attempted to construct a chapel on Flamenco Beach — a site within the Navy’s bombing range where a church had previously been demolished by military personnel. When police and a barbed-wire fence blocked them on land, protesters traveled by sea carrying wood and tools and built the chapel on the marine base. With Quaker support, services were held during target practice, forcing the Navy to halt exercises. [source: nv-database]

The chapel was torn down and PIP’s president and thirteen others were sent to federal prison for trespassing; only violence of the campaign occurred when protesters attempted to stop the demolition, Marines used tear gas, protesters threw several Molotov cocktails, and three Marines were burned. When the protesters were sentenced, 1,000 University of Puerto Rico students began daily vigils at the jail. [source: nv-database]

In January 1971, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the US Secretary of the Navy signed the Culebra Agreement; the Navy agreed to find another island by 1972 and to stop using Culebra after 1975. After further congressional pressure in the years that followed, the Navy left Culebra in 1975. [source: nv-database]

Key people & organizations

  • Rubén Berríos Martínez — President of the Puerto Rican Independence Party [source: nv-database]
  • The Rescue Culebra Committee (RCC) — coordinator of the chapel-on-the-range action [source: nv-database]
  • The Clergy Committee to Rescue Culebra — co-organizer [source: nv-database]
  • A Quaker Action Group — US-based supporter of the chapel construction [source: nv-database]
  • The University of Puerto Rico — the 1,000-student mobilization for daily jail vigils [source: nv-database]
  • US Secretary of the Navy — signatory to the Culebra Agreement [source: nv-database]
  • The citizens of Culebra — including the twenty human-chain participants [source: nv-database]

Outcome

Verdict: won.

The campaign scored 6 of 6 on demand achievement: the January 1971 Culebra Agreement committed the Navy to find another site by 1972 and to end bombing after 1975. After additional pressure, the Navy left Culebra in 1975. [source: nv-database]

Lessons

  • A federal court decision does not end a campaign when the issue is occupation of a community’s land; sustained direct action after the ruling can be more decisive than the ruling itself.
  • Religious practice (chapel services) coordinated with Quaker accompaniment can convert a military firing range into a politically unusable space [source: nv-database]
  • University-based jail-vigils turn imprisonment from a cost paid by activists into a pressure point on the courts and the executive [source: nv-database]

Sources

Disclaimer: Included as a teaching example of campaign craft, not as endorsement.

Sources & verification

  • nv-database — grounding: primary — license: link-only / all-rights-reserved (ND-style; content paraphrased, not quoted)
  • Verified: 2026-07-04 by human

Last verified: 2026-07-09