Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro García Padilla met on Friday morning with the environmental lawyer, Robert Kennedy, Jr., to discuss various topics related to ongoing discussions on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the ongoing environmental problems unleashed by years of the U.S.’s use of a large part of its territory for military practice.

According to a statement issued by La Fortaleza, the nephew of former President of the United States John F. Kennedy is in Puerto Rico this weekend for a meeting with environmentalists and community leaders of the island municipality of Vieques.

Kennedy is very well respected in Vieques because the U.S. lawyer was very active in the fight to oust the U.S. Marines from the island. In fact, in July 2001, he served 30 days in jail for civil disobedience and breaking ​ into a bombing range to protest U.S. military exercises. According to El Nuevo Día, Kennedy feels so much love for the island, that he named his son Aidan Caohman Vieques Kennedy. Currently, Kennedy is president of Waterkeeper Alliance, a company dedicated to conservation and use of solar energy.

[Many thanks to Robert Rabin for bringing this item to our attention.]

For original article (in Spanish), see http://www.elnuevodia.com/enlaislarobertkennedyhijo-1444308.html

Also see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000507,00.html

For more on Waterkeeper Alliance, see http://www.waterkeeper.org/ht/d/sp/i/191/pid/191