Bitter Orange

The U.S. is very reluctant to admit any of its many episodes of wrongdoing in the international arena, much less repair the damage done. So, when it does, it's big news. It has taken the Americans 40 years to come around to start cleaning up the Agent Orange mess they left in Vietnam. All this time the American government refused to acknowledge its responsibility for the legacy of contamination and death left by the tons of the toxic defoliant spread there during a ten-year period.

Here in Puerto Rico, we do have some experience with the use of Agent Orange by the U.S. Armed Forces. It was here, in the El Yunque rainforest and other places, where the U.S. military tried the defoliant, given the similar natural conditions of the rainforest and the Vietnam scenario. Puerto Rico, -- its land and people --  being the U.S. colony that it is, has always been used as a guinea pig for all kinds of experiments by the Americans.

So, if the U.S. really wants to make amends on this issue, it doesn't have to go all the way to Indochina. There's a place closer to home which needs environmental and human justice to be done.

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