The longtime activist Robert Rabin has died in Puerto Rico. He was a founding member of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques. He spent six months in prison for participating in the mass civil disobedience campaign that helped pressure the U.S. Navy to end its bombing exercises in Vieques, a separate island eight miles east of Puerto Rico and a municipality of the commonwealth. Rabin spoke to Democracy Now! in 2013.

Robert Rabin: “The people of Vieques and the Puerto Rican nation, in the archipelago and in the diaspora, with help from thousands of people throughout the world, peace-loving people, without firing a single shot, defeated the most powerful military force in history. But 10 years later, we continue to suffer the effects of the toxic legacy — highest cancer case rates in all of Puerto Rico.”

Robert Rabin died on Monday from cancer.