\n<\/h2>\n
Leevin Camacho was brushing his teeth one day last fall when his mother called. The water is contaminated, she said. Moments later, she texted him a photo of a flyer issued by the local water authority. \u201cCancer risk,\u201d it warned. \u201cIncreased likelihood of adverse impacts on the liver.\u201d And in bold capital letters, \u201cDO NOT DRINK.\u201d<\/p>\n Camacho stared at the message. Water flowed from the faucets as his children, who were 10 and 12, gulped and spit, their faces reflected in the mirrors above the two bathroom sinks.<\/p>\n Thumbing at his phone, Camacho looked up dieldrin. The search results included words like \u201corganochlorine\u201d and \u201cinsecticide\u201d and \u201cpersistent environmental pollutant\u201d; the United States had banned it in 1987. Worse, high levels had been detected in his community\u2019s water since at least 2008<\/a>. \u201cOur kids have been drinking the water,\u201d he realized. \u201cThey\u2019ve been cooking with the water for almost their entire lives at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Camacho lives in Yigo, a northern village on the island of Guam. In time, he would learn that the U.S. Air Force base next to the well serving his house had reported \u201cvery high levels<\/a>\u201d of the pesticide, which it had listed as a \u201cchemical of concern<\/a>\u201d since at least 1993. The Pentagon\u2019s investigation, led by officials at Joint Region Marianas, is in its early stages. Local officials caution that although they suspect the base is a source of the pollution, there may be others because dieldrin was once widely used.<\/p>\n For Camacho, the news felt like the unfolding of a familiar story \u2014\u00a0one both predictable and infuriating.<\/p>\n Camacho had grown up as an Army brat, raised to think of the United States as Guam\u2019s liberator from Japan during World War II. But over the past two decades, his understanding of that legacy has changed.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are certain actions that the military takes that are contrary to the interests of the people who are from Guam and who live in Guam,\u201d said Camacho, whose measured tone rarely changes, even when discussing something as emotional as what his children have been drinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n To Camacho, dieldrin is the latest reminder that the people of Guam continue to bear the costs of militarization. Unexploded ordnance litters<\/a> jungles and lagoons. PCBs contaminate<\/a> the fish. Pollutants taint<\/a> the groundwater. The island and its people, who are U.S. citizens, have been inalterably changed by more than a century of American military presence.<\/p>\n Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, the head of Joint Region Marianas, the U.S. Navy\u2019s regional command for Guam and neighboring islands, said he can\u2019t speak to past pollution but the command is committed to protecting the environment and the people of Guam.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe spend a lot of time and we spend a lot of money making sure that we meet every U.S. regulation when it comes to anything that we\u2019re going to do here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re meeting every letter of every law for environmental regulations and rules, and we\u2019re doing that while we\u2019re spending a ton of money to defend this island from the most advanced missiles in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Today, Guam sits at the center of an ongoing military buildup, one that is reshaping the island even as it spreads across the Pacific. On nearby Yap, more than 1,000 graves could be disturbed to make way for an American seaport and airfield. Indigenous leaders on Palau are suing<\/a> to protect their lands. <\/p>\n Less visible but just as impactful are the climate impacts of this expansion. The Pentagon is already<\/a> the world\u2019s largest institutional emitter<\/a> of greenhouse gases, and its buildup will do more than contribute to the destruction of the region\u2019s reefs, forests, and Indigenous sacred sites. It will accelerate the climate crisis that threatens the survival of Pacific islands.<\/p>\n The Pentagon often cites growing geopolitical tensions to justify the buildup. \u201cThe security environment in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more dangerous and defined by an increasing risk of confrontation and crisis,\u201d Navy Adm. Sam Paparo, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, told Congress in April<\/a> while seeking $122 billion for new weaponry to counter China, including offensive missiles on Guam. Three months later, a ballistic missile launched from a Chinese submarine flew near Guam<\/a>, underscoring why many on the island see America\u2019s military presence as both a source of vulnerability and protection.<\/p>\n Sometimes it can be too much to think about. \u201cI need to compartmentalize these things,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cThat\u2019s sometimes the only way that you can do this, because otherwise you will just be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things that are out there, the amount of injustice that is out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those injustices collide in Yigo. Neighbors lost their homes<\/a> earlier this year to typhoons fueled by warming seas. The Army Corps of Engineers will soon begin clearing bombs from a nearby dump site<\/a> created in 1945. A new machine-gun range<\/a> just opened alongside a federal wildlife refuge to support the arrival of 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa, Japan.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the dieldrin contamination. \u201cAt some point,\u201d Camacho said, \u201csomeone has to force them to do what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n Years before he became one of Guam\u2019s leading critics of the military buildup sweeping over the island, Leevin Camacho was a young lawyer who liked to run before work. As his sneakers hit the pavement, the sun rose over Yigo. Roosters crowed and streaks of pink lightened the sky. The road, little used and lined with jungle brush, was one of the few places he could run without encountering stray dogs or morning traffic. He always ran at first light, before oppressive heat would reflect off the asphalt and the concrete buildings. It was the perfect start to what was often a day spent listening to depositions and wading through case law.<\/p>\n It was 2009. Camacho had returned to Guam after law school and was making more money than he ever had as a school teacher. \u201cYou dream of going to law school to provide services and to fight for people who don\u2019t have the ability to fight, right? I\u2019ll be honest with you, I lost my way,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cI had a bunch of student debt, and I was satisfied just kind of going by day to day and just focusing on myself and my family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. military was the backdrop to Camacho\u2019s life but not something he worried about. He didn\u2019t think much about the invasive tangan-tangan<\/em> trees lining his running route, or the fact that they had spread across Guam after the U.S. scattered their seeds<\/a> to reforest the island following the war. On his morning runs, he was more likely to hear a military jet overhead than a native birdsong.\u00a0<\/p>\n It hadn\u2019t always been that way. Guam was among the first Pacific islands settled by seafarers, from what is now the Philippines, who navigated by the stars and waves an estimated 3,500 years ago. The CHamoru people built a thriving island society known for its towering latte<\/em> stones and swift outrigger sailing canoes.<\/p>\n That changed when Magellan landed on Guam in 1521. Spain claimed the island and the rest of the archipelago, beginning more than 500 years of ongoing colonization. The Spanish forced the Indigenous people to embrace Catholicism and banned their canoes. The United States took over the island from Spain in 1898 and imposed military rule. Naval governors burned CHamoru language books<\/a> and blocked Indigenous efforts to gain U.S. citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then came Japan. Its invasion in 1941, on the same day it attacked Pearl Harbor, wasn\u2019t unexpected. The U.S. Navy evacuated sailors\u2019 dependents but left 20,000 CHamorus to endure nearly three years of forced marches and labor, malnutrition, and sexual servitude. More than 1,000 would die. When American forces retook Guam in 1944, they were welcomed as liberators. The island still celebrates Liberation Day every July. \u201cI can\u2019t remember a single discouraging remark that my maternal grandmother would have made about the U.S.,\u201d Camacho said. But he does remember her saying of the Americans, \u201c\u2018They saved us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That was the narrative that Camacho grew up with. Even the military taking his family\u2019s land \u2014\u00a0part of a massive military land grab after World War II \u2014\u00a0was accepted by his grandparents as the price of freedom from Japanese oppression. It wasn\u2019t until Camacho learned that the Pentagon\u2019s expansion plans would close his running route that he began to question what it meant for Guam to be an American military outpost. He pored over the buildup\u2019s planning documents and was struck by the disconnect between how the military described its plans and the reality as he knew it. \u201cThey paid consultants a bunch of money. The comment was, \u2018We drove by and we didn\u2019t see any cars, so there\u2019s no impact,\u2019\u201d he said of the running route. \u201cAnd that was it.\u201d<\/p>\n As Camacho read thousands of pages of documents, he saw the same pattern again and again. Proposals for bombing and machine-gun ranges, expanded undersea explosives, and projects that threatened forests and ancient latte<\/em> stones were accompanied by detailed assessments that minimized what they would mean for the islands.<\/p>\n \u201cThey paid consultants a bunch of money. The comment was, \u2018We drove by and we didn\u2019t see any cars, so there\u2019s no impact.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n On a flight home from Honolulu, Camacho was reviewing the environmental analysis of the buildup on his laptop when one passage stopped him. The proposed influx of 80,000 people<\/a> would leave too little water for fire suppression, particularly in Yigo. The solution, according to the document, was to send surplus water from Andersen Air Force Base to civilian communities. \u201cThat was the first time I just kind of lost it, just how stark it was,\u201d he said. \u201cThe aquifer is our aquifer, right? Like, you\u2019re taking our water for your people and then we don\u2019t have enough and they\u2019re going to divert whatever you\u2019re taking from us that is extra.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Camacho and other concerned residents started We Are Gu\u00e5han, a community group focused on raising awareness about what was happening. (Gu\u00e5han<\/em> is the CHamoru word for Guam.) He sued<\/a> to stop a machine-gun range from being built at P\u00e5gat, an ancestral village that\u2019s home to millennia-old latte<\/em> stones. Their campaign protected the site and helped persuade the Navy not to expand its landholdings on Guam. The Department of Defense also reduced<\/a> the planned transfer of Marines from Okinawa from 9,000 to 5,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n But it didn\u2019t stop the buildup. The Pentagon activated<\/a> Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz six years ago and opened a new machine-gun range alongside a federal wildlife refuge just north of Yigo. \u201cIt\u2019s so heartbreaking,\u201d said Lola Leon Guerrero, another member of We Are Gu\u00e5han. \u201cAll of that effort, and it still happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The yellow excavator scraped away at the pale rock that lies beneath Camp Blaz under the hot May sun. A limestone forest had already been bulldozed to make way for a new machine-gun training range. A sign next to the fence read \u201cGuam National Wildlife Refuge\u201d with an arrow pointing to the left and a picture of a turtle.<\/p>\n \u201cWow,\u201d said Moneaka Flores, one of Camacho\u2019s clients in the lawsuit he filed against the Navy to protect the island\u2019s endangered species. She stopped at the side of the road to watch the digger work. It had been months since she\u2019d been here, and they\u2019d cleared so much more forest than she realized.<\/p>\n Busy construction vehicles are the most obvious sign of the Pentagon\u2019s buildup. Beyond the new Marine Corps base, the Department of Defense is upgrading the island\u2019s port and strengthening its infrastructure to support docked nuclear submarines. The agency is also pouring $8 billion<\/a> into 16 new missile defense sites. After World War II, the Navy took two-thirds<\/a> of the island. \u201cWhatever made most sense for the military, the island was theirs for the taking,\u201d said Michael Clement, a historian at the University of Guam. \u201cEveryone was in refugee camps. They had the bulldozers. They built where they wanted to build. And then a year or two later, they started saying, \u2018OK, where are we going to put the natives?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why Guam is kind of weird to drive around. \u2026 It was redesigned for military purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The military later relinquished some land but still owns at least a quarter<\/a> of the island. \u201cIf you look at where the villages were set out in 1946 and \u201947, it\u2019s the land the military didn\u2019t need. So that\u2019s why Guam is kind of weird to drive around, right?\u201d Clement said. \u201cTo go across from Tumon to Mangilao, you\u2019ve got to go around Tiyan and the airport. It wasn\u2019t redesigned for civilians. It was redesigned for military purposes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Even the island\u2019s main highway, the six-lane Marine Corps Drive, was designed for the military, not the people. It connects Andersen in the north and Naval Base Guam in the south.<\/p>\n Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero (no relation to Lola Leon Guerreo) is among the many who welcome the financial boost that comes with the military\u2019s investments. \u201cThey\u2019re spending billions on their readiness plan,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One in 9 Guam residents joins the armed forces. Last year, a local economist told the Legislature that every dollar the Pentagon spends adds 75 cents to the island\u2019s GDP<\/a> and called the buildup an \u201cunprecedented economic opportunity.\u201d The funding infusions have helped Guam become far more commercialized than other Pacific islands, with multiple shopping malls, numerous high-rise hotels, and a growing real estate sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leon Guerrero thinks activists should pursue political self-determination instead of resisting the buildup. \u201cThese guys can yell and scream all they can,\u201d the governor said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to do the military buildup regardless, right? So why don\u2019t we work with them and see how we can benefit?\u201d She wants the Defense Department to help harden local power lines and fund a hospital. \u201cOur hospital cannot absorb mass casualties,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are about 20,600 military personnel on Guam, a figure that\u2019s expected to reach 29,400 by 2037. While the military is investing in additional housing both on and off base, the population influx will almost certainly continue pushing up construction and housing costs. The median home price on Guam was $216,100 in 2010, when Camacho sued the military to protect P\u00e5gat. Today it is approaching half a million dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fear of another war also fuels support for the buildup. \u201cWe\u2019ve always been a target regardless, because of where we are geographically located,\u201d Leon Guerrero said. Guam is the largest island in the Micronesian region of the Pacific. It\u2019s just north of the equator, a three-hour flight from Tokyo, and has a deep-water harbor that supports naval submarines. \u201cWe were a target for Spain. We were a target for the U.S. We were a target for Japan.\u201d She worries about China, which has a ballistic missile nicknamed<\/a> the \u201cGuam Killer.\u201d \u201cIf I\u2019m going to have a choice, I\u2019d rather be under the U.S. than China.\u201d<\/p>\n To Flores, more military presence on Guam heightens the risk of war. In March, President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to bomb Iran prompted military bases on the island to raise their threat level<\/a>. She feels that, as in World War II, the Indigenous people of Guam are expendable in a broader contest between empires. \u201cWhat are they really here to protect if there\u2019s so much harm taking place? Are we just collateral damage?\u201d she said. \u201cBecause just looking at our history of being occupied by war, being used for weapons testing, it feels like the message is that we don\u2019t matter. Our future doesn\u2019t matter. Our survival doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Rear Adm. Brett Mietus, at Joint Region Marianas, said he understands such skepticism. \u201cIf I was born and raised on Guam, I would have similar concerns,\u201d he said. But he believes the military\u2019s investment proves the opposite of what Flores fears. \u201cChoice A is not to defend Guam against ballistic and hypersonic missiles,\u201d he said. \u201cOr the other choice, which is the one that we\u2019ve made, is to spend billions of dollars to defend Guam from hypersonic and ballistic missiles. And so from my perspective, that shows a commitment not just to the military things that are on Guam, but also to the people of Guam.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet Flores is far from the only Guam resident who feels expendable. When Pedro Blas, the vice-mayor of Yigo, first learned about the dieldrin in his village\u2019s water, his first thought was of his autistic sister. \u201cAll of us growing up, all our lives, our water bottles, we fill it up with the tap water, put it in the fridge: That\u2019s our cold water,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause we were instilled in our heads our whole lives: Tap water is OK.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n So far, Camacho\u2019s firm has helped file more than 700 claims, worth $360 million, against local authorities on behalf of village residents. He hopes that pressures the island to seek compensation from the Defense Department. \u201cI\u2019m so glad [Camacho] got involved,\u201d Blas said. \u201cWe\u2019re not letting it get swept up under the rug.\u201d Mietus noted that Joint Region Marianas has not found high levels of dieldrin in military wells, and the Pentagon is working with local officials to determine the source of Yigo\u2019s pollution.<\/p>\n \u201cThey look at Guam as real estate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Still, Blas wonders why the investigations at Andersen Air Force Base are occurring quietly behind the fence, while he hasn\u2019t seen anyone in uniform hand out water to his constituents. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful to be a U.S. citizen, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cBut if you really take a step back and look at exactly the impacts that [the military] brought to us over the years, we should have a say in whether or not these practices are going to happen to our island. Even just being called the \u2018tip of the spear\u2019 \u2014 we\u2019re susceptible to any war that they\u2019re going fight, and we just have to be OK with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis contamination they bring to our island, it kind of just shows how much they really care about our people,\u201d Blas continued. \u201cAnd frankly, I think they look at Guam as real estate rather than \u2018Those are our U.S. citizens. Those are our people. Those are Americans.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The men and women gathered in the p\u2019ebay<\/em>, the traditional open-air Yapese meeting house with a triangular tin roof, and settled quietly on the tiled floor along each wall to listen to Camacho speak. A projector, perched above a cardboard box stacked on top of a red cooler, cast his PowerPoint presentation onto a screen. Slide after slide described the American military\u2019s plans. A cool breeze fluttered the fronds on the palm trees surrounding the p\u2019ebay.<\/em><\/p>\n It was April in the village of Tamil on Yap, one of four states in the Federated States of Micronesia. Camacho\u2019s dieldrin work was far from over, but he\u2019d put that aside when the island state\u2019s government asked him to help dissect a Navy proposal<\/a> to expand the seaport and airport. Tamil was one of several villages he visited to explain the plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the past decade, Camacho has become one of Guam\u2019s leading environmental lawyers. \u201cThe one thing about Leevin is he shows up. Again and again,\u201d said Julian Aguon, a human rights lawyer on the island<\/a>. \u201cAnd he brings with him not only deep competence but a deep sense of responsibility to the people and places he serves.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRegulatory agencies will bend over backwards to not pick a fight with the military because of the mission and the protection and all of that,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cAnd ultimately, it\u2019s people who aren\u2019t lawyers who end up paying the price.\u201d<\/p>\n He was elected attorney general<\/a> in 2018 for one term and led a historic lawsuit to force the Navy to clean up a hazardous landfill it had abandoned in the 1940s. A lower court dismissed the suit, but the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled<\/a> in 2021 that it could proceed \u2014 a decision that eventually prompted the federal government to pay Guam<\/a> $48.9 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n He has sued the Navy<\/a> to protect endangered species harmed by the construction of Camp Blaz. \u201cFor too long, our island has been treated as a sacrifice zone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n The risk of Guam falling into enemy hands, as it did in World War II, is so tangible that America\u2019s Pacific military strategy involves spending billions of dollars to spread airfields, seaports, and training ranges across the region to remain competitive in case Guam is once again occupied by enemy forces. The U.S. is invoking decades-old agreements with the peoples of the Republic of Palau, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia to expand its presence on those islands and upgrade World War II-era seaports and airfields. Under President Joe Biden, the U.S. even signed a new agreement<\/a> with Papua New Guinea to use its seaports.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Yap, the U.S. military wants to dredge the lagoon, including two-thirds of an acre in a marine protected area<\/a>, to create a seaport. The plan would remove enough sediment to fill 334 40-foot shipping containers and impact sea life, Indigenous fishers, and divers. \u201cPlume spreads up to 800 m from disposal sites,\u201d Camacho\u2019s presentation noted. \u201cLong-term reef decline and impact on reef species (fish, clams, sharks, turtles) not assessed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Navy also plans to expand the airfield to facilitate two military exercises, each two weeks long and involving up to 200 personnel, per year. The project could disturb more than 1,000 graves, including the 19th-century tombs of Chief Orothin and Chief Yaloth. Camacho noted that the military\u2019s draft plan acknowledges a \u201csignificant adverse impact\u201d to these cultural sites and doesn\u2019t commit to rebury the dead or preserve ancestral sites.<\/p>\n Yap has a population of just about 11,500, compared to Guam\u2019s 170,000. Although Yap is less than a 90-minute flight from Guam, it has none of the military bases, six-lane highways, or big-box stores that define the American territory. \u201cIn some ways, this will be more transformative for Yap State than the buildup was for Guam because there\u2019s no military presence there today,\u201d Camacho said. On Guam, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s normal to hear a fighter jet flying over. It\u2019s normal to see a bomber or C130. They don\u2019t have any of that there. So this would be such a radical change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n One month after Camacho visited Yap, dignitaries from across the Pacific gathered in an air-conditioned conference room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Guam. The hotel sits on a long stretch of white sand beach and looks out over Tumon Bay, where high levels of dieldrin<\/a> have also been found in fish samples.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once everyone had taken a seat, the lights dimmed and the glow of a projector filled the room. A screen showed a map of military activity across the western Pacific: not just bases, but training exercises and the routes of research vessels searching the sea floor for the critical minerals essential to many military technologies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re faced with the reality that we\u2019re part of a larger strategic vision,\u201d conference organizer and former Guam congressman Robert Underwood said. \u201cAll of you are in someone\u2019s strategic plans whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not. All of us are in someone\u2019s strategic plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In Palau, Indigenous people are fighting the Pentagon\u2019s expansion in local courts and international forums. Leaders of Angaur, one of 16 states there, filed<\/a> a lawsuit accusing the U.S. of violating environmental rules and its treaty with the island nation when it cleared land for a radar facility. Indigenous chiefs from Peleliu are suing<\/a> to prevent a land transfer that would support American goals. Indigenous Palauan youth filed a complaint<\/a> at the United Nations alleging the U.S. military violated their right to free, prior, and informed consent to what happens on their land.<\/p>\n In the Northern Mariana Islands and the Marshall Islands, the U.S. military presence that started with World War II is ramping up. On Tinian, the Marine Corps is building an airfield<\/a> and two live-fire training ranges, one of them for explosives. The Navy is extending<\/a> its undersea sonar and explosives training across half a million square nautical miles, along with bombing practice on the neighboring island of Farallon de Medinilla.<\/p>\n Some hope the military\u2019s regional expansion will enable other island nations and territories to experience the economic growth seen on Guam. But others worry about the pollution and cultural loss, and other risks that come with being a U.S. military stronghold.\u00a0<\/p>\n In public comments<\/a> written in response to the Navy\u2019s proposal, Jennifer Dugwen Chieng noted that Camacho\u2019s fight to have the Navy address hazardous waste at Ordot Dump went all the way to the Supreme Court. \u201cAdditionally, there are sacred private lands and culturally significant ecosystems that no amount of money can ever replace,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe desecration of graves violates the general principles of respect for burial sites and human remains upheld in Yap\u2019s traditional custom.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s also worried about becoming a target in the next war. Like Palau, Yap was held by the Japanese during World War II and experienced heavy bombardment<\/a> by the United States. Since then, the Pentagon hasn\u2019t paid much attention to the island state \u2014 until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith rising tensions in the region between the U.S. and China, what does the DoD envision combat to look like?\u201d Chieng wrote. \u201cWill it be based on a WWII tactic of island hopping? What is the likelihood of the island becoming a battlefield if tensions were to escalate into war? Yap will be caught in the crossfire. Does the DoD intend to protect and defend the people of Yap, and if so, how does the DoD intend to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n Mietus, the Joint Region Marianas commander, said there\u2019s always a level of risk in being allied with the U.S. during a conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes people believe it\u2019s a plan to evacuate U.S. service members or family members if a war starts \u2014\u00a0there is not,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m in this, living in the same risk as every other person here.\u201d He\u2019s pushed back against Guam lawmakers\u2019 calls for the Defense Department to fund bomb shelters for civilians, contending that the existing military projects like strengthening Guam\u2019s harbor are a better investment. \u201cOftentimes people see this Department of War as kind of having an infinite amount of money, and we don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike Guam, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia are independent countries that have achieved the political self-determination that Indigenous CHamoru on Guam have been denied for centuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Camacho wants a plebiscite to determine Guam\u2019s political status. He believes the island\u2019s status as a U.S. territory \u2014 without a vote for president or voting representation in Congress \u2014 isn\u2019t working. But while some of his colleagues in We Are Gu\u00e5han have focused on independence, Camacho sees his own role as making the government answer for its actions.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless someone\u2019s forcing the issue,\u201d he said, \u201cthe Department of War isn\u2019t going to voluntarily agree to be held accountable and agree to do all the things that it\u2019s supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why he feels compelled to seek reparations for the dieldrin contamination. So often, toxic pollution lingers on Guam and no one takes responsibility. \u201cAs a lawyer, I don\u2019t want to fall into this situation where we\u2019re like [the village of] Malesso, and they show up every year and say you still can\u2019t eat the fish.<\/a> That\u2019s just not satisfactory,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One question that drives him is what Guam will be like when his kids are grown. Will they be able to afford living there? Will they want to, given how much the island is changing? It\u2019s a constant effort to find the right balance between working toward their future and being there for them day to day.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to try to do the best that I can to protect my island and to have a safe place for my kids to want to live on Guam,\u201d Camacho said. \u201cBut also be there for them and help them get better dribbling with their left hand and be good human beings.\u201d Even though Camacho moved a lot growing up, his family never considers leaving. \u201cThat is not a choice,\u201d he said. \u201cGuam is home \u2014\u00a0there is nowhere else we are going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/construction_site.webp?fit=2000%2C1333\")
<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Anita Hofschneider\/Grist<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/h2>\n
III. <\/span><\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bluehatwhiteshirt.webp?fit=1999%2C1333\")
<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Anita Hofschneider\/Grist<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n
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<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Anita Hofschneider\/Grist<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/h2>\n
V. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/pictureframes-1.webp?fit=2000%2C1333\")
<\/span>\u00a0Photo: Anita Hofschneider\/Grist<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n