��A determined band of Puerto Rican nationalists has been in a political storm for a month, fighting to expel the U.S. Navy from a bombing range on Vieques Island. On October 20, the storm became real.

��With Hurricane Jose nearing the Caribbean island, the protesters said they intended to stand their ground.

��Ruben Berrios, the head of the Puerto Rico Independence Party, planned to ride out the storm in a foxhole topped by a wood-and-steel peaked roof. Others were to seek refuge in a tank used for target practice by their nemesis, the U.S. Navy.

��On Wednesday, as the seas started to rise and the skies turned dark, about a dozen protesters tied tents to bushes, set up a generator and dismissed warnings with a bravado likely encouraged by late reports that the worst of the storm might pass to the east.

��"In the fight for liberty, risks have to be taken," said Berrios, as Jose whipped up winds of 100 mph in the eastern Caribbean about 200 miles northeast. "We have enough provisions and are ready for as many days as necessary without outside help."

��The protesters are leading a movement to expel the Navy from the Vieques range, which the U.S. military says is critical to national defense because it is the only place the Atlantic fleet practices live bombings. It has been inactive since an April accident killed a civilian security guard.

��The 9,300 residents of Vieques have long opposed the bombings, and the accident has brought the Puerto Rican government in line.

��At a U.S. Senate hearing in Washington on Tuesday, members of the Armed Services Committee called for a compromise, and the U.S. Navy asked to be allowed to resume bombings for another five years. Puerto Rican leaders have rejected the idea.

��But forecasters warned that, politics aside, the protesters here could be in danger.

��The Navy worried that the hurricane's wind and waves might expose unexploded shells, and bombs that litter the range. "They are in a very hazardous area," Navy spokesman Robert Nelson said.

��But the protesters feared that if they evacuated because of the hurricane, the Navy would blockade the beaches to prevent them from returning. (Associated Press)