Statement by Senior Communications Officer, Office of the Prime Minister:
There is a blog making the rounds that accuses our police officers and government ministers, including our prime minister, of protecting criminals. The blogger accuses a Babonneau resident of land fraud, trafficking in birth certificates, and operating his own CBI passport program.
The Office of the Prime Minister categorically states that there is no truth to any of these accusations concerning the Government and the Prime Minister has no knowledge of, or connections to the gentleman in question.
Equally, Minister for Economic Development Hon. Guy Joseph has no connections or knowledge of the referenced gentleman. This blog brings to mind public statements by a former prime minister in relation to the IMPACS report, including unsubstantiated allegations against lead members of the police force, politicians and business people.
In this latest blog, references are made to unsubstantiated allegations by the former Kenny Anthony administration involving Hon. Guy Joseph and Prime Minister Hon Allen Chastanet. As for Dr. Anthony himself, the blogger ties him to an investigation of Hon. Guy Joseph which we know was spearheaded by the former administration, kept a secret from the people of Saint Lucia and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Contrary, to what has been said, this was not a US Government investigation.
Quite shockingly the blogger speaks about a current local murder investigation and also made reference to opposition Labour Party allegations of extrajudicial killings by the Saint Lucia police, which the blogger claims were carried out to make the island look more attractive to tourists. There are other allegations in the blog that remind of the St. Lucia Labour Party campaign against a former Castries Central MP when he was a UWP election candidate in 2006. Which is a highly suspicious coincidence.
The blog is obviously politically motivated and meant to impact negatively on the reputation of Saint Lucia. On several occasions, the Opposition has had no qualms in making statements overseas which may do harm to Saint Lucia’s image, case in point recent statements by the Castries South MP in Dominica that foreign mercenaries based in Saint Lucia were behind unrest experienced in that island.
The referenced blog is being investigated by local and overseas authorities. Facebook has also been notified about this terrible abuse of its services. There will be more retaliatory action by those mentioned in this blog that is obviously meant as an election weapon.
Instead of continuing to deny that his government ministers are corrupt, and operate like an organized crime family, Prime Minister Chastanet should exercise his powers, and order an audit of the St. Lucia Land Planning Department. The audit must start in the late 1980s, and continue to 2021; he will find many inconsistencies pointing directly to the years that a certain individual worked as a planning employee, where numerous planning maps were fraudulently altered to reflect the names of deceased residents, only to be later claimed, as an inheritance.
This same Prime Minister must now explain to the people how a Sri Lankan national happened to hold a St. Lucia passport. This individual neither is married to anyone from the Caribbean, nor is related to anyone in the region. He did not obtain the passport through investment, because he does not have any access to St. Lucia. He attempted three successive time to obtain US and Canadian visas, only to be rejected each time.
Mr. Chastanet should also explain how the fugitive Colombian money launderer, Alex Nain Saab Moran, who moved hundreds of millions of dollars from Venezuela, for senior politicians, narcotics kingpins and fraudsters, and who is currently awaiting extradition to the United States from the Republic of Cape Verde, obtain a St. Lucia passport, issued in 2016.