IN Miguel de Cervantes’s “Don Quixote” (written and published in two parts, 1605 and 1615), Alonso Quixano, a quiet man of modest means from La Mancha, a rural part of Spain, becomes so enamored of tales of chivalry and knightly deeds, he eventually imagines himself a knight. Adopting the name Don Quixote, he sets off on his aging horse — which he renames Rocinante — accompanied by a neighbouring farmer, Sancho Panza, who, travelling on a donkey, takes on the role of Quixote’s squire.
Quixote’s delusional pursuits take him on misadventure after misadventure. Dressed in a suit of armour fashioned from his great grandfather’s old set, his deranged mind convinces him that his glorious campaign is a fight for justice. Much to his squire’s horror, Quixote attacks wineskins, flocks of sheep, and even a windmill, thinking them to be giants, opposing groups of knights, and a monstrous giant.
Fast forward to present day Saint Lucia after the UWP lost the general elections of July 26, 2021, and meet our twenty-first century Don Quixote, aka Allen Chastanet. What makes this Don Quixote similar to his seventeenth century counterpart? His grand delusion, of course! The man continues to think that in a 95% to 99% black population, he’s Saint Lucia’s ‘great white hope’, and his actions and utterances seemingly suggest another delusional notion—that of a divine right to lead Saint Lucia. In his grandiose scheme of things, he has replaced the seventeenth century Don Quixote’s lance with words far removed from the truth (spoken with a can’t-quite-pin-it-down accent), ill-advised lawsuits, and unbridled vitriol and vindictiveness. Let’s unpack this.
Using his twenty-first century lance, our present day Don Quixote repeatedly jousts at imaginary monsters keeping him from the Prime Minister’s chair. His attacks, whether through lawsuits, statements to the press, plain old ‘whoppers’ on his favourite UWP television talk show, or the usual suspect surrogates, always end in consternation for him and yet another confirmation of a widely accepted truth—Chastanet is a constant purveyor of lies.
In May, 2024 MSR Media, headed by Philippe Martinez — a convicted fraudster who spent jailtime in France — filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit in Florida, USA, against several individuals and Caribbean Galaxy Real Estate Corporation. In his lawsuit, Martinez accused the defendants of fraud, money laundering, and corruption related to the discounted sales of real estate and passports through the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programs. In said lawsuit, Martinez named former and current government officials from St. Kitts and Nevis (Denzil Douglas and Timothy Harris) and – you guessed it! – Saint Lucia (Deputy Prime Minister Ernest Hilaire), as well as Leslie Khan, CEO of Caribbean Galaxy.
Rather tellingly, during Martinez’s ongoing big ‘reveal’ about his lawsuit, Chastanet made several visits to the US to meet with him. On his return to Saint Lucia after one such visit, he announced that he would be returning to the US at a later date to collect ‘evidence’ from Martinez about Saint Lucia’s/Hilaire’s role in Saint Lucia’s fraud- and corruption-tainted CBI program. Unsurprisingly, Chastanet has never provided even a shred of proof to substantiate his bogus claim. A twist to the saga surfaced in December 2024 when Martinez suddenly withdrew his case “without prejudice” from the Florida court. The case’s dismissal stems from immunity claims – a legal principle that typically protects foreign government officials from US court jurisdiction when acting in their official capacity.
Two things here. While Chastanet made a song and dance about Hilaire avoiding prosecution by claiming immunity, the truth is Martinez could have filed that same case within the Caribbean where the defendants would be in no position to claim immunity. Further, Les Khan, one of the principal defendants, never claimed immunity, so Martinez could have pursued the Galaxy CEO in Florida’s law courts. The fact that he chose to do neither points to Philippe Martinez’s underlying problem — he, conman that he is, simply had no evidence to bolster his allegations. The government officials had alleged from the start that Martinez’s real motive was extortion; he wanted millions from the two governments to make the cases ‘go away’.
No sooner did Martinez drop his Florida lawsuit, Chastanet filed a lawsuit in Saint Lucia against the CIP, alleging much of what Martinez had raised in his (fraud, corruption, etc.), prompting many observers in Saint Lucia and elsewhere to speculate that Chastanet may have been the instigator behind Martinez’s assault on Saint Lucia’s CIP from the start. This case has already been heard and judgement has been reserved. (More on that in another piece.)
Recently, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) issued a judgement (October 15, 2025) on a long-running fixation Don Quixote Chastanet had with a vehicle Hilaire imported into Saint Lucia following his tenure as Saint Lucia’s High Commissioner in London. Chastanet claimed that the ownership of the vehicle rested with the Government of Saint Lucia rather than Hilaire since Hilaire had failed to produce an invoice for the vehicle although being repeatedly asked for it by the then-Comptroller of Customs, Peter Chiquot. Hilaire, for his part, was adamant that the invoice being sought was already in the possession of the Customs Department. After the 2021 elections, the new Customs Comptroller, Sherman Emmanuel, sought and was granted leave by the OECS Court of Appeal to withdraw the case because the invoice was, in fact, at the Customs Department. Chastanet promptly sought a judicial review from the CCJ. The long and short of it? Chastanet was rebuked (in the judgement) for wasting the Court’s time!
His lies, crocodile tears, and fake identity snippets notwithstanding, our local Don Quixote has two things against him. He doesn’t have a Sancho Panza to temper his delusions, and he has no intention of stopping his monumental follies even in the face of jarring reality.