St. Vincent PM appeals to Caribbean to help protect his country's sovereignty

The Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines claims that there is a foreign plot to undermine his government.

And Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has sent an open to Caribbean media organisations and CARICOM governments urging them to support his administration.

The letter claims that over the past 11 months "foreign elements out of Britain and the United States of America have aligned themselves to the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP)…in an insidious campaign of defamation…”.

Gonsalves said the latest campaign by two American consultants is to ask people in St Vincent and throughout the region to contribute five dollars towards safeguarding democracy on the island.

“Their damning falsehood is that there is no democracy, no freedom and an absence of a guarantee of civil liberties in St. Vincent and the Grenadines under the ULP government,” the Prime Minister said in his letter.

The governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) is seeking a third consecutive term in general elections due this year. The party won 12 of thne 15 seats in the legislature in the Decemeber 7, 2005 election.

Gonsalves said the campaign alleges that he has aligned himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and as a result he “should be removed from office”.

Gonsalves insisted that his administration has strengthened democracy and freedom in the country over the past few years so the campaign is base on falsehoods.

“All this has been recognised by the governments of Britain and the USA, by the World Bank and by non-governmental bodies such as Freedom House Foundation and the Caribbean-Guyana Institute for Democracy, both based in the USA”, he said.

Gonsalves said the matter has gone further than an opposition party hiring foreign consultants to aid in conducting an election campaign.

"It involves defaming the good name of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, attempting to destablise a democratically elected government and seeking to exercise foreign control of our country, its democratic institutions and people,” Gonsalves said.

His letter called on his “brothers and sisters” in the Caribbean to show solidarity with his country “and to resist those from outside our region who defame us and who seek to control us.

“St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a vital beach-head in this enterprise of Caribbean solidarity. The foreigners who come to control us, divide us, ravage our resources and dull our consciousness with backward ideas are antithetical to everything noble in our Caribbean civilization. We must resist them firmly,” he wrote.