St. Lucia Cabinet Minister resigns after US revokes visas

A Cabinet Minister on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia has been forced to resign following cancellation of his visas by the US State Department.

Housing and Urban Renewal Minister Richard Frederick announced his resignation in a national address Sunday evening (September 25th) following a full week of public calls for him to do so after he confirmed reports that his visitors and diplomatic visas were both revoked by the US State Department.

The US Embassy in Barbados, which is responsible for Saint Lucia and other smaller islands without embassies, also confirmed the revocations.

However, neither the Americans, nor the Minister, or the Saint Lucia government, have said what were the reasons for the revocations.

Frederick became the second Caribbean government Cabinet minister to resign after his visas were cancelled by the US, following a similar but swifter resignation by the Jamaican Energy Minister last May.

In both cases, no details were given as to the reasons for the revocations.

St. Lucia's Prime Minister Stephenson King, as in the case of his Jamaican counterpart Bruce Golding, said he knew nothing about why his minister's visas were revoked by Washington.

On October 19, King indicated, in a very brief statement, that he had learned of the revocation and had instructed Saint Lucia's diplomatic staff in the US to find out why, following which he will address the nation.

In his address Sunday night, Minister Frederick did not offer a reason why his visas were revoked, but accused local politicians of conspiring to give the US Embassy false or unproven information against him.

The Saint Lucia minister has a colourful past.

He won a by-election for the strategic Castries Central seat on March 13, 2006, after contesting as an Independent candidate. But on the same day he removed his green independent T-shirt and replaced it with a yellow one of the ruling United Workers Party (UWP).

A former policeman who became a criminal la! wyer, Fr ederick is both high profiled and well-heeled. He has amassed an immense fortune over the years, owns much property and is admittedly legally connected with the local underworld.

Wikileaks cables from the whistleblower website show that the USA was quite concerned, way back before his first election victory in 2006, about the possibility that he could win the seat and enter parliament. But he did win and also went on to win again in the subsequent General Election nine months later in 2006.

Early in office as Housing Minister, Frederick was arrested by the police on the orders of the Comptroller of Customs, accused of evading taxes on vehicles imported from the USA. He was detained and questioned for several hours before being released.

In a series of bizarre events that followed, the Comptroller was transferred by the Government to another post, the minister (Frederick) threatened to take his own government to court, a consent order was issued by the Prime Minister for the release of Frederick's vehicles from the Customs bond and the Comptroller is challenging his transfer in the High Court.

Loquacious and rambunctious, Frederick, who hosts his own radio program on Fridays on a local private station, spent all of one week strenuously denying he ever did anything wrong and feigning ignorance about why both his visas were revoked.

Initially, he insisted he would not resign because he'd done nothing wrong, instead blaming opposition politicians and independent parliamentarians of conspiring to blacken his name at the US Embassy in Barbados.

However, throughout the week preceding his resignation, public pressure was piling-up for the Prime Minister to either ask his minister to resign or dismiss him from the Cabinet.

The minister said in his latest Friday radio program (entitled "Can I Help You?" and offering legal advice or interpretations to listeners) Frederick threw the gauntlet down to those he claimed were involved in a political conspiracy against him, also p! romising to fight to the end to protect his name and image.

But the minister didn't sound that defiant in his resignation address Sunday night, in which he also quoted Wikileaks cables to accuse the US Embassy in Barbados of also being involved in a conspiracy against him at the very outset of his political career.

He said, "I have chosen to revisit my earlier statement and have decided to avoid the continuing distraction of my fellow colleagues by resigning from the Cabinet on Ministers, effective Monday, September 26th 2011."

But he indicated that he will remain as the Member of Parliament for Castries Central and "I have every intention of contesting the next general elections", expected before year's end.

The revocation on the Saint Lucia Cabinet Minister's two US visas and the continuing uncertainty as to the reasons have cast a dark shadow over the government of Prime Minister King and his ruling United Workers Party (UWP) ahead of the next general election.

Prime Minister King is expected to make a statement on his minister's resignation Monday night.