Roseau, Dominica (TDN) -- With nearly two weeks having gone by since the signing of ALBA’s declaration to expel the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from its territories, the Latin American Press continues to report that six of ALBA’s eight countries signed on including Dominica.
Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA).
The news was first reported in Cuba’s official newspaper the Granma and very quickly made its way across the globe. On Saturday June 30, 2012, the Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina in giving the rationale for Cuba’s signing on for USAID’s expulsion again stressed that Dominica was a signatory to the declaration.
These headlines are in stark contrast to the vehement denials and rank politicking undertaken by the ruling Dominica Labour Party (DLP). To begin, Dominica’s UN ambassador Vince Henderson took to the airwaves to deny that Dominica had anything to do with the signing of the declaration.
His denial was soon followed by a bizarre performance by Senior Counsel and DLP advisor Anthony Astaphan who said on local radio that he had spoken to the Prime Minister and was told that Dominica had done “no such thing.”
A few days later, no longer admitting that he had spoken to the prime minister, Astaphan wrote to Caribbean News Now (CNN), which had carried the story. “It is my understanding from Dominica ambassador to ALBA, Hon. Aaron that Dominica, like Antigua and St Vincent, opposed the resolution and did not sign the communiqué. It appears therefore that your article may have been referring to a draft which was dated 21st June.”
His letter elicited an angry rebuttal from CNN’s contributor Rebecca Theodore who wrote “Mr. Astaphan, the intelligence of Dominicans have been insulted enough. The communiqué was signed by Dominica. And who died and made you boss of my people and nation? Who are you? Did the people of Dominica vote for you as their prime minister? Where is the prime minister of Dominica? Shouldn't he be the one to answer those charges?”
But perhaps the most shameful fallout from this ongoing saga is the behavior of attorney Lennox Lawrence and Anthony Astaphan who continue to sow seeds of division among Dominica’s politically fractured population.
In tirade filled episodes on radio, they have suggested that persons from Dominica like Lennox Linton and DNO staff who reported the Granma story were enemies of the state and were simply interested in bringing down the Skerrit administration.
According to Lawrence, “neither the prime minister, nor Dominica’s ambassador to ALBA, nor anyone in government signed the communiqué.”
Given the forceful denials of the party lackeys the obvious question becomes why has the government of Dominica not written to Granma and Prensa Latina asking for a retraction.
Rather, they have focused all of their effort, venom and energy at decrying the Dominican press and playing on the raw partisan emotions that continue to adversely affect Dominica.
Indeed, modern day Dominica is a far cry from the progressive and democratic powerhouse of the 70s and 80s. To talk in opposition to an increasingly weak and ineffective government is to set yourself up for the venomous assault of Anthony Astaphan and Lennox Lawrence. Men, whose only care in life it appears is to preserve the status quo and whatever benefits they continue to derive from a DLP government.
Country be damned. Who cares about Dominica’s standing in the world? Who cares that St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda the other two English speaking countries in ALBA were not reported to have signed on along with Dominica.
And who cares that in the face of complete neglect by the DLP administration of Dominica’s agriculture sector, rampant unemployment and escalating crime is the order of the day that they continue to go after the US and its interests.
Never mind that Dominica is being sustained by the millions of dollars in remittances coming not from Cuba or Venezuela but from the United States. What matters is that our government ingratiates itself with Venezuela’s Chavez in the vain hope of receiving some as yet undefined benefit.
Days after the reporting of the news, TDN wrote to the ALBA secretariat asking “…since the publication of this news, there has been several denials from the Dominica government indicating that they DID NOT sign the declaration. Can you please confirm whether Dominica signed on to ALBA's call to expel the USAID from ALBA territories?”
To date, there has been no response from the ALBA Secretariat. Perhaps there is closure in the silence.
ALBA Alliance comprises Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.
