St. Lucia Police formed Death Squad, murdered criminals in vigilante actions

Why bother to have courts, judges, juries and trials when we can have the police dispense justice as they see fit – in a cane field at 3am…

St Lucia’s police force kept ‘death lists’ of suspected criminals and planted guns at police shootings to make them look legitimate, according to a report.

The Caribbean island’s prime minister Kenny Anthony said a team of Jamaican investigators had delivered an ‘extremely damning’ report on the deaths of 12 people shot by officers in 2010 and 2011.

Mr Anthony said the report, which has not been made public, revealed that the shootings were ‘staged by the police’ but reported as murders by unknown assailants.

… read the fully story at The Daily Mail: Caribbean police force ‘kept death lists of suspected criminals and planted guns

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The man who won’t sell his country

55 Celebrity Eclipse cruise ship passengers robbed at gunpoint in St Lucia

Broken leg for one woman as 3 robbers take all money and jewellery

It looks like the economy is tanking all over the Caribbean because the predators are on the prowl everywhere…

Cruise passengers robbed at gunpoint in St Lucia

Dozens of cruise passengers – including ten Britons – were robbed at gunpoint last week during an excursion on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

Celebrity Cruises confirmed that 55 passengers and two crew members were visiting the Botanical Gardens in Soufriere on Friday when the incident occurred. The trip was one of there shore excursions in St Lucia offered to passengers making the two-week cruise holiday on board the vessel Celebrity Eclipse.

Tourism officials described the incident as “rare” and “unfortunate”, but said no-one was hurt. However, a member of the internet forum Cruise Critic currently on the same voyage claimed a woman had fallen and broken her leg during the robbery.

“We are on the Eclipse,” they wrote. “Yesterday we were ported in St. Lucia. One of the ship tours was robbed at gun point by three masked gunmen. We were not on the tour, but friends were. They said one woman fell and broke her leg; no one else was injured. All their money and jewellery were taken.”

… continue reading this article at the Telegraph UK

Also see Cruise Critic for more details from a passenger

Canadian tourist murdered in St. Lucia beach robbery

UPDATED: Sunday November 25, 2012 11:35am Bridgetown

St. Lucia Police arrest suspect

Sun News: Police arrest man in connection with killing of Canadian in St. Lucia

Colin Peter

Island and Canadian news media provide major coverage

St. Lucian Government, Police, Tourism representatives & citizens express horror and condolences

An elderly Canadian tourist injured in a daylight St. Lucian beach robbery has died. Colin Peter, 75, of Prince Edward Island, Canada, was attacked on November 16, 2012 while walking with his wife at Vigie Beach. Mr. Peter was beaten about the head with a piece of wood and robbed of his wallet, camera and other valuables. He died on November 19, 2012 in St. Lucia’s Victoria hospital as preparations were being made to fly him back to Canada. (The Guardian: P.E.I. man dies of injuries sustained in attack in St. Lucia)

“There aren’t words to express the outrage felt by the government over this incident,”

… Lorne Theophilus, Minister of Tourism, St. Lucia

Two island tourist murders: two different responses

The circumstances of the robbery in St. Lucia are very similar to the 2009 fatal attack at Long Beach, Barbados when Canadians Terry Schwarzfeld and daughter Lauana Cotsman were beaten with a piece of wood and robbed by serial rapist / robber Curtis Joel Foster. Mrs. Schwarzfeld died in a Canadian hospital after an emergency medical flight home. Killer Foster is currently serving 15 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

We at BFP cannot help but comment upon the different government, police, and news media responses to a tourist murder in the two island nations. It may be that St. Lucian authorities have learned from the shameful public relations disaster of the Barbados government in 2009, but so far St. Lucia is providing a model response that will go a long way to reassure prospective visitors.

In contrast to the Barbados news media’s silence and cover-up over the Schwarzfeld attack, the St. Lucian print and electronic news media gave full and immediate coverage to the initial robbery upon Mr. Peter and his later death. Government authorities including the Prime Minister, Tourism Minister, Police Commissioner and the VP of St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association expressed horror, concern and a desire for St. Lucia to assist the Peter family.

The St. Lucian authorities declared an all out effort to find and arrest the culprits, and to see if any preventative measures would have helped. Police Commissioner Vernon Francois also engaged in some self-criticism of the police when he talked with the news media about the low levels of police patrols on the beaches and the discontinuance of the Beach Ranger patrols some years ago for budgetary reasons.

St. Lucia responded to a tourist murder in a way that the world is bound to perceive as honest, sincere and human – and without a trace of a cover-up.

The story of the tourist robbery and then Mr. Peter’s death continues to receive major coverage in St. Lucia – and that means that St. Lucia cares. During the time following the 2009 Barbados robbery, the Canadian news media were outraged that Barbados news outlets covered up the attack.

The Ottawa Citizen had as a headline: “Bajan Media Ignores Attack On Women. Feisty Barbados Free Press Only Outlet To Speak Out For Schwarzfeld”. What a public relations disaster thanks to the Barbados government and our island news media!

Why is St. Lucia’s tourism performing so well?

Are we really doing that well on Barbados?

First quarter of 2012…

St. Lucia up 15 per cent overall.

Up 30% from the UK (despite the outrageous Air Passenger Duty)
Up 28% from Canada
Up 9% from the USA

There was a time not so long ago when mention of St. Lucia as ‘competition’ for our tourism visitors and dollars was laughed at. That laughing stopped a few years ago and has now turned into serious concern as St. Lucia’s tourism industry continues to progress in the face of a worldwide economic downturn.

And, as anyone in the Barbados tourism industry can tell you… more than a few visitors to St. Lucia used to vacation in Barbados (with the emphasis on ‘used to’).

Our leaders and tourism pundits should be asking some tough questions and making some candid observations about the Bajan tourism product. They should also be talking to travelers in transit through Barbados to St. Lucia – and there are many. Finally, some of our tourism middle management should be quietly spending a week in St. Lucia and then returning to Barbados with a tourist’s eyes to look at our own product and promotional efforts.

Can anyone from the tourism industry answer the question for BFP’s readers…

Why did St. Lucia do so well in Q1 of 2012, and why didn’t Barbados achieve the same results?

Further Reading…

St Lucia records 30% increase in UK visitors

CASTRIES, St Lucia, Friday April 27, 2012 – In spite of rising competition and what they call the general “volatility” of the industry, local tourism stakeholders are lauding a marked increase in the number of stay-over visitors to St Lucia for the first quarter of this year.

According to figures just released by the St Lucia Tourist Board, stay-over arrival arrivals to the island for the first quarter of this year totaled 95,170, representing a 15% increase over the same period last year.

Leading the way in this tourism increase to St Lucia is the United Kingdom, ringing in a 30% increase – a total of 23,479 visitors, 5,458 more than the same period last year…

… continue reading this news story at Caribbean360.com

Photo: Thanks to Joe Knows StLucia!

Owen Arthur drives nail into Caricom’s coffin: If Barbadians elect a St. Lucian woman they are “without pride”

Updated: June 11, 2012

With Owen Arthur and the BLP getting into election mode like sharks circling a wounded fish, we thought it would be appropriate to remind folks about what Owen Arthur thinks about candidates who were born off the island…

“No greater affront…” than electing Mara Thompson

“I do not believe that there has been a greater affront, and affront means insult, to the Barbadian Democracy and to Barbadian womanhood than the affront that the Democratic Labour Party has (mumbling a bit) put in before the people of this parish. I also say the people of this country.

Than bring somebody here to be elected on the grounds that you’re electing a queen. And I am not going to mince my words!

There is no Barbadian woman who could be wife of a solution-politician who could run in Saint Lucia on the grounds that she is runnin to be the queen of St. Lucia!

Can’t happen!

And if it can’t happen in St. Lucia, why must it happen here?

There is no Barbadian woman married to a Trinidadian man who could dare run in Trinidad at all! (transcript continues here)>>>>

Exclusive Breaking: UK Travel Agent now selling St. Lucia holidays “10 to 1” over Barbados!

In a stunning reversal of the way things were only six months ago, travel agent Sandra McLeavy of Holiday Experts says she is now selling St. Lucia holidays over Barbados ten to one in favour of St. Lucia!

Ms. McLeavy attributes the turnabout to a heavy tourism campaign by St. Lucia and some changes over the last little while in Barbados. As Ms. McLeavy has visited Barbados some 13 times, we Bajans and the Barbados Tourism Authority might want to at the very least give her views a read.