Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has renewed Saint Lucia’s call for the United States to lift longstanding restrictions on police assistance under the Leahy Law, during high-level talks in Washington this week with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Pierre, who joined several Caribbean counterparts for regional security discussions on Tuesday, used the opportunity to renew a call for the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force (RSLPF) to regain access to US-funded law enforcement training and resources.
The restrictions, imposed since 2013, stem from US concerns over alleged extrajudicial killings by Saint Lucian police during 2010 and 2011. Washington had said there was “credible evidence” of 17 such killings.
Pierre said on Thursday that the meetings on that issue were quite fruitful.
“We had discussions linked to our relationship with the US and it was very frank and forthcoming. As we said to the US, they are our neighbours, we share the same aspirations; we share the same hopes and dreams for our people,” the prime minister told reporters.
On the issue of the US policy on illegal immigrants, Pierre said that Saint Lucia was prepared to welcome home any citizen the US decides should be deported.
“As we have said before, elections have their consequences,” he said. “When the people of the United States voted for President Trump, they voted for his policies. As a small country, we cannot go against these policies, these are US policies, and so we will accept our locals if they are to come back to Saint Lucia. We hope that they will be treated humanely, but we will never deny the people who come back. We will accept them.”
Pierre also told the media that Saint Lucia was seeking ways to combat the effects of US trade tariffs on the price of goods. He pointed out that Saint Lucia has a trade imbalance because of a vast number of products imported from the United States.
“If there are tariffs and prices go up, of course the consumer is going to be affected. But again, these are some of the things we have no control over…. But we have formed a task force and will try our best to mitigate these unforeseen circumstances,” he said.
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda, Prime Minister Philip Davis of The Bahamas, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada and Prime Minister Terrance Drew of St Kitts and Nevis also participated in the talks with Rubio on Tuesday.
According to a US Department of State release, Rubio encouraged Caribbean partners to enhance intelligence-sharing, security cooperation, and border management through initiatives like America’s Caribbean Basin Security Initiative.
“Secretary Rubio urged our partners to make responsible, transparent decisions when selecting vendors and contractors for critical infrastructure projects, ensuring they are not vulnerable to privacy and security risks and exploitation by malign actors like the Chinese Communist Party,” the release said.
Rubio also reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to holding accountable Cuban government officials, foreign government officials and those involved in facilitating Cuba’s “forced labour” scheme, including its medical missions.
Prime Minister Pierre said that concerns raised about Saint Lucia’s cooperation with Cuban doctors were “clarified,” stressing that the country had not breached any international labour laws.
Meanwhile, with the hurricane season less than one month away, Rubio announced the reactivation of two US-administered programmes to strengthen early warning systems and provide rapid, life-saving assistance across the Caribbean.
