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It’s a rocky time in the British Virgin Islands.
The British overseas territory in the Caribbean swore in a new leader this week after its premier was charged in Miami with conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and money laundering in a made-for-television narcotics sting by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration involving undercover informants and designer bags stuffed with cash.
A blistering commission of inquiry last month led by a retired British judge found that “almost everywhere” in the territory “the principles of good governance, such as openness, transparency and even the rule of law are ignored.” And Britain is seriously mulling one of the commission’s core recommendations: Temporarily suspending parts of the constitution and imposing direct rule from London.
The proposal has drawn opposition in the islands — a popular tourist destination and tax haven with turquoise waters and a reputation for financial secrecy — that has rippled across the Caribbean, posing a delicate challenge for Britain amid a growing reckoning over colonialism.
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One opposition leader called the proposal “fundamentally undemocratic.” The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States said it was “ill-advised.” The Caribbean Community, the Caribbean’s main regional bloc, cast it as “retrograde.” The prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines chided it as “ridiculous.”
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who said the inquiry showed “that substantial legislative and constitutional change is required,” dispatched Amanda Milling, a foreign office minister, to the British Virgin Islands this week. She was greeted with protests.
Natalio Wheatley, the country’s new premier, told reporters that their discussions were “constructive, but frank and open.” He acknowledged the “shortcomings” and “serious problems” highlighted by the commission of inquiry, but said he did not believe direct rule is the solution.
He proposed a national unity government with members from all political parties to lead the territory of 30,000.
“To be clear, I see the implementation of the recommendations as a path to achieving our national renewal,” he said. “But this can be done successfully without resorting to direct rule.”
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Milling said everyone she met with agreed there needs to be “significant changes.”
“Let’s be clear: The report highlighted significant concerns around corruption, transparency and accountability,” she said. “There is no getting away from this. Like many people have told me — this isn’t a question of whether something should be done. It is a question of what is done.”
The British Virgin Islands, which lie miles from their more populous U.S. counterparts, are one of Britain’s 14 overseas territories. They have a Crown-appointed governor, who represents the queen, and a national assembly made up of elected politicians. Britain is responsible for defense and foreign policy. The assembly handles much of the rest.
The inquiry was launched last year by a former governor of the British Virgin Islands amid allegations of political corruption. Sir Gary Hickinbottom’s more than 900-page report found that successive governments have been plagued by “parlous failings in governance” that “have been positively endorsed and even encouraged.”
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One of its main recommendations — made with “a heavy heart” — was to partially suspend the islands’ constitution and impose a direct rule in which the governor would temporarily take over executive powers of the elected officials with the aid of an advisory council made up, in part, of public servants from the territory.
The proposal comes amid a reckoning over the legacies of British colonialism, spurred in part by the Black Lives Matter movement and a scandal over the Britain’s treatment of the Windrush generation. That’s fanned long-bubbling republican sentiment in parts of the Caribbean and calls for reparations for slavery.
Barbados last year cast off the queen as its head of state and became a republic. During an at-times turbulent royal visit this year, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, that it was “moving on,” though it has not done so yet.
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The last British overseas territory to be subjected to direct rule was Turks and Caicos in 2009, after a commission of inquiry found a “high probability of systemic corruption in government.”
Then, as now, the decision was met with opposition. Then-premier Galmo Williams charged that the country was being “invaded and recolonized” by Britain.
But today’s broader appraisal of the sins of the British empire adds a new complexity to the decision.
“I think it’s an important subtext,” said Peter Clegg, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of the West of England Bristol. “The U.K. would possibly think twice before intervening, and even 15 years ago, this certainly was a decision that wasn’t taken lightly.”
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British Virgin Islands Governor John Rankin published the inquiry report in late April before its planned release in June. He said it was in the “overwhelming public interest” and that he hoped it would quiet speculation that it was tied to the arrest of then-premier Andrew Fahie on drug and money-laundering conspiracy charges.
The territory’s ports director was also charged.
Federal prosecutors allege that a DEA source posing as a member of the Sinaloa cartel met the director to discuss trafficking thousands of kilos of cocaine through the islands to the United States.
Fahie’s lawyer said he plans to plead not guilty, the Associated Press reported. He has also claimed immunity as a head of government. The ports director has invoked her right to remain silent. Their lawyers did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
The affidavit alleges that the ports director told the source that Fahie would probably join, saying, “He’s a little crook sometimes.”
It alleges that Fahie, who on more than one occasion sought reassurance that the purported drug trafficker was not an informant or a cop, agreed to help secure the required licenses and to hide the cocaine-filled boats in exchange for 12 percent of the total value of sales in the United States.
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Fahie was arrested in Miami on a private jet after he inspected the $700,000 cash-advance payment, stuffed into designer bags, that he was promised. He was granted $500,000 bond this week.
The affidavit alleges that during one of the instances Fahie was “skittish,” the informant reassured him by saying, “Well, first of all, you’re not touching anything.”
“I will touch one thing: The money,” Fahie allegedly replied.
