The NDP administration has been heavily criticised for its perceived silence and lack of strength regarding extrajudicial killings within the national waters of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves specifically highlighted an incident where a fisherman from St. Lucia was killed in Vincentian waters.
He accused the administration of lacking the “strength” to tell the American government, specifically mentioning Donald Trump, that extrajudicial killings in national waters are unacceptable and argued that this issue should have been raised “at the highest levels of the American government” using all available diplomatic channels,.
“Because of its silence on such fundamental matters of sovereignty, the speaker labels the current administration as a “baby government” and a “local government town board”,,. He claims they are keeping their “head down below the parapete” and are not being respected as a sovereign government by the international community”.
Government suggests that failing to speak out against such killings represents a moral failure, paraphrasing Dante to say that “the hottest part of hell is reserved for those” who remain neutral or silent during moments of moral crisis.
Gonsalves further suggest the government is acting with “no dignity at all” by “playing dead” in relation to external matters and failing to defend the rights of people in their own waters,.
He contrasts this perceived weakness of the NDP with his own commitment to defending “poor people rights” and his past efforts to represent the country on the global stage, such as when St. Vincent and the Grenadines sat on the UN Security Council.