The Caribbean nation of St. Vincent (SVG) documented a total of 54 homicides for the year 2024. Statistics indicate that this positions the island nation as second in the western hemisphere for homicides per 100,000 individuals.
In the year 2023, SVG was third place, while in 2022, it was second within the region for murders per 100,000.
Glenroy Fraser, a Canadian originally from SVG, returned home for the holidays, only to be tragically murdered, marking the 54th homicide.
The island nation has undergone a year characterised by pervasive gun violence among criminal elements and disagreements between governmental authorities and law enforcement regarding the presence or functioning of gangs within its territory.
Nonetheless, as residents became well-acquainted with semantics and textbook definitions, the reality of murder persists, prompting citizens to demand more effective measures to mitigate the violence.
During a 2024 interview on BOOM FM 106.9, ACP Trevor Bailey articulated that, according to assessments from external agencies, there are approximately 5 to 6 gangs functioning on the island.
Nonetheless, gangs represent merely one facet of the broader issues at hand. A report from the U.S. State Department indicates that cocaine traffickers in South America utilise Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago as key hubs for the transit of illicit drugs to the United States and Europe.
Residents of the islands contend that the incumbent administration pledged to adopt a stringent approach towards crime and its underlying factors upon assuming office in 2001. However, after more than two decades in power, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves articulated on December 18, 2022, during an address on WEFM, a privately owned radio station, that governments do not possess the elusive “magic bullet” to eradicate criminal behaviour.
“Everyone should take an interest in the fight against crime.” “I’m requesting that everyone do their part to reduce crime, including families, parents, schools, and churches.” “A holistic approach,” Gonsalves said.
The authorities have indicated that the increasing murder rate in St. Vincent and the Grenadines can largely be linked to the allure of gun culture and the cocaine trade among the youth.
Gonsalves highlighted the rise in gun ownership among young males in September 2022. “there is no opportunity in guns; it makes no sense.” 32 homicides had been reported in St. Vincent at the time of Gonsalves’ message.
“It is a small, minority group that is intertwined with the cocaine trade and its various offshoots, as well as everything else,” he said.
Violence against women
The alarming rise in violent deaths among women on the island is drawing significant concern from the closely connected community, even as men continue to be the primary victims of gun violence.
Consider, for example, the harrowing case of Luan Roberts, a family court counsellor, whose remains were discovered concealed in the rear compartment of a vehicle, ensconced in a bloodstained sheet; the tragic fate of 17-year-old Precious Williams, whose lifeless form was located with numerous sharp lacerations within a bag along a roadway mere moments from Kingstown, the capital of the island; and the appalling disfigurement of Veronica “Keisha” Small, whose body was unearthed on the dilapidated airport runway in Arnos Vale, with a piece of PVC pipe disturbingly inserted into her vagina.
In the year 2023, the inaugural woman on the island to endure a tragic demise was Altavea Billingy, a single mother of two. Billingy represented the fifth homicide recorded this year.
Reports indicate that Billingy suffered multiple stab wounds to the abdomen inflicted by her former partner; she was promptly transported to the primary medical facility on the island, Kingstown; unfortunately, she ultimately succumbed to her injuries.
Citizens are losing trust in the system
The confidence of the populace in authority figures serves as a crucial mechanism for addressing criminal activity; nonetheless, individuals have expressed that their scepticism was starkly revealed concerning the demise of Ceja Weekes and the injury of Cornelius John.
In February 2022, Natasha Weekes, the mother of Ceja Weekes, asserted that her son was struck by a police vehicle on February 2, leading to his subsequent death on February 6 at Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.
Weekes reported that her son has been rendered paralysed from the chest down and has endured a fractured leg and spine as a consequence of the encounter with law enforcement.
In August 2022, attorney Jomo Thomas articulated that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sejilla McDowall, concluded, following a thorough and meticulous investigation into the demise of Ceja Weekes, that her office did not perceive any criminal liability to be present.
In the matter concerning Cornelius John, he had implicated a government senator at the time he was shot on his property in April of 2021. In May 2021, police commissioner Colin John indicated that Senator Ashelle Morgan and Assistant DPP Karim Nelson were considered persons of interest in the ongoing investigation. In June 2021, the DPP initiated legal proceedings against Morgan, Nelson, and John, the latter of whom sustained gunshot wounds. In November 2022, both Morgan and Nelson were found not guilty, and the charges against John were dropped.
The extent to which the government might seek external organisations for assistance in addressing the escalating crime rates remains ambiguous, similar to the situations observed in St. Lucia and Jamaica.
