By Amb. Lionel Hurst

A piece of rubbish, written by an unidentified UPP supporter, repeats the same untruths and the barely-concealed political motives, dressed-up as reasoning; it defies the logic which national success has vitiated. The article reveals envy, the inability to appeal to reason by reliance on emotion, the use of nasty names and a complete defiance of measurable truth.

“Antiguans and Barbudans are being locked out of the world in real time”, the writer begins. The “world”, it appears, is the United States and the proclamation issued by the US President on 16 December 2025. That the US State Department partially reversed that decision by assuring our diplomats that Antigua and Barbuda passport holders with valid B1-B2, F, M, J visas will continue to enter the US, is completely left out of the 1,000 word diatribe. Why conceal this truth? Because if it is included, his argument about the Prime Minister and wrong choices would fall apart.

“The CIP as a convenient scapegoat” is another of his headline quotes that falls against the truth. The Proclamation issued by the US White House speaks to Antigua and Barbuda’s Citizenship By Investment Program and the absence of a residency requirement, which the US concludes imperils its own “national security”. Unless the writer knows more than the US State Department and the US White House, then he is speculating. He misleads his audience by pretending to know more when he is doing what the UPP does all the time: invent its own truth. When our diplomats provided the evidence that the residency basis was inaccurate, the US State Department softened its approach and returned validity to visa holders. Of course, to mention this fact would render his fallacious argument null and void because the US Government specifically cited the CIP as the only reason for its actions.

“The Pernicious Partnership” is his third and essentially the most specious of his arguments. He argues that Antigua and Barbuda’s friendship with Venezuela is the root cause of the US action. By making friends with Venezuela, and by accepting assistance from that Caribbean/South American country, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda has incurred the ire of the US Government. He mentions PDVSA, the ownership component of WIOC, and ends with an assault on the Honourable Maria Browne. The misogynist attacks have not ceased since the Minister has displayed incomparable competence, high integrity, and imperiled their campaign contributions by lifting the blanket on certain corrupt practices.

Venezuela’s friendship with Antigua and Barbuda goes back more than 50 years when Sir George Walter, the Premier in 1974, sought and received millions of dollars in loans to rescue a bankrupt LIAT. When Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer saw collapse of the economy of Antigua and Barbuda in 2009, he sought and received US$50 million in loans by way of a telephone call to President Chavez. The generous agreement to reduce the cost of petroleum to US$100 per barrel by crediting the amounts exceeding $100 to an open loan that goes towards social programs, is generosity of the highest order. Sovereign states decide which countries are their friends and of which to be wary.  

The writer’s prediction of “an economic spiral ahead” and “a final reckoning” are failed predictions which the UPP suggested would happen when personal income tax, introduced in 2005, was eliminated in 2015. The economy has grown on average of 6% each year—except when a hurricane battered the nation. They hate progress, opposing an UWI campus, opposing hotel development in Barbuda, opposing hotel construction on beach-front properties in Antigua. They would fail as a government, for they fail as an opposition. They are capable of destruction and nothing more. The ABLP has demonstrated excellence in leadership, in the past and present. Envy and hate cannot be elements in striving. They are inherently destructive.