island nation of St. Vincent, which allied itself with Iran two years ago, has narrowly won re-election after a campaign in which the ties to Iran were featured.
But Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves ended up after the election with the tiniest possible majority—just eight of the 15 seats in the island parliament, down from 12 of the 15 seats after the last election five years ago before he decided to get cozy with the Islamic Republic.
The opposition New Democratic Party, which had assailed Gonsalves during the campaign for moving close to Cuba, Venezuela, Libya and Iran, saw its representation more than double from three seats to seven.
St. Vincent is a poor island of just 120,000 people. It lies just north of Grenada, the island nation that US troops invaded a quarter-century ago after its government began spouting Marxist rhetoric and moved closer to Cuba, receiving Cuban aid with which to build a large airport.
Gonsalves visited Iran and established relations with it in September 2008. At the time, he announced that Iran would provide St. Vincent with an aid package totaling $7 million, part of which would go to building a $200 million airport. Large airports are very important in the Caribbean as they bring in the large aircraft packed with American tourists who spend money locally.
When Gonsalves first established relations with Iran, George W. Bush was president of the United States and refusing to talk to Iran. Gonsalves explained his decision to recognize Iran by saying, “My assessment is that Iran wants to come in from the cold. It wants to be engaged internationally, and it is the duty of countries to engage others.”
Gonsalves took St. Vincent into membership in a leftist, anti-American grouping organized by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Called the Bolivarian Alternative for the Nations of Our America, it includes the Spanish-speaking nations of Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador plus the English-speaking Caribbean island ministates of Dominica, Antigua and St. Vincent. Unlike with Grenada in the 1980s, the leftward tilt of these islands has received very little attention in North America.
The New Democratic Party assailed Gonsalves for linking the island with unpopular regimes, including Iran, for adopting what it called an autocratic governing style and for not doing enough to build up St. Vincent’s economy.
New Democratic Party leader Arnhim Eustace said Gonsalves’ ties with “questionable regimes such as Venezuela, Libya and Iran” were annoying “traditional partners and international business supporters. Quite simply, many international businesses are now unwilling to invest in St. Vincent because they don’t like our politics.”
Gonsalves’ party got 51.6 percent of the vote while the opposition New Democrats received 47.8 percent.