Both Douglas and Harris Appear to Have Diplomatic Passports in Dominica

After weeks of mudslinging, name-calling, accusations and denials, it now looks as though both the former and current prime ministers of Saint Kitts & Nevis, Denzil Douglas and Timothy Harris, are holders of diplomatic passports from Dominica, as images of both documents surface in the Caribbean media.

It should be pointed out that the images represent evidence, not proof, as they are yet to be verified. Nonetheless, if they turn out to be the genuine article, the implication is that both officials are revealed as deceptive and hypocritical.

After Douglas called the Harris administration’s decision to introduce the Hurricane Relief Fund contribution option for the Saint Kitts & Nevis CIP a “repulsively self-serving” move intended to finance Harris’ re-election campaign, Harris responded by accusing Douglas of holding a diplomatic passport in “another country” (not mentioning Dominica by name).

Douglas fervently denied the claim, stating he “…does not hold dual citizenship, has never held dual citizenship, does not hold and never held citizenship of Dominica or any other country, except that of St Kitts and Nevis”.

The images recently published are evidence to the contrary, and Harris looks to be guilty of the same transgression for which he has reproached Douglas.

The question is, why would senior government officials in Saint Kitts & Nevis hold diplomatic passports in neighboring Dominica? They’ve never represented Dominica in any formal capacity and, besides, diplomatic passports in their own country are presumably available to them.

Some point to the issue dates of Harris’ and Douglas’ (purported) diplomatic passports – June 2014 and July 2015, respectively – as indications they obtained their documents in order to circumvent the difficulties Kittitian natives experience when conducting financial transactions internationally and the detailed customs and immigration scrutiny they face when travelling to the US, both consequences of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s (FinCEN’s) unflattering advisory on Saint Kitts, dating from May 2014.

Also problematic is that the diplomatic passports list their nationality as Dominican (which is not the case), supporting the above hypothesis because the additional scrutiny arising from the FinCEN advisory applies only to Kittitians.