KINGSTOWN, ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES — Rape allegations against Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves have divided this idyllic archipelago beloved by honeymooners, mariners and hikers, with one side decrying what it sees as a culture of indifference toward sexual violence and the other insisting that the charges are politically motivated.
A member of Gonsalves' security detail has told police that the 61-year-old leader raped her Jan. 3 at his Old Montrose mansion, where she was on patrol, stifling her protests and warning her to be quiet because his wife and children were upstairs sleeping.
Gonsalves has denied the accusation, and the district attorney, the prime minister's former law colleague, has dismissed the complaint lodged in Magistrates Court by Constable Michele Andrews. She turned to the court because her police superiors had declined to pursue criminal action against Gonsalves.
Human rights activists and local business leaders allege that Gonsalves has a history of sexual aggression, and women's advocates across the Caribbean have begun organizing support for Andrews, 36, whose identity was disclosed by Gonsalves.
At least four other women claiming to have been sexually assaulted by Gonsalves have come forward since Andrews made her accusation.
The scandal has shed light on political, legal and security networks in the region's fledgling democracies, where loyalties to old school chums and political allies can, critics say, trump the rule of law.
Emery Robertson, one of the four local lawyers who have taken up Andrews' case, says the Caribbean judicial system is lacking in sufficient checks on power. In St. Vincent, for instance, the prime minister also heads the ministries of finance, national security, economic planning and legal affairs, with the civil servants in each beholden to him and his party for their jobs.
"All the stakeholders owe some allegiance to the prime minister," said Sharon Morris-Cummings, another of Andrews' lawyers.
The four lawyers have appealed the dismissal of her case and a second one brought to a regional court by a Canadian alleging another attack. They vow to take the cases, if necessary, to the London Privy Council, which remains the court of last resort for the former British colony.
Human rights and feminist groups have demanded that Gonsalves be prosecuted to send a signal that no one is above the law.
