Lester Bird

Prime Minister Lester Bird conceded defeat Wednesday in general elections marked by corruption charges, ending a family dynasty that has dominated this Caribbean island nation for more than half a century. The next leader, labor activist and longtime opposition leader Baldwin Spencer, danced a traditional jig to a calypso beat and promised to punish "crimes against the people." "We have them now! Yes! Yes! Yes!" excited islanders chanted in the streets.

Prime Minister Lester Bird conceded defeat Wednesday in general elections marked by corruption charges, ending a family dynasty that has dominated this Caribbean island nation for more than half a century. The next leader, labor activist and longtime opposition leader Baldwin Spencer, danced a traditional jig to a calypso beat and promised to punish "crimes against the people." "We have them now! Yes! Yes! Yes!" excited islanders chanted in the streets.

A festering scandal over illicit arms sent from Israel to Antigua last year and then mysteriously transshipped to the Colombian drug cartel has embarrassed Washington and Jerusalem and may bring down the corruption-ridden, family-ruled government of this Caribbean microstate.

When the polls closed and the counting began in this Caribbean nation's bitterly fought general elections Tuesday night, the opposition candidates followed what has become a tradition in their decades-long pursuit of power: They all went into hiding. But when the final tallies were in Wednesday morning in this country long awash in mysteries unsolved and charges unproved, they all were safe. They'd lost--again. The long-ruling Bird dynasty remained intact.

When the polls closed and the counting began in this Caribbean nation's bitterly fought general elections Tuesday night, the opposition candidates followed what has become a tradition in their decades-long pursuit of power: They all went into hiding. But when the final tallies were in Wednesday morning in this country long awash in mysteries unsolved and charges unproved, they all were safe. They'd lost--again. The long-ruling Bird dynasty remained intact.

A visitor to the office of Antigua's likely new prime minister encounters a stench arising from a gutter carrying raw sewage past the building. To many Antiguans, the odor symbolizes the state of their nation's politics. "You noticed the smell, did you?" asked a prominent St. John's businessman who has a shop near the politician's office. "Get used to it. The whole island stinks of (it) and so does the way politics are run here and so does that politician across the street."

Hurricane Jose ripped roofs from houses, tore down a newly built church and flung debris through deserted streets Wednesday as it hit Antigua head-on and threatened a string of other Caribbean islands. Storm-weary islanders in neighboring St. Kitts, where a few homes remain roofless from last year's devastating hurricane season, braced themselves as Jose bore down packing 100-mph winds and drenching rain. "It's projected to move right across the Leeward Islands.

First came reports about arms and ammunition: shipping containers packed with rifles, grenades, launchers, pistols, bullets and tear gas, all consigned to the government of Antigua and Barbuda. Then an unknown arsonist torched the headquarters of the twin-island nation's opposition newspaper. And then Antigua's only prison burned to the ground.

Voters Tuesday extended the corruption-tainted Bird family's half-century hold on Antigua, sending a new generation into power despite a last-minute surge by the opposition. Official election returns late Tuesday showed clear triumphs for retiring Prime Minister V. C. Bird's Antigua Labor Party in eight of 17 parliamentary races and a commanding lead in a ninth race, which would give the party a majority.

An aged patriarch nears his end as one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Caribbean. The two oldest of his four legitimate sons fight a bitter, multimillion-dollar power game, each maneuvering to seize control when the old man falters or dies. The patriarch's long-estranged wife and their two wealthy younger sons, one a playboy and the other a mystic, teasingly switch allegiance, first to one of the older brothers, then the other, as they decide which--if either--they will back in the dynasty game.

A visitor to the office of Antigua's likely new prime minister encounters a stench arising from a gutter carrying raw sewage past the building. To many Antiguans, the odor symbolizes the state of their nation's politics. "You noticed the smell, did you?" asked a prominent St. John's businessman who has a shop near the politician's office. "Get used to it. The whole island stinks of (it) and so does the way politics are run here and so does that politician across the street."

A festering scandal over illicit arms sent from Israel to Antigua last year and then mysteriously transshipped to the Colombian drug cartel has embarrassed Washington and Jerusalem and may bring down the corruption-ridden, family-ruled government of this Caribbean microstate.

After decades of disharmony and jealous squabbling, leaders of the 13 countries of the English-speaking Caribbean--mostly microstates smaller than the average American county--have adopted an ambitious plan for economic union that will brace their economies against the damaging side effects they expect when trade barriers go down in Europe in 1992.

A monster storm named Luis, the most powerful hurricane yet in a hectic season of tempests, ripped through the Leeward and U.S. Virgin Islands in the eastern Caribbean Tuesday, causing vast destruction on its march toward Puerto Rico. With sustained winds of 140 m.p.h., gusts to 160 and torrential rains, the storm met little resistance on such tiny islands as Antigua, Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Martin, where ham radio operators reported widespread damage.