08 May NiteCap Journal: Why was British Virgin Islands Premier Andrew Fahie Denied Diplomatic Immunity?

I mean, isn’t Miami the cocaine capital? 

I should know because I wrote the New York Times certified Magic City and I’m currently directing a series on the lives of the dope boys who made it all possible.

Yet, Andrew Fahie, a world head of state was denied diplomatic immunity and must stand trial here in Miami. I can only imagine the convos he had in lock up with a few Dade County steppers:

What they do big bruh? Dem crackas got you jammed up on entrapment hunh? 

But I’m saying though, ain’t you a president down in dem islands? Damn, that’s crazzzzy.

It’s because a leader of an overseas territory is a mere figure head used to maintain the fantasy of solely beaches and booze for tourists from Mother countries who historically have wished to enslave our people into enabling their pleasure. 

Fahie, the BVI’s 51 year-old Premier was recently arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit drug trafficking and money laundering in a case whose audacious details rivals the exploits of any of Miami’s cocaine cowboys. A leaner Fahie would usher in nostalgia of Tony Montana. 

Seriously, the US DEA making an example out of Fahie is like the pot calling the kettle black. Don’t they remember the Miami River Cops? This drug crew of boys in blue robbed drug dealers on the Miami River, one was even charged in the brutal murder of Arthur McDuffie. 

Given this history, I smirked when I saw the news on Fahie. He allegedly thought h e was about to board a plane headed to do business with cocaine traffickers from Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel -the largest supplier of illegal drugs to the US, formerly run by now-imprisoned drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.

Fahie of course is innocent until proven guilty, but I’m more concerned about the political significance surrounding his arrest. As a head of state Fahie requested diplomatic immunity which is customary. It was denied since US authorities don’t recognize the British Virgin Islands as a sovereign state. 

This sheds light on the demoralizing space Caribbean island territories have occupied for as long as I’ve been alive. Donald Trump helped to orchestrate a deadly coup on our nation’s capital, but was never even put in handcuffs. Back in April 2019, Scott Hapgood killed a hotel worker while vacationing in Anguilla – another British overseas territory – but was allowed to head back to Connecticut instead of facing trial in Anguilla in spite of local protests. Even Trump himself stepped in tweeting support for Hapgood who has garnered bipartisan support in Congress while Anguillian authorities considered him a fugitive.

As US Virgin Islanders we’ve always considered our neighbors in the British Virgin Islands to be extended family while ignoring the political division those who colonized us have created, hence we’re all Virgin Islanders tied together by one common Virgin Islands thread. In fact, I’ve always admired the resolve by which the BVI controls their economy by having foreigners partner with a local – belonger – as a prerequisite to do business there. 

So, is this another attempt to destabilize the region by those who seek to keep us serving rum punch on the beach? 

You Islanders are getting a bit to spiffy. We liked you more when you knew your place. By the way, I’d like another shot of that Cruzan rum, coconut-flavored this time. 

Now Britain is temporarily suspending parts of the BVI’s constitution to impose possible direct rule from London leading to protests throughout the overseas territory as many locals consider this a colonial takeover. 

Does Ukraine ring a bell? 

I’ve long wondered about our own sovereignty in the USVI. Given the fact that we don’t even have a Constitution the US federal government is even more tyrannical in their view of us as mere property. In 2022, US Virgin Islanders and other residents of US territories are still denied the right to vote for the President. This direct assault on our humanity stems from the Insular Cases in which the Supreme Court ruled that since the territories were inhabited by inferior ‘alien races’ that could not understand ‘Anglo-Saxon’ principles, they could be denied rights enjoyed on the US mainland.

During the pandemic our community was put at risk, because unlike other Caribbean nations and overseas territories like the BVI, our elected officials had no authority to close our borders. Imagine being separated by thousands of miles of sea from those who can make the ultimate decision on your well-being. 

In light of all this, the call for independence and self-governance is growing in popularly throughout the Caribbean. Barbados recently made Rhianna the country’s national hero, replacing Queen ElIzabeth and became a Republic. 

Usually when criminals cry foul we often dismiss them, but this statement from Fahie pulled from court papers has made me take a second look at this case. 

“I have plenty of people and I don’t sell them out to the British with their plans… they always want to capture people, but me, I see what they are doing, and I protect the people.”

If he is indeed found guilty, Fahie will most likely be used to discourage the growing call for Caribbean self-governance – the real defendant on trial here. 

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