I am no Yankee

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, Mar 7, CMC — Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Commerce and Information Technology Minister, Camillo Gonsalves, has defended his right to be appointed as a legislator in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), insisting that he has always been a national of the country.

The minister, the eldest son of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, was born in Philadelphia in 1972.

In an “Open Letter” published here, Gonsalves citing the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Constitution said that he automatically became a Vincentian at the moment of his birth.

But he said that while his birth in the United States does not disqualify him from holding his senatorial post, he had quietly renounced his American citizenship ahead of his appointment as a legislator on September 16, 2013.

“To be clear: I am not a citizen of the United States of America. I took that decision as a mark of my personal and unambiguous commitment to public service in St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” said Gonsalves, a lawyer and former ambassador to the United Nations.

“The decision was compelled not by law, but by my own conscience and my private determination about what I consider to be the best way for me to serve the Government and people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines,” he added.

The disclosure by Gonsalves follows recent comments on social media and on political talk shows here question his eligibility to serve as a parliamentarian.