Passport sellers ‘on borrowed time’ says PM Gonsalves

PRIME MINISTER, Dr Ralph Gonsalves is advising that “those who want to defend their breadfruit tree must make sure that whatever happens afterwards is not a guava season”.

His comments came five days after the May 7, 2025 comments by Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, regarding Gonsalves’ comments declaring his opposition to the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme in which the OECS countries of Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia are engaged.

Prime Minister Browne was speaking on radio when he said that if PM Gonsalves is feeling politically pressured by the support for CBI, then “he should not suggest that such programmes are inherently corrupt.”

Gonsalves’ comments were made on Monday, May 12, 2025 at the launch of the GreaterYouth Volunteerism and Engagement (GYVE) project, at which he was the feature speaker. “One leader who sells passports has responded robustly,” Gonsalves, said, “ I am not surprised, the man have to defend he own breadfruit tree. My answers are there—what I’ve said before. I don’t have to get involved in any shouting match…”.

The Prime Minister then commented on the last 25 years of his Unity Labour Party in office which he described as recording ’tremendous progress’ with support from the Government of Taiwan.

He said St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) remarked the only English-speaking Caribbean country that has a relationship with Taiwan and “does not sell passports.”

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