WHY CARICOM WILL BE VERY CAUTIOUS AFTER THE ARREST OF VENEZUELAN NARCO-DICTATOR NICOLAS MADURO MOROS

For years, Caribbean leaders - especially those in left-leaning Labour governments - closed their eyes to Venezuela's descent into dictatorship, political assassinations, and narco-trafficking. When millions of Venezuelans were crushed, or forced into exile, CARICOM remained silent. When elections were widely denounced as fraudulent, Caribbean leaders lined up in Caracas  to congratulate Maduro.

That protection is now gone; With Maduro neutralized, the real danger for the Member states of CARICOM is what is revealed next.  Any unraveling of Venezuelan criminal networks raises explosive questions: Which Caribbean politicians benefitted from Venezuelan money?  To quote from the Maduro indictment, by the United States Department of Justice "... politicians along the 'Caribbean route' corrupted by cocaine traffickers, who would pay them for protection from arrest, and to allow favored traffickers to operate with impunity as they trafficked cocaine from Venezuela north towards the United States."

Which ones received logistical, political or electoral support? Who ignored repression in exchange for favors, Maduro's dirty suitcase of cash, and fraudulent deals? The U.S. military operation is very bad news for China, Cuba, Colombia, and for the Hezbollah terrorist drug trafficking operation in Venezuela, and for whoever took dirty money from Maduro.

CARICOM Members understand one thing clearly; when the thread is pulled in Caracas, it does not stop there. Maduro is now in U.S. custody, facing a probable prison sentence of Life without Parole, and he will talk to avoid that outcome. The next few weeks are expected to see crucial developments from the United States Department of Justice.

The conclusion is that President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the U.S. military have changed the geopolitical environment in the Caribbean and Latin America. The United States Army and Donald Trump have taken back control of the Western Hemisphere.

 

IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE U.S. ATTACK ON VENEZUELA, WHAT WILL NOW HAPPEN TO THE FOUR PRO-MADURO LABOUR GOVERNMENTS IN POWER IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN?

The American action in Venezuela, against military targets and the country's authoritarian leader, NICOLAS MADURO, will have an immediate effect upon the four Eastern Caribbean "CBI" states, all with leftist Labour governments, that are politically allied with the Venezuelan regime, Saint Kitts and Nevis,Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica and Saint Lucia.While we will have to see what their response Will their endangered Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) programs, under increasing attack, both directly and indirectly, by the U.S., become a casualty of this new aggressive American foreign policy in the Caribbean?

We cannot say, but remembering the U.S. military action in Grenada in the 1980s, which was also in response to a perceived national security threat, these Caribbean states, today's action in Venezuela was not a total surprise. The question is what the impact will be in the Eastern Caribbean, and is this the death knell for CBI in the region, and an existential threat to the existing government.

THE FATAL FLAW IN DOMINICA'S CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PROGRAM, AND WHY IT MUST BE TERMINATED

This recent Letter to the Editor, appearing in Dominica media, says it all; the Revenue Dependence Dominica has on CBI funds is a direct Conflict of Interest, interfering with the proper operation of the program, especially the DUE DILIGENCE requirement. It is worth a read:

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"The recent letter seeking to absolve Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme of responsibility by shifting blame almost entirely to the United States deserves careful scrutiny, not passive acceptance.

The central flaw in the writer’s argument is not technical—it is structural. The letter attempts to frame weaknesses in the CBI programme as unavoidable by-products of U.S. information-sharing policies, rather than as consequences of how the programme itself is designed, incentivized, and administered.

While it is true that no vetting system can uncover crimes that have never been recorded, this reality does not excuse weak or rushed due diligence. On the contrary, uncertainty demands greater scrutiny, not complacency. In international compliance, gaps in information are a risk factor that must be mitigated through conservative approval standards, extended investigations, and higher rejection thresholds—not explained away after the fact.

More importantly, the letter avoids the most critical issue entirely: revenue dependence.

Dominica’s CBI programme is not a marginal economic policy. It is a dominant fiscal pillar, accounting for a substantial share—often a majority—of government revenue. This fact alone creates a structural conflict of interest. When passport issuance becomes the primary income stream of the state, speed, volume, and approval rates inevitably come under pressure. No amount of rhetorical defense can change that reality.

This is not conjecture. It is basic governance logic. No country can credibly argue that citizenship decisions remain insulated from financial incentives when the programme funding the national budget depends on approvals continuing uninterrupted. In such an environment, the risk is not “accidental” approvals of unsuitable applicants—it is systemic tolerance of risk.

The letter also minimizes the significance of identity complexity, legal name changes, and thin personal histories by portraying them as issues only the United States can resolve. This is misleading. International AML/CFT standards explicitly require heightened scrutiny where identity continuity is weak or fragmented. These are not U.S. demands; they are global compliance norms. Ignoring them does not make the programme compliant—it makes it vulnerable.

Furthermore, the repeated assertion that the United States should simply “fix its databases” misses the point entirely. Border security does not begin at the airport. It begins with the sovereign act of granting citizenship. When a passport is issued, the issuing country is vouching for the holder’s identity, background, and trustworthiness. That responsibility cannot be outsourced, deflected, or diluted.

Finally, describing legitimate security concerns as punishment of “innocent applicants” is a mischaracterization. Visa-free access is a privilege, not an entitlement. When a programme introduces elevated risk into international travel systems, partner states are entitled—indeed obligated—to reassess that risk.

This debate will not be resolved by pretending that all failures originate abroad. If Dominica wishes to defend its CBI programme credibly, it must confront uncomfortable facts: over-reliance on passport revenue, structural conflicts of interest, and the reality that citizenship has been treated less as a sovereign trust and more as a transactional product.

Accountability cannot be demanded of others while being avoided at home."

DOMINICA'S PRIME MINISTER TRIES EXPLAIN AWAY HIS SON'S ACQUISITION OF A DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT TO CHEAT CRIMINAL JUSTICE

ROOSEVELT SKERRIT, the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, has claimed that our article FACING MANSLAUGHTER CHARGES, THE SON OF DOMINICA'S PRIME MINISTER IS GIVEN A DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT TO FLEE TO THE UNITED STATES; CAN HE BE DEPORTED BY ICE? is "fake news." He denies that his son MALIK SKERRIT, killed a motorcyclist in Dominica, and then fled to the United States, using a diplomatic passport illegally created by his father.  We note that there have been several news articles about the incident, both in Dominican and Antiguan media, with a photograph of the victim, and details of the case.

Skerrit claims he never gave his college-age son a Dominica diplomatic passport. He makes that allegation, knowing full well that the list of who holds a diplomatic passport is not available to the people of Dominica. There is the famous policy statement of FANCINE BARRON, then the Minister of Foreign Affairs, when asked in Parliament to release those names:

"The government has never, as a rule, publicized sensitive details, outside of the corresponding countries to which persons are engaged. Effective foreign policy is never practised in the media or the public domain. While the government could have no diplomatic appointment and postings established, it remains opposed to the idea of divulging information, on all appointees, in a forum that is essentially public in nature, and which the entire world has access."

This means that the people of Dominica will never learn who their diplomats are, including the names of those career criminals who bought diplomatic passports from Roosevelt Skerrit for cash, and we cannot learn who, in the government of Dominica, issued Malik that passports on an emergency basis, so he could flee the country, while the victim, Kyan Joseph, was dying in hospital.

Roosevelt Skerrit should resign, forthwith, due to his participation in this organized activity, the object of which was to cheat justice. He has no moral compass.

US: CBI PASSPORTS CANNOT BE USED TO DO AN END RUN AROUND TRUMP'S PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION BLOCKING VISAS FROM HIGH-RISK JURISDICTIONS

 

The US government agency, CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES (CIS), in a Policy Memorandum issued yesterday, has ruled that citizens of "high-risk" jurisdictions which president Donald Trump has blocked, in a Presidential Proclamation, from obtaining visas to the United States cannot use a Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport to enter America. CBI passports have been under attack from the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), and the United States in recent months, for a number of reasons, including National Security, lack of Due Diligence, lack of actual residence in the adopted jurisdiction, and abuse by criminals and intelligence agents., and it is anticipated that additional restrictions and prohibitions will be imposed upon their use by national governments.

This Policy Statement, which first appeared in print through Los Angeles immigration attorney, Parviz Malakouti, who also pointed out that CBI passports may soon not be welcome to enter the United States for any purpose, specifically relies upon National Security grounds as authority  for the CIS action. What effect it will have upon the investment migration industry, the private sector which sells CBI citizenships and passports to the investing public is not known, but it will most certainly affect the desirability of economic citizenships acquired to evade American visa restrictions.

HERE IS THE LIST OF AID ORGANIZATIONS THAT ISRAEL, FEARING HAMAS INFILTRATION EXISTS, HAS BLOCKED FROM WORKING IN GAZA, AS THEY HAVE REFUSED TO REGISTER THEIR STAFF

Compliance officers at financial institutions:You may want to check this against your customer list. Inclusion on this list does not mean that there are suspected HAMAS members on staff, but your risk-based compliance program policy may require a fresh look at any of these that are current bank clients:

FACING MANSLAUGHTER CHARGES, THE SON OF DOMINICA'S PRIME MINISTER IS GIVEN A DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT TO FLEE TO THE UNITED STATES; CAN HE BE DEPORTED BY ICE?

This is MALIK SKERRIT, the oldest son of the Commonwealth of Dominica's Prime Minister ROOSEVELT SKERRIT. After his vehicle hit a motorcycle driven by Kyan Joseph, his father created a diplomatic passport for his son, notwithstanding his age and student status, and with the help of several government law enforcement officials, spirited him out of the country before his victim died of his injuries., which therefore constitutes Vehicular Homicide or Manslaughter.The younger Skerrit, who did not possess a valid drivers' license, was immediately placed on transport for the United States; we note that he is NOT a US citizen, unlike all the other Skerrit children, whose mother arranged for them to be born in America

Malik Skerrit, according to his Linkedin page, is now a university student resident in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As such, he cannot qualify as a working diplomat at an appropriate facility, as required under the Vienna Convention. Should he not be returned to Dominica, to face justice there, and with his bogus diplomatic status, he appears to be illegally in the United States, and therefore under ICE jurisdiction.

Can this clearly unqualified "diplomat" and felon, be removed from the United States, and who issued that diplomatic passport to him, which allowed him to cheat justice? We think the Prime Minister of Dominica has some explaining to do.

THE PRESIDENT OF DOMINICA CHOOSES TO SIDE WITH VENEZUELA AND CHINA, AGAINST THE UNITED STATES

China's PLA officers conduct war games in the Caribbean

The President of the Commonwealth of Dominica, SYLVANIE BURTON whose government is openly allied with the autocratic governments in Cuba, China and Venezuela, has openly called for the United States to discontinue its campaign to interdict drug trafficking and sanctioned oil distribution. Burton, a member of the country's native minority, accused the US of "bullying" the small island states of the Caribbean. Coming upon the same week that the military of the People's Republic of China was conducting virtual war gaming exercises in the Caribbean, according to the reputable South china Morning Post, there is further evidence that the Venezuela-inspired CARICOM "Zone of Peace" policy in the region, has seen open opposition from CARICOM Member states supporting American foreign policy in the South Caribbean. Burton openly sympathizes with CARICOM's pro-Venezuela side in the controversy, which is on behalf of a wanted dictator and narcotics trafficking, and opposed by other American allies who are Members. The United States regards the increasing influence of China in the Eastern Caribbean to be a National Security threat, as well as the expansion of Hezbollah's terrorist activities in Venezuela.

 

Dominica has openly allied itself with China for several years; its massive Embassy in the country's capital, Roseau, contained over 900 individuals, when evacuated during a weather emergency, and is believed to be China's principal listening post on the United States in the Eastern Caribbean. China has close to zero trade with Dominica, but it has a major presence on the island country. Dominica's paramilitary police, which is known to be extremely heavy-handed when confronting peaceful protestors, is equipped and led by Chinese advisors.

Dominica, which lost its visa-free UK entry status two years ago, and has recently been sanctioned by the United States, regarding the ability of its citizens to acquire visas to enter the US, due to fatal flaws in its CBI program, may now lose its visa-free access to the EU Schengen Zone, according to the European Commission. Compliance officers at US financial institutions should bear in mind that Dominica's principal American correspondent bank has blocked all funds transfers connected to the country's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program, and that as a result, Country Risk should be adjusted accordingly; it is also suggested that enhanced due diligence be completed, in advance of any significant wire transfers into or out of Dominica.

At least, the interview given by Dominica's President clarifies her government position, which is against the United States on the Venezuela situation.

A PHANTOM NEWSROOM: HOW A NON-EXISTENT UK NEWS COMPANY CONTINUES TO SHAPE CARIBBEAN POLITICAL NARRATIVES

WIC News, a news organization that no longer exists under UK law, is still publishing political content about the Caribbean, publishing fake news about the content in the Caribbean, influencing public debate, and defending corrupt Caribbean leaders, and all whilst operating without a legally registered and existing corporate entity, thus effectively shielding it from defamation and libel claims.

According to official UK Companies House records, the corporate entity behind WIC News was struck off the register in Britain in 2022, which should have been the end of its operations, but it continued, in violation of the law. When a company is struck off, it is legally dissolved; it  cannot engage in a trade or business, publish, employ writers, receive funds, or represent itself as an operating business. Yet WIC News continues to publish articles online, maintain an active website, and circulate political messaging. 

Corporate filings show that three former Directors,DRAGAN PERKANOVIC, SAMUEL CHRISTOPHER HILL, and BENJAMIN PARKER, resigned years before the company was struck off. None were therefore responsible at the time of corporate dissolution, and none are publicly connected to the site's current activity. 

Despite this vacuum in corporate existence, articles continue to appear under the byline of MONIKA WALKER, for whom no further information is available. Is she a real person, an alias, or a fake name? No registered entity has claimed responsibility for employing, commissioning or publishing this purported journalist. Someone is paying for the domain, hosting the website, commissioning content, and disseminating political narratives, all while hiding behind the identity of a company that no longer exists.

This is no longer solely a question of political opinion; operating a media outlet under the identity city of a dissolved company raises serious regulatory and legal concerns, including but not limited to misrepresentation, unlawful trading, and probably violations of United Kingdom corporate and transparency laws. The matter has reportedly now been referred to the authorities within the UK, who will be tasked with determining who controls WIC News infrastructure, and what laws have been violated.

A free press depends upon transparency and accountability; a press that publishes without a legal owner answered to no one. This question remains unanswered: who is really speaking, and what are they hiding?  Which Caribbean leader that is the beneficiary of a CBI program is behind the website, and will the British authorities now investigate? I will be sending all this information to the appropriate US government agencies for their review.

EUROPEAN COMMISSION POLICY STATEMENT: HAVING A CBI PROGRAM IS SUFFICIENT GROUNDS FOR SUSPENDING VISA-FREE PRIVILEGES, DUE TO THE INHERENT SECURITY RISKS

The governments of the five Eastern Caribbean states that offer Citizenship by Investment (CBI/CIP) passports which grant visa-free entry to the European Union are facing the probable loss of that key feature, after a policy statement of the European Commission stated that the operation of a CBI program is "in itself" grounds for revocation of visa-free status. In a report to Parliament entitled EIGHTH REPORT UNDER THE VISA SUSPENSION MECHANISM, what is referred to as the "Inherent Security Risks" is given as the reason. 

" Visa-free countries operating investor citizenship schemes pose inherent security risks by potentially allowing third-country nationals who woulds otherwise be subject to visa requirements to bypass standard security checks and gain access to the Schengen area. through the acquisition of citizenship.

Such programs represent risks in terms of illegal migration, security threats, and tax evasion. These risks are particularly acute when combined with: (i) insufficient vetting and due diligence; (ii) the absence of a genuine link between applicants and the country granting citizenship; and (iii) the possibility of changing one's name during or after the process.

Consequently, under the revised Visa Suspension Mechanism, the operation of such programmes constitutes, in itself, a ground for suspending the visa-free status of third countries."

The five Eastern Caribbean CBI states were specifically mentioned in the document:

"In the Eastern Caribbean, investor citizenship schemes have been operated for many years in five countries, Antigua and barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. These programmes pose a significant and ongoing challenge of much greater scale [the document cites the numbers of passports issued and the low rejection rate] raising concerns about the accuracy of security and due diligence procedures... the situation continues to raise significant concerns."

The  white paper Conclusion bluntly restates the European Commission's position:

"'... the continued operation of investor citizenship schemes in the Eastern Caribbean represents a PERSISTENT AND SERIOUS SECURITY CONCERN, constituting a potential ground for the suspension of visa-free travel under the revised Visa Suspension Mechanism."

Given the undeniable fact that visa-free travel into the EU is the single most attractive attribute of Eastern Caribbean passports, the implementation of visa suspensions would render them far less attractive to potential customers from high-risk countries, and even pose an existential threat. While most EC leaders have chosen to publicly ignore the impending possible loss of visa-free status, this white paper leaves little doubt where the EU is headed. Given that the local economies of the EC states have become heavily dependent upon CBI cash flow, their future could be bleak.

 

NOW FACING IMMINENT EXTRADITION, THE BILLIONAIRE FRAUDSTER MEHUL CHOKSI TRIES ONE LAST PROCEDURAL LOOPHOLE, BUT A COURT IN INDIA REJECTS HIS ARGUMENT AS WITHOUT LEGAL MERIT

Having exhausted all possible appellate avenues in the court system of Belgium, where he is being held for extradition, India's Most Wanted fugitive, the two billion dollar man, MEHUL CHOKSKI, attempts one last desperate legal maneuver, seeking to block the criminal court proceedings he anticipates will begin upon his arrival.

Choksi's team of attorneys in India have claimed that he cannot be prosecuted as a Fugitive Economic Offender by the Enforcement Directorate, due to an obscure provision in the Companies Act that his attorneys assert provides such action is blocked, due to the case brought against him by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office, under the same allegations.

The Court rejected this argument, holding that the prohibition mentioned in the Companies Act is not a bar to other proceedings for offenses under other acts. The prosecutor had also argued that Choksi's counsel had failed to act timely, and waived such an argument, which was only being filed for the purposes of delay, and without legal merit. We await the news that Mehul Choksi, after a delay approaching a decade, will finally be in the dock in a court of law in India, to face justice.

HOW THE PRIME MINISTERS OF DOMINICA AND GRENADA SOLD DIPLOMATIC PASSPORTS FOR CASH

If you are new to the sordid world of the sale, for cash, of diplomatic passports to money launderers, international sanctions evaders, fraudsters, bulk cash smugglers and all the Other Suspects who acquire those prized tools for avoiding customs and immigration at airports of entry, catch up gentlemen; it's been going on for decades in the same Eastern Caribbean states that are under attack for selling economic passports to Chinese career criminals and spies.

Back in 2019, I was the lead consultant in the project of Aljazeera's Washington DC investigative unit, which resulted in the blockbuster article CARIBBEAN OFFICIALS LINKED TO DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT SALE. I recommend the article, which is as timely today as it was when originally published. Its findings are scathing.

The notorious Iranian oil sanctions evader and fraudster, ALI REZA MONFARED, who bought diplomatic passports from Dominica's corrupt Prime Minister, ROOSEVELT SKERRIT, is now serving a 20-year prison sentence, in connection with a multi-billion dollar theft of the proceeds of petroleum products. He could have received the Death Penalty.

BTW, it was subsequent investigation, by this Aljazeera unit, of the corruption surrounding the CBI program in the REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS, that resulted in the cancellation of the economic citizenship program.

https://lnkd.in/eXp8P7_c

EU BANKERS; IS YOUR NEW AFFLUENT LEBANESE CUSTOMER REALLY A WANTED SYRIAN WAR CRIMINAL OR FINANCIER LIVING IN LEBANON WITH HEZBOLLAH SUPPORT?

One of the major challenges facing the government in Lebanon in 2026 will be to respond to the demands from the new Syrian government to turn over approximately three hundred former military leaders and financiers who fled to Lebanon when the Assad dictatorship fell in December 2024. many of those individual are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, are the subject of sanctions, have French arrest warrants or INTERPOL Red Notices outstanding against them. They should be removed to Syria, or to those countries seeking them, to be tried for their crimes.

Complicating the Lebanese process is that some of these Syrian military and civilian leaders are living under the physical and legal protection of Hezbollah, and live in areas under de facto Hezbollah control, especially in HERMEL. Their removal is a problem that demands a solution, if Lebanon is ever to free itself from the influence of both Iran and Hezbollah.Compliance officers at EU financial institution should be on special alert for new bank clients, claiming to be refugees from Lebanon, who in truth and in fact are indeed Syrian bad actors wanted for their crimes.

 Some fugitive Syrian financiers now resident inside Lebanon pose a direct threat to the new Syrian government, as they are said to be funding actions designed to disrupt the new administration, and they as well might appear at your bank, seeking to open accounts.

These individuals will of course have legitimate Lebanese identification, even showing them as lawful residents, but their Arabic will not have the slang, cultural expressions, vocabulary and grammar of native Lebanese Levantine Arabic, which is distinct from that of Syria. Your Arabic speakers working in New Accounts should be briefed on assessing whether your new "Lebanese" customer is actually something entirely; watch for them.

SAINT KITTS AND THE BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS; RAMADA CLOSED AND ABANDONED BY CARIBBEAN GALAXY, WHICH TOOK PASSPORTS AND CASH AND LEFT

Kittitians are reporting that the RAMADA BY WYNDHAM ST. KITTS RESORT, a Caribbean Galaxy Group property, has been abandoned, and is closed and deserted. Travel websites describe "PERMANENTLY CLOSED." Galaxy, which diverted an estimated two billion (USD$2bn) dollars out of the SKN Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport sales program, sold thousands of passports, without due diligence qualification, to dodgy Chinese buyers, some of whom have been arrested in the United States and elsewhere, for fraud, money laundering and industrial espionage, after liberally spreading bribes and kickbacks among Saint Kitts most senior politicians. 

The promised extensive employment of locals never materialized, and hotel guests stopped coming when water was turned off, and hotel services disappeared.There are areas of the country dotted with the corpses of incomplete building construction shells, some showing no more than the foundation, all failed CBI projects that were supposed to bring prosperity to the Eastern Caribbean state. In some districts, they resemble bombed-out remnants of some forgotten war. The local Labour government, satiated with the proceeds of corruption, will do nothing to bring the executives from the now absent Chinese-owned CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP to justice.

The losers here are clearly the people of Saint Kitts, who were promised that the CBI program would increase their standard of living, bring a rush of foreign tourists to the island, and make the place a favored destination, due to the completion of upscale resorts and hotels. Instead, infected from the start by millions in bribes and kickbacks paid to local leaders, it has been an utter failure, and an abject lesson for all jurisdictions that believe that CBI will be the answer to funding their dysfunctional, bloated economies, by delivering the proverbial pot of gold to their treasuries.

Here, CBI = fraud, money laundering and corruption, and constitutes an utter failure for the people it was intended to benefit, thanks to Chinese companies stealing its funding, providing passports for international criminals, and taking the money to Hong Kong, all facilitated by the national leadership.