( Trinidad Newsday Opinion ) SOMETHING troubling is happening in Antigua. People are going missing without a trace or explanation. Over the past decade, the list has become longer and longer. Dozens are involved. In 2013, a 24-year-old daughter disappeared. In 2017, a tourist went missing.
In 2018, a 19-year-old son failed to turn up at a family gathering. Cases have even seen people vanish in public places: a 74-year-old woman who entered the Mount St John Medical Centre for routine tests in 2019 cannot be found.
Into this bizarre maelstrom of mystery has been sucked Trinidad and Tobago national Thomas Vasquez, 21, whose perplexing case, it was confirmed on May 5, is engaging the attention of the new Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, Sean Sobers.
Mr Sobers, in one of his first official acts, has instructed civil servants to seek vital updates. Such updates cannot come soon enough.
Mr Vasquez has been unaccounted for since April 15.
Action by Antiguan police seemed to come to a head only on April 30, when a man and woman were taken into custody and a farm on which the missing person worked was searched. In the intervening period, there was silence.
At one point, despite an official report and a prominent radio personality’s advocacy, police claimed to be unaware of the case. Distraught relatives in Trinidad have taken to social media; people making enquiries on their behalf say they have been met with hostility.
It is all part of a pattern.
“We have a problem,” said Mary John, a community activist and representative of the Concerned Citizens Group of Antigua, in an interview with this newspaper on May 3.
“I’m not certain if our police are overwhelmed or if it’s something else, but what I do know is that we need help. The FBI, Caricom – we need help bringing closure.” We agree.
Rumours are spreading. The theories range from the banal (such as the idea that the police force on an island with fewer than 100,000 people is overwhelmed; there is no DNA lab) to the baroque (some whisper about an illicit organ trade).
The idyllic, untouched conditions that make Antigua a world-class tourist destination seem also to harbour a darker reality: the dense bush that blankets the land, coupled with the fact that it, famously, has 365 beaches, provides the perfect cover for all manner of activity.
This, in a destination that is a playground for yachts and the rich and the famous. P Diddy and the late Silvio Berlusconi are reported to have had properties there.
Officials in Antigua undoubtedly need to communicate better. But more than this, minister Sobers’ intervention must be the start of a wider, regional effort for the sake of the families grappling with agonising uncertainty.
