The opposition United Workers Party (UWP) is calling for urgent action to address crime following the United States’ decision to raise its travel advisory for Saint Lucia to Level 2, warning American citizens to exercise increased caution because of violent crime.
The updated advisory, issued by the U.S. State Department on July 10, 2026, adds a specific crime indicator to the warning and states that violent crime can occur anywhere on the island.
It notes that U.S. citizens and other foreign visitors have been victims of armed robbery, assault, burglary and rape, adding that, “In some cases, U.S. citizens have been killed.”
Responding to the revised advisory this week, UWP Second Deputy Leader Dominic Fedee said the Government must move quickly to restore confidence in Saint Lucia’s reputation as a tourism destination.
“The United Workers’ Party believes that given how much Mexico and other destinations in the Caribbean have had to spend exorbitant sums to prop up their brands and improve their brands, that the government of Saint Lucia need to move swiftly to alleviate the situation, to cause the United States and the State Department to reverse their advisory,” Fedee said.
“But more importantly, we must act swiftly on the chronic crime situation that is affecting our country.”
Fedee argued that investments in police infrastructure and resources alone have not produced the desired results.
“The government cannot continue to say that they are building more police stations. The government cannot continue to say that they are giving police additional resources,” he said.
“All of those things have proven to be futile if the political will and if a coherent plan does not exist for crime fighting.”
He said the worsening security situation affects not only visitors but also residents.
“So now, we in the opposition are forced to sound our voices again. We are forced to sound the alarm that our country, more importantly for those of us who live here, have not been safe for a very long time.”
Fedee also renewed the party’s call for a bipartisan national approach to tackling crime, involving a broad cross-section of society.
He proposed bringing together “churches, credit unions, civil society groups, community groups, the opposition,” noting that during the tenure of former National Security Minister Hermangild Francis, “the now Prime Minister in his capacity as Leader of the Opposition actually did attend and make representation on behalf of the opposition.”
“Because there are certain things that you cannot politicize,” Fedee said.
“There are certain things that we need to come together and there needs to be a bipartisan approach on this matter going forward.”
Acknowledging that a previous request for collaboration had not been acted upon, he nevertheless appealed to the Government to take the lead.
“So at the risk of our call being thrown in the dustbin like our letter a few years ago, we reach out again and we ask the government to take the lead and to call us together to a meeting so that we can put our heads together to solve the perennial crime situation affecting the country.”
Former UWP candidate for Babonneau, Titus Preville, also argued that the responsibility for initiating a united response rests with the Government.
“With respect to the question I was asked about how genuine the opposition is, first of all it is the responsibility of the government to do what it needs to do to bring all parties together to deal with the crime problem,” Preville said.
“If the opposition is not genuine the people will find out, the people will see. The government’s job, however, is to invite them and then the public is going to judge for itself whether the opposition was genuine in its desire to see a reduction in crime.”
“But it begins with the government taking the initiative, so let us put that to rest,” he added.
Preville said the U.S. advisory specifically identified the types of criminal activity affecting the island and warned of the potential impact on Saint Lucia’s tourism industry.
“What we’re seeing is the US government has cited specific types of crime that it is advising its citizens exist in Saint Lucia and that they should not move to come to our country, our biggest market, the United States now.”
“What we have is a situation where we have an environment, an environment of lawlessness,” he said.
The revised advisory comes as Saint Lucia continues to grapple with rising levels of violent crime, an issue that has generated increasing public concern and renewed debate over national security policies.