St Lucia’s former Governor General , Sir Neville Cenac, dies

Sir Neville Cenac, who served as the is­land’s Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al and For­eign Min­is­ter, died on Tues­day at the age of 86.

He was Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al from Jan­u­ary 12, 2018, to Oc­to­ber 31, 2021, un­der a Unit­ed Work­ers Par­ty (UWP) ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Cenac was pre­vi­ous­ly a mem­ber of the Saint Lu­cia Labour Par­ty (SLP) and served as leader of the op­po­si­tion in 1982.

In the 1987 elec­tions, he won two seats rep­re­sent­ing the Labour Par­ty. He lat­er joined the Unit­ed Work­ers Par­ty (UWP), help­ing it se­cure 9 seats com­pared to the SLP’s 8. While with the SLP, Cenac of­ten crit­i­cised what he de­scribed as the UWP leader’s au­thor­i­tar­i­an style.

Af­ter switch­ing par­ties, Sir John Comp­ton ap­point­ed him as Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs, a po­si­tion he held un­til 1992.

Cenac’s de­ci­sion to change par­ties, which in­spired sev­er­al pop­u­lar ca­lyp­sos, re­mains one of the most con­tro­ver­sial mo­ments in Saint Lu­cia’s po­lit­i­cal his­to­ry.

In 2024, he pub­lished his au­to­bi­og­ra­phy, “C’est L’huere – Cross­ing the Di­vide”, say­ing it would set the record straight about po­lit­i­cal events from 1961, when he joined the SLP, to 1992.

CAS­TRIES, St. Lu­cia, Jun. 4, CMC

CMC/sl/kb/2026