Eugenia Charles

Dame Mary Eugenia Charles (15 May 1919 – 6 September 2005) was a Dominican politician who served as the prime minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. She was the first woman lawyer in Dominica. After being nominated to a seat in the House of Assembly of Dominica and subsequently serving as leader of the opposition, she became Dominica's first, and to date only, woman prime minister.

She is best known for her actions during the leadup to the United States invasion of Grenada, when she appealed to the US for intervention. She was also known for her efforts to attract foreign aid and her initiation of the Dominica citizenship by investment programme. She was known as the "Iron Lady of the Caribbean" and nicknamed "Mamo Charles".

Early life and career Eugenia Charles was born on 15 May 1919, in the fishing village of Pointe Michel in Saint Luke Parish, Dominica. She was the daughter of John Baptiste Charles and Josephine Charles ( Delauney), and the youngest of four children. Her family was considered part of the "colored bourgoisie", descendants of free people of color who had become wealthy landowners. Her father was a mason who became a wealthy landowner and had business interests in export-import. He also served as Mayor of Roseau and as a Senator for Dominica.

On her first day of school, she refused to sit in her assigned seat, instead sitting next to her playmate; London School of Economics librarian Sonia Gomes posits that this is characteristic of her "lifelong determination". She attended the Convent High School in Roseau, which was then the island's only girls' secondary school, and St Joseph's Convent in Grenada. Charles attended the University of Toronto in Canada, receiving her LL.B. in 1947. She then moved to the United Kingdom to attend the London School of Economics, where she earned her LL.M. in 1949. She was an honorary member of the sorority Sigma Gamma Rho. She trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in London in 1947. She also worked as a director of the Dominican Cooperative Bank, which had been established by her father, and instituted the country's first student loan scheme. She took over from Oliver Seraphin. Her first term was focused on rebuilding infrastructure and disaster management as Hurricane David had hit Dominica on 29 August 1979. Minister of Finance from 1980 to 1995, and as chairperson of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in 1983.

In 1981, she faced two attempted coups d'état. In April 1981, a group of Canadian and American mercenaries, mostly affiliated with white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan groups, planned a coup, codenamed Operation Red Dog, to restore former Prime Minister Patrick John to power. The attempt was thwarted by American federal agents in New Orleans, Louisiana. That same year in November Frederick Newton, commander of the Military of Dominica, organized an attack on the police headquarters in Roseau, during which a police officer was killed. Newton and five other soldiers were found guilty in the attack and sentenced to death in 1983. The sentences of the five accomplices were later commuted to life in prison, but Newton was executed in 1986. thumb alt=Charles, Ronald Reagan, George Shultz, and Robert Mcfarlane sittingCharles became more widely known to the outside world for her role in the lead-up to the United States Invasion of Grenada on 25 October 1983. In the wake of the arrest and execution of Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, Charles, then serving as chair of the OECS, appealed to the United States for intervention. to support the idea that her appeal for help was "one region" asking for support and not an invasion. Journalist Bob Woodward reported that the U.S. paid millions of dollars to the Dominica government, some of which was regarded by the Central Intelligence Agency as a "payoff", for Charles's support of the intervention. Historians David Milne and Christopher Nichols attributed this decision to a broader plan by Charles to get the United States to pay more attention to the Caribbean. The intervention led to unrest, however, and was condemned 108-9 by the United Nations.

She was re-elected in the 1985 general election, during which time she also served as Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Economic Affairs. She was also re-elected in the 1990 general election. In 1994, she declared a state of emergency in Dominica due to unrest after her government raised motor vehicle license fees.

Charles and her party have been considered conservatives. However, The Independent argues that this conservatism was merely "nominal", due to her work on anti-corruption laws, economic reform, and equal rights for women, which she began immediately after her election. For her uncompromising stance on these and other issues, she became known as the "Iron Lady of the Caribbean" (after the original "Iron Lady", Margaret Thatcher). She was also known as "Mamo Charles". It was the second-oldest citizenship by investment program in the Caribbean, after Saint Kitts and Nevis. That same year, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

She was seen as a strong advocate for the island's banana industry. In 1992, she advocated for quotas for African, Caribbean, and Pacific bananas to counter the strength of Latin bananas. She once stated, however, that bananas and politics do not mix. She also became known for her efforts to attract foreign aid, which resulted in new schools, hospitals, power lines, roads, and airports, as well as a strengthened tourist industry.

On 30 August 2005, Charles entered a hospital in Fort-de-France, Martinique, for hip-replacement surgery. She died from a pulmonary embolism on 6 September, at the age of 86. Her papers are also being integrated into the Nita Barrow Women and Development Specialist Collection at the University of the West Indies, together with those of Nita Barrow. Historians Eudine Barriteau and Alan Gregor Cobley have argued her public image as a "commanding, charismatic" figure has overshadowed assessments of her accomplishments.

She was the first woman prime minister in the Caribbean She served for the second longest period of any Dominican prime minister.