CHARLES
ROSEAU, Dominica:
THE CARIBBEAN'S first female Prime Minister, Dominica's Dame Mary Eugenia Charles, died on Tuesday.
Charles, 86, died in Martinique where she had gone for surgery to repair a broken hip which she suffered from a fall, according to media reports.
Known as the Caribbean's 'Iron Lady', Charles was Prime Minister of Dominica for three terms from July 21, 1980, shortly after Dominica gained independence, to June 14, 1995.
Born May 15, 1919 in Pointe Michel to a political family, Dame Eugenia was also the Commonwealth Caribbean's first female attorney-at-law.
She entered politics during the 1960s campaigning against restrictions on press freedom. She helped to found the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP), which she led from the early 1970s until 1995. She was elected to Parliament in 1970 and became Opposition Leader in 1975. She and her party were characterised as conservative relative to her fellow, largely left-leaning, leaders in the Caribbean, though her policies were typical of the region's socialist democratic governments.
Dame Eugenia was instrumental in galvanising the support of the United States for a military intervention in Grenada to end the coup that toppled the Maurice Bishop regime in October 1983. She faced strong criticism for supporting the invasion, but told The Associated Press in a 1995 interview that "the Grenadians wanted it, and that's all that counts. I don't care what the rest of the world thinks."
Britain's Queen Elizabeth made her a dame in 1991.
Charles practised law for a couple of decades before the ruling Labour Party passed a law banning criticism of government, which she labelled the "shut-your-mouth bill." The measure prompted her entry into politics, she said.
BATHING SUIT PROTEST
After forming the Freedom Party, she was elected an assemblywoman - once wearing a bathing suit in the House to protest a dress code for legislators.
She was elected Prime Minister in 1980, two years after Dominica declared independence from Britain. She survived two early coup attempts and had one man hanged for treason, Dominica's first execution in 13 years. She retired from politics after her second term in 1995.
Charles, who had said she never met anyone she wanted to marry, lived with her father until he died in 1983 at the age of 107. She is survived by two brothers.
Taken from the Associated Press and the Caribbean Media Corporation.
