Neville Cenac is a politician in Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...

. He is best known for serving as the country's foreign minister from 1987 to 1992.

Family

Cenac was the brother of the late Winston Cenac

Winston Cenac

Winston Francis Cenac, Q.C. was a civil servant and politician from Saint Lucia. He was the third elected Prime Minister of independent Saint Lucia....

, who served as prime minister of Saint Lucia for eight months from 1981 to 1982.

Opposition parliamentarian

Cenac was the leader of the opposition Saint Lucia Labour Party

Saint Lucia Labour Party

The Saint Lucia Labour Party is a social democratic political party in Saint Lucia. It currently holds ten of the 17 seats in the House of Assembly.-History:...

 in December 1982, during a constitutional dispute over the status of Governor-General Boswell Williams

Boswell Williams

Boswell Williams was a Saint Lucian politician who represented the district of Vieux Fort in the legislature from 1974 to 1979. He was chosen by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom to carry out the position of Governor-General of the island on June 19, 1980, replacing Sir Allen Montgomery...

. John Compton

John Compton

Sir John George Melvin Compton, KBE, PC was the first, fifth and eighth Prime Minister of Saint Lucia in 1979, from 1982 to 1996, and from 2006 until his death. Compton, who previously led Saint Lucia under British rule from 1964 to 1979, was the country's first leader when it became independent...

, the serving prime minister and a member of the governing United Workers Party

United Workers Party (Saint Lucia)

The United Workers Party is a conservative political party in Saint Lucia, led by Prime Minister Stephenson King and previously by John Compton.-History:...

, had taken steps to have Williams unseated. In response, Cenac wrote a letter to Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

, the monarch of Saint Lucia

Monarchy of Saint Lucia

The monarchy of Saint Lucia is a system of government in which a hereditary, constitutional monarch is the sovereign of Saint Lucia. The present monarch of Saint Lucia is Queen Elizabeth II. Saint Lucia share the Sovereign with a number of Commonwealth realms...

, asking her to disregard Compton's actions. The dispute ended when Williams resigned on December 13, 1982.

Cenac was returned as a Labour Party member of the Saint Lucian parliament

Parliament of Saint Lucia

The Parliament of Saint Lucia has two chambers.*the House of Assembly has 17 members, elected for a five year term in single-seat constituencies.*the Senate has 11 appointed members....

 during the country's two successive elections in April 1987.

The website of the Saint Lucia Labour Party indicates that Cenac was elected for the Laborie constituency in two elections as well as representing the party at the municipal level in Castries

Castries

Castries , population 10,634, aggl. 37,963 , is the capital city of Saint Lucia, a country in the Caribbean. The district with the same name had a population of 61,341 in 2001-05-22, and stretches over an area of ....

.

Cabinet minister

Cenac changed his political affiliation on June 2, 1987, joining the United Workers Party group in parliament and becoming the country's foreign minister. When asked why he changed sides, Cenac simply responded, "broken promises." The change increased the Workers Party's legislative majority from one vote (9-8) to three votes (10-7).

Cenac spoke before the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations General Assembly

For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...

 in October 1987, saying that Saint Lucia was considering political union with other small Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 nations. He argued that quality of life issues could be improved if the region no longer had to support "seven governors-general, seven prime ministers, [and] 60 ministers for a total population for about 500,000." Cenac also accused Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

 of threatening the sovereignty of Belize

Belize

Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...

.

In August 1989, Cenac and other Caribbean foreign ministers met with Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

an general Prosper Avril

Prosper Avril

Prosper Avril is a Haitian political figure who was President of Haiti from 1988 to 1990. A trusted member of François Duvalier's Presidential Guard and adviser to Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lt. Gen. Avril led the September 1988 Haitian coup d'état against a transition military government installed...

 on the subject of future elections in the country.

Cenac served as foreign minister until 1992. He was later president of the Senate of Saint Lucia

Senate of Saint Lucia

The Legislature has two chambers. The upper house is the Senate with 11 appointed members.The Government Senators are:* Allen Chastanet* Guy Mayers* Gale T. C. Rigobert* Charlotte Mangal* Lorenzo FrancisThe Opposition Senators are:* Emma Hippolyte...

.