Dominica Defense Force
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Dominica Defense Force
The Dominica Defense Forces (DDF) was the military of the Commonwealth of Dominica. There has been no standing army in Dominica since 1981, following the disbandment of the defence forces after two violent coup attempts against Dame Eugenia Charles. Defense is the responsibility of the Regional Security System (RSS). History By the 1960s, the police were the only security force in the country. As a result, a Volunteer Defence Force was established in 1974. In November 1975, a full-time Defence Force was established by an act of the House of Assembly to replace the Volunteer Defence Force, headed by Patrick John as Minister of Security. In March 1981, Charles announced the discovery of a coup d'état attempt known as Operation Red Dog, which involved Major Frederick Newton, the head of the Defence Force. A month later, parliament disbanded the Defence Force. Modern defense The civil Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force includes a Special Service Unit and Coast Guard. In th ...
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Dominica Coast Guard Patrol Boat Lugay 160606-G-BX086-003 (cropped)
Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. Dominica's closest neighbours are two constituent territories of the European Union, both overseas departments of France: Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Dominica comprises a land area of , and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census. The island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century. The Kalinago displaced the Arawak by the 15th century. Christopher Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493. It was later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French trafficked slaves from West Africa to Dominica to work on coffee plantations. Gr ...
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Standing Army
A standing army is a permanent, often professional, army. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts. It differs from army reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only during wars or natural disasters, and temporary armies, which are raised from the civilian population only during a war or threat of war, and disbanded once the war or threat is over. Standing armies tend to be better equipped, better trained, and better prepared for emergencies, defensive deterrence, and particularly, wars. Wills, Garry (1999). ''A Necessary Evil, A History of American Distrust of Government'' New York, N.Y.; Simon & Schuster. The term dates from approximately 1600, although the phenomenon it describes is much older. History Ancient history Mesopotamia Sargon of Akkad, the founder of the  Akkadian Empire, is believed to have formed the first standing professional army. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (ruled 745–727 BC) cre ...
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Dominica
Dominica, officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. It is part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. Dominica's closest neighbours are two Special member state territories and the European Union, constituent territories of the European Union, both overseas departments of France: Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Dominica comprises a land area of , and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census. The island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century. The Kalinago displaced the Arawak by the 15th century. Christopher Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493. It was later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French trafficked slaves from W ...
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Eugenia Charles
Dame Mary Eugenia Charles (15 May 1919 – 6 September 2005) was a Dominican politician who was Prime Minister of Dominica from 21 July 1980 until 14 June 1995. The first female lawyer in Dominica, she was Dominica's first, and to date only, female prime minister. She was the second female prime minister in the Caribbean after Lucina da Costa of the Netherlands Antilles. She was the first female in the Americas to be elected in her own right as head of government. She served for the second longest period of any Dominican prime minister, and was the world's fourth longest-serving female prime minister, behind Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka and Indira Gandhi of India. She was also described as the " Iron Lady of the Caribbean". Personal life 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 "J. B." Charles and Josephine Charles ( Delauney), t ...
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Regional Security System
The Regional Security System (RSS) is an international agreement for the defence and security of the eastern Caribbean region with expansion into South America beginning. History The Regional Security System was created in 1982 to counter threats to the stability of the region in the late 1970s and early 1980s. On 29 October, four members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Barbados to provide for "mutual assistance on request". The signatories agreed to prepare contingency plans and assist one another, on request, in national emergencies, prevention of smuggling, search and rescue, immigration control, fishery protection, customs and excise control, maritime policing duties, protection of off-shore installations, pollution control, national and other disasters, and threats to national security. Saint Kitts and Nevis joined following inde ...
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House Of Assembly Of Dominica
The House of Assembly is the legislature of Dominica. It is established by Chapter III of the Constitution of Dominica, and together with the President of Dominica constitutes Dominica's Parliament. The House is unicameral, and consists of twenty-one Representatives, nine senators, and the Attorney General as an ''ex officio'' member. The List of Speakers of the House of Assembly of Dominica, Speaker of the House becomes the thirty-second member if chosen from outside the membership of the House. Representatives are directly elected in single-member Constituencies of Dominica, constituencies using the simple-majority (or first-past-the-post) system for a term of five years. The Representatives in turn decide whether the senators are to be elected by their vote, or appointed. If appointed, five are chosen by the president with the advice of the Prime Minister of Dominica, Prime Minister and four with the advice of the Leader of the Opposition (Dominica), Leader of the Opposition. ...
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Patrick John
Patrick Roland John (7 January 1938 – 6 July 2021) was the first Prime Minister of Dominica as well as its last Premier. He led Dominica to independence from the United Kingdom. He was leader of the Waterfront and Allied Workers' Union and mayor of Roseau before being elected to the legislature in 1970. He became Premier in 1974 following the resignation of Edward Oliver LeBlanc. After mass protest forced him to resign, John unsuccessfully attempted in 1981 to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Eugenia Charles with the backing of white supremacist groups (in what became dubbed "Operation Red Dog"). As a result, he was jailed for twelve years, of which he served five years. On 6 July 2021, John died at the Dominica China Friendship Hospital in Roseau, Dominica, at the age of 83. Premiership (1974–1978) John was elected to the House of Assembly from Roseau North Electoral District / Roseau North Constituency from 1 November 1970. He was appointed Deputy Premier and M ...
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Coup D'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to power through legal means, tries to stay in power through illegal means. By one estimate, there were 457 coup attempts from 1950 to 2010, half of which were successful. Most coup attempts occurred in the mid-1960s, but there were also large numbers of coup attempts in the mid-1970s and the early 1990s. Coups occurring in the post-Cold War period have been more likely to result in democratic systems than Cold War coups, though coups still mostly perpetuate authoritarianism. Many factors may lead to the occurrence of a coup, as well as determine the success or failure of a coup. Once a coup is underway, coup success is driven by coup-makers' ability to get others to believe that the coup attempt will be successful. The number of successful cou ...
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Operation Red Dog
Operation Red Dog was the code name of an April 27, 1981, military filibustering plot by Canadian and American citizens, largely affiliated with white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan groups, to overthrow the government of Dominica. They planned to restore former Prime Minister Patrick John to power. The chief figures included American Klansman Mike Perdue, German-Canadian neo-Nazi Wolfgang Droege, American white supremacist Don Black and Barbadian weapons smuggler Sydney Burnett-Alleyne. After the plot was thwarted by US federal agents in New Orleans, Louisiana, the news media dubbed it "Bayou of Pigs", after the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. The leader Mike Perdue and six other men pleaded guilty to violation of the Neutrality Act; two others were found guilty by a jury. The men each received three-year prison sentences. Another man linked to the plot, a lawyer named J.W. Kirkpatrick, committed suicide after being implicated as a financier. Perdue claimed for ...
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Frederick Newton
Frederick Newton (1951 – 8 August 1986) was the head of the Dominica Defence Force (DDF) from its independence in 1978 to 1981. He was executed in 1986 for organising an attempted coup d'état in 1981 that resulted in the death of a police officer. Newton was trained by the Guyana Defence Force. In January 1983, Newton and five of his soldiers received death sentences by a Dominica court for organising and participating in the failed 1981 coup aimed at overthrowing Prime Minister Eugenia Charles. (The coup attempt was unrelated to Operation Red Dog, which was organised by former Prime Minister Patrick John.) The five soldiers' sentences were eventually commuted to life imprisonment, but in 1986, Newton became the only person to be executed by Dominica since its independence from the United Kingdom, when he was hanged in Roseau. References *Associated Press"Ex-Commander Hanged For Dominica Coup Role" ''New York Times'', 1986-08-09 *Roberto Bissio (1997). ''The World Gui ...
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Police
The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers encompass arrest and the use of force legitimized by the state via the monopoly on violence. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the Law enforcement agency powers, police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usua ...
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