'I don't make it bother me'
- Charles Sr downplays land dispute’s role in daughter’s electoral loss - Retired politician says hotel investors being sought for development in 2026
Published:Sunday | September 21, 2025 | 2:19 PMKimone Francis - Senior Staff Reporter
A decades-long dispute between retired politician Pearnel Charles Sr and residents in Old Pera, St Thomas, has flared up once again, sparking verbal confrontations and threats of displacement.
The land in question, an 1,100-acre stretch along the eroding shoreline at the eastern end of the parish, has a history tied to sugarcane cultivation. However, residents, many of whom have lived and farmed the land for over two decades, told The Sunday Gleaner that they have farmed these areas for their livelihoods.
Just days before the September 3, 2025 general election, Charles Sr reportedly visited the area and issued a verbal notice to residents, including two individuals operating a chicken coop and a carwash on the land.
“Him a one of them who make him daughter lose. The land her father come a curse ‘bout,” said Neil Wheeler, a livestock farmer, referring to Dr Michelle Charles’ failed re-election bid as the The Sunday Gleaner visited the area two days after the election.
“The coop over there suh, the few likkle cows weh we have yah, him a seh him a give we a few months fi come off. All along him nuh come say that to we, you know, but him pass through yah and see the orange, orange ‘bout the place. That is the reason the man come to we with them type of argument,” he added.
He confirmed that a considerable number of residents in the sleepy, rural district, have largely voted for the opposition People’s National Party (PNP), calling this a trigger for Charles Sr.
Wheeler, who has been raising cattle and chickens on the land for 12 years, explained that the property was passed down to him from his father and grandfather, both of whom also farmed the area. He said the two raised goats and managed a hog pen.
No intention of relocating
Unwavering, Wheeler stated that he has no intention of relocating.
“All him do a fight, fight for the land dem ‘bout the place. A ask people who have them house, who tell them fi build pon him land. Bare land the man come yah a fight for, you know,” Wheeler said.
Carlton ‘Buggy’ Watson, another resident, claimed to have planted breadfruit trees on the land and said he had occupied it for more than two decades.
“A me plant all of dem tree here; so you know say a nuh today day this. Me have this land half before Pearnel know ‘bout here. Me get authority from the Tropicana people dem well before him come say him own land,” Watson asserted.
“So me nuh know nothing ‘bout him and land. A recently him come and a quarrel say this land a fi him. All now them cannot produce piece of paper and say this a the title or receipt. So anything them up to we up to it to; memba me tell you,” he said, emphatically.
The land, Watson added, had been the subject of periodic visits from Charles, who mentioned plans for a hotel construction project, with ground-breaking set for February.
While Charles Sr has made claims to the land, including an adjacent cay, Watson dismissed them, saying that he and his childhood friends had long swum to the small, uninhabited island.
In response, Charles Sr denied that his visit had any impact on his daughter’s electoral loss. A representative of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Dr Charles lost the battle for St Thomas Eastern to Yvonne Rose Marie Shaw of the PNP, who won by 419 votes – 7,356 to 6,937.
“It’s all rubbish! Rubbish! Everybody who on the land asks permission and are on the land. But a day before election, a man hires a tractor and clean up about quarter acre of my property and say he is going to build a house on it.
“So I went there and told him he does not have my support, he should not do so, and if he does so, I will take steps to prevent him from doing so. He has no title. Him nuh get no permission, him don’t rent it, him don’t lease it,” said Charles.
The day before the election
He confirmed that he visited the community the day before the election, but said this would not have affected his daughter’s candidacy. She served as member of parliament from September 2020 to August 2025.
“It was the day before the elections so I don’t know that it would have affected Michelle. That is how it go. They had put it on [social] media that I prevented the man from building on the land,” he said.
Wheeler, for his part, acknowledged clearing part of the land but denied any intent to build on it.
Charles Sr maintained that the dispute was partly fuelled by misinformation from a senior PNP figure, who allegedly told residents that the land didn’t belong to him, and even suggested that a black man couldn’t own it.
Charles said the residents were told that the land was owned by two British men.
“The [PNP member] tell you that is not your land, so they can do what they want. They burned down 600 acres of cane after he went out there, and turned all their cattle on the property and I don’t say anything to them,” Charles said.
“When they put their cows on it I don’t worry about it because the Ministry of Tourism has gone out there and assessed the property for hotels and investment, and an investor is being sought to build hotels next year. So I don’t make it bother me,” he said.
Sunday Gleaner research revealed that the land was owned by Governor Sir Thomas Lynch as part of Pera Estate.
It became the property of Harold James Ashwell in October 1963, according the five-page title, a copy of which was obtained by The Sunday Gleaner.
In July 1991, the more than 1,100 acres of land was transferred to Charles Sr’s wife, Gloria Charles, a nurse at the time, and daughter Patrece Charles, a then university student. Both were joint tenants who were living in Florida in the United States. The consideration money was $40,000.
Charles Sr, at that time, had just began his third and final term as the MP for St Thomas Eastern, having first won it in the 1980 general election.
Ownership of the land was subsequently transferred via gift to a company called St Thomas Farms Limited in March 2024. Charles Sr is listed as a director and shareholder of the company, Gloria is listed as the company’s secretary, a director and shareholder, along with their children Dr Charles, MP and Labour and Social Security Minister Pearnel Charles Jr, and Dr Patrece Charles. The three are listed as directors.
Nicola Waite and Madge Williams are also listed as shareholders.
The company was incorporated in March 1982 and lists its core activity as agricultural products and sales.
Checks by The Sunday Gleaner revealed that more than $3 million is owed in property taxes.
A second piece of land, spanning 11 acres and previously owned by Ashwell in Old Pera, was transferred to a now-dissolved company (1975) called Pera Limited in 1957. It was then transferred to Charles Sr’s St Thomas Farms Limited in January 1985. The considered money was $789,000.