CHESTER SAM­BRA­NO

Lead Ed­i­tor – News­gath­er­ing

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine has con­firmed the pass­ing of Ho­choy Charles.

In a post on Face­book Au­gus­tine said:

“At 4:26 am on the last day of the year 2023, we lost one of our best fight­ers. You were a true pa­tri­ot. You be­lieved in the dream for To­ba­go’s au­ton­o­my, so much so, that while I was vis­it­ing you in the hos­pi­tal, you were more con­cerned about the fight for au­ton­o­my than your own health.”

In a THA Ex­ec­u­tive Coun­cil me­dia group, Au­gus­tine said he tried for months to con­vince Charles to get med­ical help. 

“I even showed up at his home with am­bu­lance and doc­tors try­ing to con­vince him. He on­ly came at the last minute. Wish I could have done more to pro­long his life,” Au­gus­tine re­vealed.

Charles be­came To­ba­go’s first Chief Sec­re­tary in De­cem­ber 1996, and served un­til Jan­u­ary 2001.

In No­vem­ber this year, res­i­dents of Old Ground Branch Trace, Gold­en Lane, led by their rep­re­sen­ta­tive Zor­isha Hack­ett, ho­n­oured Ho­choy Charles who al­so resided there, by re­nam­ing the street af­ter him.  

The area is now known as Ho­choy Charles Heights in recog­ni­tion of his con­tri­bu­tions to the is­land’s pol­i­tics and au­ton­o­my ef­forts.