King Charles III can't escape Britain's role in slavery as he tours the Caribbean

LONDON (AP) — For Britain’s royal family, slavery is the issue that won’t go away.

As King Charles III tours the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda over the next nine days, he will be repeatedly reminded that he is the inheritor of a throne that presided over the enslavement of millions of Africans who were shipped to the Caribbean and North America, where they worked for the profit of their owners and, ultimately, the British Empire.

Facing demands that Britain apologize and pay reparations, palace officials say Charles will reiterate previous comments that slavery was an “atrocity that forever stains our history,” while stopping short of an apology.

“It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering and injustices of the past,” the king said Tuesday at a youth rally in Nassau, the Bahamian capital.

But the language suggested by the palace won’t silence the monarchy’s critics, said Brooke Newman, the author of “The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas.”

“That is hollow,” Newman said, referring to Charles’ expected comments. “It doesn’t create dialogue. It doesn’t allow for any kind of conversation with descendants, and it absolutely does not move this issue forward. And so people are frustrated because they’re being essentially told by the government and by the king that this matter is off the table.”

In 464 heavily footnoted pages, Newman, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, details the monarchy’s links to slavery from the late 1500s through the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and the abolition of slavery in the British Empire 26 years later.

British monarchs did more than just preside over an empire where enslaved Africans were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to labor in the sugar, tobacco and cotton fields of the New World, Newman argues in her book.

As early as 1563, more than 40 years before England established its first colony in North America, Queen Elizabeth I supported sea captain John Hawkins’ plan to raid Portuguese ports on the coast of West Africa and transport captured Africans to Spanish colonies of the Caribbean. In return for lending Hawkins a Royal Navy warship, the queen received a share of the profits.

“His daring slave-trading venture enriched the royal coffers, securing Elizabeth I’s historical legacy as the first English monarch to profit directly from the transatlantic slave trade,” Newman wrote.

But Elizabeth I wasn’t the last.

Almost 100 years later, King Charles II gave the Company of Royal Adventurers into Africa, later known simply as the Royal African Company, exclusive trading rights to the west African coast. The company quickly expanded from commodities such as gold, hides and ivory into the trade in enslaved Africans.

The king and his brother, the Duke of York, who later became King James II, were among the company’s investors.

Pressure for Britain — along with the United States, Portugal, Spain and others who profited from slavery — to pay reparations has increased in recent years as Caribbean and African nations united behind the issue.

The United Nations General Assembly in March approved a resolution calling for reparatory justice, including a full apology and compensation both for the period of enslavement and for continuing harms such as reduced economic opportunity, lower income levels and shorter life expectancy for Black people in the Caribbean and the Americas. The U.K. abstained from the vote.

Charles won’t apologize during his Caribbean tour because he speaks on behalf of the elected government, not for himself, said Craig Prescott, an expert on constitutional law and the monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“It’s not a matter for the king, in that sense,” he said. “And it is the longstanding policy of the government to, yes, note that slavery happened and that it is a stain on British history, but that reparations are not payable.”

Reparations could potentially cost the U.K. hundreds of billions of pounds, so the issue is particularly sensitive for the current government, which is struggling to pay for popular social programs as the rising cost of living squeezes taxpayers.

But Charles must also think about how his comments will be received in the Caribbean and throughout the Commonwealth, which he heads.

The Commonwealth is an association of 56 independent nations, many of which are in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and were once part of the British Empire. The British monarch remains the head of state for 14 Commonwealth countries other than the U.K.

The last four days of the king’s Caribbean tour will be in Antigua and Barbuda, which is hosting a biannual meeting of Commonwealth leaders.

Hilary Beckles, the chair of the Caribbean Community's reparations commission, called on Charles to respond to the demands of Caribbean people as a human being, not as the head of the Commonwealth or the monarch of the United Kingdom.

“I’m appealing to Charles Windsor, a parent, a grandparent, a man today who reflects upon the history of his family and can see the enrichment that slavery has presented to his family,” Beckles, the vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said last week during a press briefing ahead of the king’s visit.

“The wealth he is passing on to his children and his grandchildren all came out in significant sums to this process of the chattelization of the African people,” Beckles added.

Britain and the monarchy have struggled with these issues before.

In 2007, the country marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade by celebrating the work of William Wilberforce and his allies, who spent 20 years convincing Parliament to outlaw the trade in human beings.

But when the late Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other dignitaries gathered at Westminster Abbey for a service of commemoration, the proceedings were interrupted by a Black man wearing a dashiki.

“You, the queen, should be ashamed,” Toyin Agbetu said as guards hustled him toward the exit. “You should say sorry!”

Agbetu later said that Britain’s leaders were “patting themselves on the back” for abolishing the slave trade without acknowledging the suffering slavery had caused.

That is the challenge Charles and the nation still face, Newman said.

“Even when Charles is discussing, you know, the darker days of the past and all of that, that’s just a sound bite where you’re not really digging into this history and assessing it …” she said.

“The afterlives of colonialism and slavery are still with us, so this is not something that can just be easily described in a sentence or two and then you move on.”

Britain's King Charles III deplanes at Lynden Pindling Airport in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

Britain's King Charles III is escorted by students as he leaves The Future Bahamas Youth Rally and Exhibition at Clifford Park in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

Britain's King Charles III greets Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis at The Future Bahamas Youth Rally and Exhibition at Clifford Park in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

Britain's King Charles III chats with Governor General of The Bahamas Cynthia Pratt at The Future Bahamas Youth Rally and Exhibition at Clifford Park in Nassau, Bahamas, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Tim Aylen)

MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami on Wednesday after he refused to concede the election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and fled the country.

In a circuitous journey, Bolsonaro left for Argentina on Tuesday with his wife and two daughters, then traveled to Ecuador, according to Argentina officials and flight data. The 45-year-old senator, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, visited the White House in May, and the Trump administration approved U.S. visas for him and his family this week.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court, accused of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. The court had ordered him to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

Dressed casually in a dark polo shirt and flanked by his wife and two daughters, Bolsonaro stepped out of the plane shortly after it landed in Miami about 9:30 a.m. EDT. Florida is home to the largest population of Brazilians in the U.S.

The family fled Brazil late Tuesday, entered Argentina via a border checkpoint and quickly boarded a private charter plane, Argentinian immigration officials said.

Flightradar24 showed the plane believed to be carrying Bolsonaro landed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, about 4 a.m. local time, then took off minutes later for Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport.

Before the family landed in Florida, Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, spoke to dozens of supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Bolsonaro’s route through Argentina could deepen diplomatic tensions between Lula’s government and Argentine President Javier Milei, another Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to assist in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Milei has not commented directly about Bolsonaro's defeat but Juan Pablo Carreira, a presidential spokesperson, said on social media that Milei's administration rescued Bolsonaro “from the claws of communism, which seeks to imprison all opposition figures.”

Representatives of Brazil's government have not responded to requests for comment.

Trump has said Bolsonaro is welcome in the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Tuesday. Earlier, Trump also said, without evidence, that the election was “rigged.”

Leaders around the world and the Organization of American States have endorsed the result and congratulated Lula, who was reelected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

The U.S. has imposed double-digit sanctions on Brazil, which boasts Latin America’s largest economy. Lula has championed Brazil’s long tradition of nonalignment, cultivating ties with competing powers. His government has deepened trade ties with China and sought greater global influence through BRICS, a group of emerging economies.

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the defeated candidate to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received the order outside the home where his father is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for his attempted coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.

A Brazilian diplomat who was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly told The Associated Press that Bolsonaro used an Italian passport to enter Argentina and that Brazilians leaving the country via a land border are not scrutinized by Brazilian authorities.

The diplomat said Brazil’s federal police were not monitoring Bolsonaro when he left his home in Brasilia because the Supreme Court had not issued a warrant for his arrest.

Flávio Bolsonaro said in a video Monday that he was attempting to organize opposition to the election results among his congressional colleagues. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027.

Brazil's Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In a separate case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker. Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing.

Mauricio Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Fernanda Bolsonaro along with her husband, Flávio Bolsonaro arrive at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Flávio Bolsonaro arrives at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, in Opa-locka, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Opposition presidential candidate Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro speaks after the presidential runoff in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)