You're right, but I was thinking along the lines of island mentality. My daughter married a local, and those people stick together for no good reason. Lying is a large part of their innerds.
What I think we're seeing in Aruba's reaction to Beth is what Erich Fromm called "nationalism as collective or group narcissism" (paraphrasing).
The people of Aruba are saying in essence, the people of Aruba are important but non-Arubans have less or no value. You can see the same thing in Muslim extremism--cutting across national lines but having the common thread of fundamental Islam. "We are important, but you are pigs and monkeys."
The narcissism thing is particularly easy to spot in Arubans (and, again, in Muslim extremists). The narcissist, being totally concerned with only "self," reacts to painful events in life by saying:
MY pain.
MY discomfort
MY sadness or fear.
And we hear that now in Aruba..."me, me, me." Nothing about poor Nat and her family. Just "me."
In the case of Aruba, I think it results from the business (tourism) they are in and Aruba's being an insular little island. They see outsiders as having much less value than locals.
I think the reason Islam is narcissistic is that examination of self leads to an examination of one's beliefs...and that is blasphemy. Similarly, Arubans are probably disinclined to examine themselves for fear of learning the truth about Aruba (the money laundering, the attitudes of bias toward outsider, the prevelence of drugs). I was at first surprised by the attitudes of Jurine's mother and the mother of the Kalpoes..."my boy(s) is/are good boy(s), he/they couldn't have done anything wrong." Strong denial. Almost blind and childlike defense of self.
Same for Arubans collective attitude toward their legal system.
All vy strange.