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Grenadines Encyclopedia
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The Grenada Revolution
Independance
Independence was granted in 1974 under the leadership of the then Premier Sir Eric Matthew Gairy, who became the first Prime Minister of Grenada. Eric Gairy's government became increasingly authoritarian and dictatorial, prompting a coup d'?tat in March 1979 by the charismatic and popular left-wing leader of the New Jewel Movement, Maurice Bishop.
Maurice Bishop
Read the special article about Maurice Bishop. Bishop's failure to allow elections, coupled with his Marxist-Leninist socialism and cooperation with communist Cuba did not sit well with the country's neighbours, including Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Dominica and the United States. A power struggle developed between Bishop and a majority of the ruling People's Revolutionary Government (PRG), including the co-founder of the NJM, Bernard Coard. This led to Bishop's house arrest; he and many others were eventually executed at Fort George on October 19, 1983.
The invasion
Six days later, the island was invaded by forces from the United States purportedly at the behest of Dame Eugenia Charles, of Dominica. Five other Caribbean nations participated with Dominica and the USA in the campaign, called Operation Urgent Fury.
Although the Governor-General, Sir Paul Scoon later stated that he had requested the invasion, the governments of the United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago expressed anger at having not been consulted. The forces quickly captured the ringleaders and hundreds of Cuban "advisors" (most of whom were labourers working on the construction of a major airport for the island).
The American Involvement
Grenada is more than 1,000 miles further away from the US mainland compared to Cuba, but was felt to be a substantial threat to the US. A publicised tactical concern of the United States was the safe recovery of U.S. nationals enrolled at St. George's University. However, it should be noted that the island of Grenada could have become a corner of a triangle comprised also of Cuba and Nicaragua, both also declared enemies of US interests at that time. Some claim these three countries could have militarily controlled the deep water passages, thereby controlling the movement of oil from Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago (supplies then considered vital by US military planners). But this rationale was not asserted as a justification of armed invasion.
Read here about Operation Urgent Fury
After the invasion, United States gave $48.4 million in economic assistance to Grenada in 1984, and the CIA secretly spent $650,000 to aid a pro-American candidate in that year's election.[1]
The Grenada Seventeen
Seventeen members of the PRG and the PRA (army) were convicted via a Court set up and financed by the USA. Fourteen were sentenced to death, eventually commuted to life imprisonment after an international campaign. Another 3 were sentenced to 45 years in prison. These 17 have become known as the Grenada 17, and are the subject of an ongoing international campaign for their release. In October 2003 Amnesty International issued a Report which stated that their arrest and trial had been a miscarriage of justice. The 17 have protested their innocence consistently since 1983.
The campaign for justice for the 17 is the subject of a 60 minute documentary "Prisoners of the Cold War" (UK, 2006, www.silvercityfilms.co.uk), which explores the idea that the continued confinement of the 17 reflects the post-traumatic state of the island as a whole. Hence that the islanders, as well as the 17, remain frozen as emotional "prisoners" of the Cold War.
In 2000-2002 much of the controversy of the late 1970s and early 1980s was once again brought into the public consciousness with the opening of the truth and reconciliation commission. The commission was chaired by a Catholic priest, Father Mark Haynes, and was tasked with uncovering injustices arising from the PRA, Bishop's regime, and before. It held a number of hearings around the country. The commission was formed, bizarrely, because of a school project. Brother Robert Fanovich, head of Presentation Brothers' College (PBC) in St. George's tasked some of his senior students with conducting a research project into the era and specifically into the fact that Maurice Bishop's body was never discovered. Their project attracted a great deal of attention, including from the Miami Herald and the final report was published in a book written by the boys called Big Sky, Little Bullet. It also uncovered that there was still a lot of resentment in Grenadian society resulting from the era, and a feeling that there were many injustices still unaddressed. The commission began shortly after the boys concluded their project.
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