Today, March 13th marks the anniversary of the nearly bloodless coup in 1979. The Prime Minister, Eric Gairy, had an iron-fisted rule that would utilize many common recurring themes across Latin America: corruption, fear, torture, violence. Gairy employed the Mongoose Gang - his secret police that was supplied by Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (another brutal dictator installed by the US).
This was a socialist revolution called the New Jewel Movement. In just four years its massive literacy program complete with new schools was flourishing with unemployment dropping from 49 to 14 percent. Unemployed youth from the countryside were to put work in agricultural cooperatives. The billboards went from promoting smokes and booze to public service slogans mostly around education: "Each One, teach One", "If You Know, Teach; If You Don’t, Learn,” and “Education Is Production, Too.”
Cuba offered its aid: teachers, health care professionals, and construction on a new, safe international airport that replaced the dangerous strip in the mountains.
Life in this tiny island nation went from one out of fear to opportunity with many of its residents receiving access to basic human rights that were rarely afforded to them previously.
And then on October 25th, 1983 at dawn the United States troops sent by Ronald Reagan under the guise of Soviet-Cuban alliances building up military infrastructure via the airport arrived. The new PM had previously invited anyone to inspect the facilities and Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA) had taken him up on the offer:
"Based on my personal observations, discussion, and analysis of the new international airport under construction in Grenada, it is my conclusion that this project is specifically now and has always been for the purpose of economic development and is not for military use…. It is my thought that it is absurd, patronizing, and totally unwarranted for the United States government to charge that this airport poses a military threat to the United States' national security."
The PM was detained, put on house arrest and escaped through mass protests. He was massively popular for everything had done to improve life there. He was then captured and murdered by firing squad. Many others were murdered as well and a curfew was in place with a dire warning that anyone on the streets would also be murdered.
The UN's reaction to the US backed military coup (via Wikipedia):
The United Nations General Assembly adopted General Assembly Resolution 38/7 on 2 November 1983 by a vote of 108 to 9 which "deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State."[14] It went on to deplore "the death of innocent civilians" and the "killing of the Prime Minister and other prominent Grenadians", and it called for an "immediate cessation of the armed intervention" and demanded, "that free elections be organized".
The speculation is that Reagan believed he needed a victory, any victory at all before the next election. Reagan would say that the UN resolution "didn't upset my breakfast at all". Many members of the US Congress would visit the island to hold a celebration and give each other participation trophies and medals, including a Representative from Wyoming that would go on to to manufacture and architect his own war two decades later in the Middle East.
The biggest legacy of this aftermath is not what happened but what did not happen in Grenada afterwards. It's prosperity was stunted. In 2007 it co-hosted the Cricket World Cup in a $40 million facility that was paid for by China.
The United States at the least could've portended that being conquered and overthrown by them was a good thing had they invested resources and improved quality of life but they didn't even bother to do that - there was zero consequences. The rest of Latin America today has caravans of desperate people left in the wake of the destruction from the US and it's boiling over with many immigrants arriving at the border with no other options.
If only we invested in our backyard instead of terrorizing it, maybe just maybe wouldn't have a problem at the border.
This was a socialist revolution called the New Jewel Movement. In just four years its massive literacy program complete with new schools was flourishing with unemployment dropping from 49 to 14 percent. Unemployed youth from the countryside were to put work in agricultural cooperatives. The billboards went from promoting smokes and booze to public service slogans mostly around education: "Each One, teach One", "If You Know, Teach; If You Don’t, Learn,” and “Education Is Production, Too.”
Cuba offered its aid: teachers, health care professionals, and construction on a new, safe international airport that replaced the dangerous strip in the mountains.
Life in this tiny island nation went from one out of fear to opportunity with many of its residents receiving access to basic human rights that were rarely afforded to them previously.
And then on October 25th, 1983 at dawn the United States troops sent by Ronald Reagan under the guise of Soviet-Cuban alliances building up military infrastructure via the airport arrived. The new PM had previously invited anyone to inspect the facilities and Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA) had taken him up on the offer:
"Based on my personal observations, discussion, and analysis of the new international airport under construction in Grenada, it is my conclusion that this project is specifically now and has always been for the purpose of economic development and is not for military use…. It is my thought that it is absurd, patronizing, and totally unwarranted for the United States government to charge that this airport poses a military threat to the United States' national security."
The PM was detained, put on house arrest and escaped through mass protests. He was massively popular for everything had done to improve life there. He was then captured and murdered by firing squad. Many others were murdered as well and a curfew was in place with a dire warning that anyone on the streets would also be murdered.
The UN's reaction to the US backed military coup (via Wikipedia):
The United Nations General Assembly adopted General Assembly Resolution 38/7 on 2 November 1983 by a vote of 108 to 9 which "deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State."[14] It went on to deplore "the death of innocent civilians" and the "killing of the Prime Minister and other prominent Grenadians", and it called for an "immediate cessation of the armed intervention" and demanded, "that free elections be organized".
The speculation is that Reagan believed he needed a victory, any victory at all before the next election. Reagan would say that the UN resolution "didn't upset my breakfast at all". Many members of the US Congress would visit the island to hold a celebration and give each other participation trophies and medals, including a Representative from Wyoming that would go on to to manufacture and architect his own war two decades later in the Middle East.
The biggest legacy of this aftermath is not what happened but what did not happen in Grenada afterwards. It's prosperity was stunted. In 2007 it co-hosted the Cricket World Cup in a $40 million facility that was paid for by China.
The United States at the least could've portended that being conquered and overthrown by them was a good thing had they invested resources and improved quality of life but they didn't even bother to do that - there was zero consequences. The rest of Latin America today has caravans of desperate people left in the wake of the destruction from the US and it's boiling over with many immigrants arriving at the border with no other options.
If only we invested in our backyard instead of terrorizing it, maybe just maybe wouldn't have a problem at the border.
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