Democracy, U.S. Gift to Grenada, Is No Cure-All
October 03, 1994|TRACY WILKINSON | TIMES STAFF WRITER
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-10-03/news/mn-45920_1_grenada-today
Summary:
The United States announced plans earlier this year to close its embassy here, the uproar shook this tiny Caribbean island state.
Everyone from the prime minister to the family of the man ousted in the 1983 invasion lobbied to keep the embassy open. They wrote to President Clinton and dozens of U.S. Congress members, and they were successful. Grenadians, however, are the first to point out profound differences, such as Haiti's utter lack of experience with democracy. In Grenada's case, clear Cold War U.S. interests were involved, and, as in Panama but in contrast to Haiti, it was the elite that favored, even invited, the invasion. Reagan, reeling from the deaths two days earlier of 241 U.S. Marines by a suicide bomber in Lebanon, dispatched 1,900 troops to Grenada on Oct. 25, 1983, to remove the pro-Cuba People's Revolutionary Government and to send a message to the region's other Marxist regimes, such as that in Nicaragua. Grenada's revolution had already started to crumble. Hard-liners in the government, led by Bernard Coard, had staged a bloody coup against Bishop.
Observations:"It was like having a friend pack up his bags and leave," businessman Augustus Cruickshank said. "We felt left behind." this statement from the article tells me that everyone else was upset that Grenada wanted to leave, however they did lobby to keep Grenada and it was successful.
Political ties:
The economic boom that Reagan and his Administration promised is still out there on the distant, sun-drenched horizon.
U.S. factories that opened after the invasion have shut down. There is widespread disenchantment and unprecedented unemployment and drug abuse. And Grenadians--reeling from decades of British colonial rule, plantation economics, a Cuba-inspired revolution, then the invasion--still struggle to define their national identity.
October 03, 1994|TRACY WILKINSON | TIMES STAFF WRITER
http://articles.latimes.com/1994-10-03/news/mn-45920_1_grenada-today
Summary:
The United States announced plans earlier this year to close its embassy here, the uproar shook this tiny Caribbean island state.
Everyone from the prime minister to the family of the man ousted in the 1983 invasion lobbied to keep the embassy open. They wrote to President Clinton and dozens of U.S. Congress members, and they were successful. Grenadians, however, are the first to point out profound differences, such as Haiti's utter lack of experience with democracy. In Grenada's case, clear Cold War U.S. interests were involved, and, as in Panama but in contrast to Haiti, it was the elite that favored, even invited, the invasion. Reagan, reeling from the deaths two days earlier of 241 U.S. Marines by a suicide bomber in Lebanon, dispatched 1,900 troops to Grenada on Oct. 25, 1983, to remove the pro-Cuba People's Revolutionary Government and to send a message to the region's other Marxist regimes, such as that in Nicaragua. Grenada's revolution had already started to crumble. Hard-liners in the government, led by Bernard Coard, had staged a bloody coup against Bishop.
Observations:"It was like having a friend pack up his bags and leave," businessman Augustus Cruickshank said. "We felt left behind." this statement from the article tells me that everyone else was upset that Grenada wanted to leave, however they did lobby to keep Grenada and it was successful.
Political ties:
The economic boom that Reagan and his Administration promised is still out there on the distant, sun-drenched horizon.
U.S. factories that opened after the invasion have shut down. There is widespread disenchantment and unprecedented unemployment and drug abuse. And Grenadians--reeling from decades of British colonial rule, plantation economics, a Cuba-inspired revolution, then the invasion--still struggle to define their national identity.