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Dead Editor, October 25th 2025 marks the 42nd Anniversary since the US military invasion of Grenada in 1983. Six days earlier, Maurice Bishop and seven of his colleagues of the Revolutionary People’s Government were brutally murdered which resulted in the destruction of the Grenadian Revolution. It set the stage for the US military invasion of Grenada complicit with six Eastern Caribbean countries headed by Eugenia Charles of Dominica. The People’s Revolutionary government lasted four and a half years. It employed bold initiatives to revitalize and reform the stagnant economy. It made tremendous progress in its agricultural and literacy drive. Its GDP of 5% was higher than any other Caribbean country. In 1982 the World Bank endorsed its policies and forecast further advancement. The building of the Point Salines Airport was designed to replace the obsolete Pearls Airport on the North of the island. The 9,000 ft runway was cited by US President Ronald Reagan as evidence that the Grenadian Government intended to use it for Soviet and Cuban military aircrafts. Bishop and his government contended that the Point Salines Airport was intended to make the island more accessible to European and North American tourists. Ronald Reagan, age 69, was inaugurated America’s 40th President in January 1981. He came to office pledging to restore America’s glory and was looking for a place to flex the country’s military muscles. He sent marines to intervene in the Lebanon civil war. He wanted a victory, any victory! Barbados was the launching pad for Operation Urgent Fury as it was called. Reagan and his aides justified the invasion of Grenada with three arguments. First, they depicted the Grenada regime as murderous, anti-American, supported by Cuba. Second, they said that they needed to protect the lives of the American medical students. After the invasion it was found that the students were not in danger. Third, they produced a letter signed by the Governor-General of Grenada Paul Scoon, requesting American intervention. It later turned out that the letter had been written in Washington and delivered to Scoon to sign after the invasion began. A senior British officer who had watched the invasion from nearby Barbados, Major Mark Adkin, wrote afterward that it was launched because of “the intense desire of the President and his advisers to raise US prestige, particularly at home and in the armed forces, where morale and self-respect had fallen substantially since Vietnam “. A total of 8,612 medals were awarded to the participants. Reagan showered praise on them. In a speech to the Congressional Medal of Honour Society in New York, he said “Our military are back on their feet and are standing tall”. The casualties in the US military invasion of Grenada amongst US troops numbered 19 killed, 116 wounded; 24 Cuban construction workers were killed and 59 wounded, 29 members of the Grenadian army were killed in action while civilian casualties numbered 24 dead and 337 wounded. 40 years after continuous demand by the Grenadian people, October 19th was declared a National Holiday and Point Salines Airport renamed Maurice Bishop International Airport in remembrance of Bishop, his colleagues and the Grenadian revolution. Bishop had a vision that embraced all nations of the world. He was dedicated to Non-Alignment. He did not believe in America’s backyard politics. He believed that Grenadians, and all people have the right to self-determination, the right to pursue their own destiny. Maurice Bishop was a man of the people, loved by his people. Grenada is an island of 344 km, with a population at that time of less than 100,000. The Grenadian Revolution was an experience that brought Grenadians together, it revitalized their lives and pride that they are Grenadians. It aroused the revolutionary spirit of the people, whose ancestors fought the French colonialist years before the Haitian Revolution. It is a lesson that any nation can learn from. Guyana, a non-aligned country at that time, did not participate in the invasion nor did Trinidad. As a matter of fact the late Guyanese President Linden Forbes Burnham condemned the US display of aggression and those Caribbean countries that orchestrated the invasion of Grenada. In conclusion, on the first Anniversary of the US military invasion of Grenada, I submitted a sculpture made out of Mora wood, a hardwood of Guyana, for the Annual National Visual Arts Competition (NVAC) 1984. The sculpture titled ‘Archi-tects US military invasion of Grenada’ won the prestigious Judges Award. The sculpture was acquired by the Department of Culture for the National Collection. In 1995 it was selected from among a number of pieces in the National Collection to represent Guyana at the United Nations Headquarters in Washington. This year I did a painting in remembrance of the US military invasion of Grenada 42 years after Operation Urgent Fury… Desmond Alli Senior Guyanese Artist
