THE People’s Revolutionary Army has taken control of Grenada and Prime Minister Maurice Bishop has been stripped of his authority.
Up until last night he was believed to be under house arrest, apparently at his official residence along with Education Minister, Ms. Jacqueline Creft. His personal security officer, Mr. Cletus St. Paul, remained behind bars after being arrested on Friday.
The capital remained tense yesterday. Except for closed shops everywhere in the capital there was little to indicate that a government was in the throes of a major change of leadership and direction.
Former deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, who resigned on Friday in order to dispel rumours that he was involved in a plot to kill Mr. Bishop, is likely to be installed as the new Prime Minister by the Army.
Tomorrow is expected to be a big day in Grenada. On the one side, pro-Bishop factions in Grenada, led by Labour Minister Kenrick Radix have said that if Mr. Bishop is not released by Monday, they will take to the streets, while the Army is also reported to be preparing for a show of its strength on Monday with a demonstration of military power in the city. In fact, radio reports from Grenada warned that no parking would be allowed on certain downtown streets between 9 a.m. and noon tomorrow.
Indications are that Mr. Coard’s faction is in control of the information media, from which very little information is being given.
Mr. Coard, a Marxist-Leninist and ideological mentor of the Peoples Revolutionary Government, has been critical of Mr. Bishop for not socialising the country faster and for being too soft on the private sector, which controls 60 percent of the economy.
There have been no statements from Mr. Bishop. Reporters coming out of Grenada however discounted the possibility that he might have been killed, although they report serious infighting at the highest levels of the government from as early as Wednesday when the Prime Minister refused to carry out certain decisions said to have been reached by the Central Committee of the New Jewel.
The Central Committee of the business New Jewel Movement, which is dominated by army personnel and senior ministers of government met all day yesterday to map out strategy to resolve the problems facing the almost five year old revolution.
Source: This article was first published by The Nation Publishing Co. Ltd. On October 16, 1983.
