Gilbakka posted:VVP posted:Show me where Castro supported Bernard Coard over Maurice Bishop? Where is that document even if it is propaganda.
A few months before Maurice Bishop's untimely death, during discussions at Freedom House, some senior PPP members had expressed the view that Bernard Coard was more Marxist-Leninist than Bishop. When Bishop was killed on October 19, 1983, the pro-Coard PPPites shut up tight. The next morning I went to Freedom House to wish Janet Jagan a happy birthday. She told me: "This is the worse day of my life."
I think it's a stretch to say that Fidel had a hand in Bishop's death. Everything I've read about the events on October 19 tells me that things got out of control and Coard and Hudson-Austin just lost their power-drunk minds.
It was in fact the popularity of Maurice Bishop that protected the NJM in the minds of the Grenadian people, many of whom were ambivalent about Castro and Cuba.
It is the very Marxist Leninist orientation of Coard that led him to adopt a more Castroite view of the world and reject Bishop, who wanted a more Manley type of governance. Bishop was a social democrat in the way that Manley and Trudeau were.
Bishop was also wanting to reduce the presence in Grenada of the Cuban army officials, once the airport was completed.
When Bishop began moving to elections, confident that he would win Castro was NOT amused, given that he had rejected similar demands. He urged Coard to rid Grenada of Bishop. He promised them support if ridding Grenada resulted in open intervention by the USA. While Reagan reluctantly tolerated Bishop he was NOT going to tolerate a 2nd Soviet satellite in the Caribbean.
On the basis of this promise of protection and a fear of a democratic win solidifying Bishop's legitimacy in the eyes of the world Coard and others acted. And the rest is history.
When Grenadians went to rescue the very popular Maurice Bishop from jail they were shot down in the streets and a 24 hour curfew was immediately put in place with those not complying, being shot on the spot. Grenadians, not being accustomed to this, even under the dictator Gairy, begged for outside help.
Where were the many Cuban soldiers present at that time on the island? Protecting Coard and company, as Castro promised that they would do.
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