Seven men convicted of killing Grenada’s leader in the 1983 coup that triggered a US invasion strode out of prison on Saturday — the last of 17 who had been sentenced for the crime.
Dozens of relatives cheered and clapped as former deputy prime minister Bernard Coard and six other men emerged from the crumbling 17th century prison where they served nearly 26 years. Former co-defendants took their hands and accompanied them.
Then prime minister Maurice Bishop, four Cabinet ministers and six supporters were dragged before a firing squad and shot dead on Oct. 19, 1983, by members of their own New Jewel movement — followers of Coard who demanded more radical policies.
Six days later, thousands of US troops invaded on the orders of then US president Ronald Reagan, who said he sought to protect American medical students and to sever Grenada’s growing ties with communist Cuba.
US troops arrested the 17 defendants and 14 were initially sentenced to death.
Their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1991 and the London-based Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for the country, threw out those sentences in February 2007.
At their resentencing, a judge said the prisoners showed remorse and sentenced them to just two more years in prison.
The release is a milestone in the island’s efforts to heal wounds from the revolution, Senator Chester Humphrey said.
“It’s the end of one chapter, not the completion of the book, as Grenada tries to build a future by not living in the past,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said he expected the men to reintegrate back into society.
Leon Cornwall, for example, became an ordained minister in prison and will work with the Methodist church upon his release, Reverend Tessica Hacksaw said.
Cornwall said the 1983 coup “was regrettable, and something that should never happen again.”
The bodies of Bishop and the 10 men have never been found.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils