Roadside breeze block wall with spray paint graffiti thanking the USA for the 1983 liberation, St George's, Grenada, West Indies
In !979, following independence from Britain in 1974, Maurice Bishop's 'People's revolutionary Government' invited Cuban doctors, teachers and technicians to help with the development of health, literacy and agriculture. Although co-operating with Cuba and the Soviet Union on various issues, Bishop, encouraging private sector developments, including making Grenada a popular tourist destination, sought to maintain a non-aligned status. But he was deemed insufficiently revolutionary by Marxist Deputy Prime Minister, Bernard Coard, who staged a coup in October 1983. When Bishop, with popular support, attempted to resume power he was captured and executed. The overthrow of a moderate by a hard-line pro-Communist government alarmed President Reagan, who saw the building of a new airport at Port Salines by Cuban construction workers as a military threat. Reagan, worried that Cuba, directed by the Soviet Union, would use Grenada as a refuelling stop for military transport planes loaded with weapons for central American communist insurgents, decided on an invasion of Grenada. American forces, combined with those from the Caribbean Regional Security System, based in Barbados, invaded on October 25th 1983. The invasion was highly criticised by the governments of Britain, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago. Many local people, however, were thankful. US forces withdrew in December 1983. December 1984 saw the first democratic elections in Grenada since 1976.
Size: 4287px × 2120px
Location: Pro-American wall graffiti, St George's, Grenada, West Indies
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1983, agent, american, bernard, bishop, block, breeze, caribbean, coard, flowers, fury, george, graffiti, grenada, grey, indies, invasion, maurice, operation, pink, political, politics, pro-american, road, roadside, sky, slogans, spray-paint, spray-painted, st, view, wall, west, white
