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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS