Some Fell Slow and Some Fell Fast

Almost four years after the murder of Maurice Bishop and the American intervention in Grenada, the matter is not yet closed. Bishop’s murderers, led by his Stalinist rival Bernard Coard, have finally been convicted. But appeals have been filed and it may be years before justice is done. Herewith an update from our man in Grenada.

On the morning of October 19, 1983, Maurice Bishop, the selfproclaimed prime minister of Grenada, awoke manacled to his bed, dressed only in his underclothes. He had refused food for six days, fearing it might be poisoned by order of his former colleagues in the New Jewel government. He was weak and groggy and still a prisoner. But in a few hours he would, for the last time, play his favorite role, “We Leader,” once again at the head of a mob willing, some of them, to die for him, though only because even at the hour of his death many in the crowd would not quite understand what he was.

GW

About the Author

Geoffrey Wagner

Featured Tags

Almost four years after the murder of Maurice Bishop and the American intervention in Grenada, the matter is not yet closed. Bishop’s murderers, led by his Stalinist rival Bernard Coard, have finally been convicted. But appeals have been filed and it may be years before justice is done. Herewith an update from our man in Grenada.

On the morning of October 19, 1983, Maurice Bishop, the selfproclaimed prime minister of Grenada, awoke manacled to his bed, dressed only in his underclothes. He had refused food for six days, fearing it might be poisoned by order of his former colleagues in the New Jewel government. He was weak and groggy and still a prisoner. But in a few hours he would, for the last time, play his favorite role, “We Leader,” once again at the head of a mob willing, some of them, to die for him, though only because even at the hour of his death many in the crowd would not quite understand what he was.