Grenada: Soviet Stepping Stone

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of black Cuban commandos from the Cuban intellig^enC service’s (DGI) Directorate of Special Operations, Tjtf days after the coup, the Cuban ship Matanzas arrived Grenada with a cargo of Soviet weapons and ammunit¹⁰^ The voyage from Cuba for a freighter similar to ^ Matanzas would normally require at least seven days- cadre of Cuban military instructors appeared on the is^|a at the same time, and a few weeks later, Grenada admit it was receiving military assistance from Cuba.⁵

On 14 April 1979, exactly one month after the cow

d’etat, Cuba established formal diplomatic relations Grenada, assigning Julian Torres Rizo as charge

The invasion of Grenada on 25 October 1983 by a multinational force from the United States and six Caribbean island nations was the culmination of a series of dramatic events that plunged the island into anar­chy and threatened the lives of nearly 1,000 American citizens. When examined in a strategic context, evidence supports President Ronald Reagan’s statement that Gre­nada “was a Soviet-Cuban colony being readied as a major military bastion to export terror and undermine democracy.”¹

Critics of the Reagan Administration’s policy toward the Caribbean region had previously tended to parrot the assertions of former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop— murdered by order of Soviet Ambassador Gennadiy Saz- henev on 19 October²—who proclaimed his island’s new airfield, being constructed by 450 Cubans, was intended solely for tourism and that there was “not one single cent of Soviet assistance going into the airport.”³ Such claims aside, closer analysis reveals an extensive Soviet/Cuban involvement with Grenada antedating the 1979 coup d’etat, which brought Prime Minister Bishop’s New JEWEL (Joint Effort for Welfare, Education and Libera­tion) Movement to power.

The New JEWEL Movement (NJM), forerunner to Grenada’s current People’s Revolutionary Government, was formed in the early 1970s by Bishop and other young, middle-class leftists educated abroad. Leaders of the NJM openly traveled to Havana several years before the coup and had guerrilla warfare manuals and revolutionary liter­ature confiscated from them on their return to Grenada. The overthrow itself was carried out with the aid of a team with

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faires. Torres Rizo, a senior Americas Department inte gence officer and former head of the Cuban mission to United Nations, was promoted to full ambassador on October 1979. The large Cuban diplomatic staff occupy a heavily guarded villa in Grenada, and it promptly beg infiltrating Grenada’s British-style government ministry According to the disgruntled ex-Attomey General of • People’s Revolutionary Government, Lloyd Noel, Cuban ambassador became a self-invited guest at cabi meetings, where he made policy “suggestions,” ^wtllc were rarely contested by Prime Minister Bishop- W ' Noel was subsequently imprisoned in Grenada “counter-revolutionary activities.”)       j

The Cuban military and technical presence increas during the following months as Cuban advisers organiz^e^ and trained the native People’s Revolutionary Army ^a People’s Militia. Grenadian soldiers dressed Cuban-style uniforms and carrying AK-47 assault rit soon became a common sight on the island, along ^w

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being^T1f^tance* ^{sucb as} these, where external aggression is servin ^acec*' Shortly afterwards, with Afghanistan ally _c ^ a m°del for other such adventures. Bishop casu- be Use?f^rme^ ^^{at bls new} “^international airport” might furthg ^or Soviet and Cuban airlifts to trouble spots. He ^r alarmed the government of Trinidad by declaring:

thg^U_f^Ppose here’s a war next door in Trinidad, where T_r: .°^rces of Fascism are about to take control, and the anvh ^ac^*^{ans nee}d assistance. Why should we oppose °dy passing through Grenada to assist them?”¹²

S°vigf^^ei?^^y satisfied with Grenada’s subservience, the Corf, ^{nion sent} Admiral of the Fleet Sergei Gorshkov, iste_r of *n^er *ⁿ ^bief of the Soviet Navy and Deputy Min- Utarke I °^efense’ ^{to th}e island in March 1980. This visit ship _w- u*^e beginning of the Soviet Union’s overt relation- P_rim_e Grenada, for in late May, Grenadian Deputy Mo_Sco ^lnister Bernard Coard paid his first official visit to of the T ^bere, he met with Boris Ponomarev, Secretary Cent_r | °^mmunist Party of the Soviet Union’s (CPSU) ^a Committee, and A.S. Chemyayev, Deputy Chief

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nouno !f |^^overnb^er 1979, Prime Minister Bishop an- Cuba^Ce - i ^at            Castro h^a(J personally authorized

Cren^³^ ^l° ^{construct a new} “international airport” in Soviet1' ^{In December}> ^{a Cubaa} “gift” of 85 pieces of _ment ^f'?^vy construction equipment, 4,000 tons of ce- Cuban³¹¹ * ^tons °f ^steel, together with a 250-man Work ^COastructlon brigade, arrived on the island to begin _SU]_a °^{n tbe new} airfield, located at Point Salines, a penin- _st - Grenada’s southwest coast. The Cubans con- ricated ^{3 Cam}f^{) on tbe} airport site, consisting of 22 prefab- \ l_ar ^Wo°den barracks designed to house 40 men each, ister 1° ^Pantation bouse expropriated from ex-Prime Min- Soviet^p ^F'^{C <}“'^a'^{ry was rem}°deled to provide offices for ’ Cuban, and East German engineers.⁷

alarm^ ^^or'ⁿS island states began to show increasing Cuba nT ^^rena(la’s militarization and close ties with Vi_{nce t} ^{n y Wee}ks after the coup d’etat, the island of St. diers \ ,^protested ^an attempt by 16 armed Grenadian sol- 1980 °th^an^ °ⁿ °^{ne 0p} '^ts dependency islands.⁸ In January that m ⁶ ^^overnment °f Trinidad and Tobago charged ^terror'°^re ^^{an op} *^ts Wizens had undergone training in Crenad'¹¹' ^sab°^tag^e> and guerrilla warfare by Cubans in h_acj ^a' ^ number of Cuban-inspired terrorist incidents _Whlc;;-^Urre.d in Trinidad over the preceding months, count ,?₉°'brich island termed “a serious threat to the Underw • dissidents from St. Vincent also reportedly r_ir ^{Went terr}°rist training at the Cuban DGI school on Was d ^Kennck Radix, Grenada’s Minister of Justice, ^revo,_u^^ed f^rorn Antigua for allegedly trying to foment

the y^enac^^a lollowed Cuba’s example and voted against f_0re- ^nited Nations’ resolution calling for withdrawal of invasi ^tr°°P^s f^rom Afghanistan after the Soviet Union’s f^eudin°^{n l}^^{at natl0n} in December 1979. Staunchly de- “W_e ^ ^tae ^^ovi^et Union, Prime Minister Bishop said, certainly support fully the right of Afghanistan to

of the CPSU Central Committee’s International Depart­ment. Following this meeting, Coard signed a treaty with the Soviet Union, which granted Soviet Tu-95 “Bear” long-range reconnaissance aircraft landing rights in Gre­nada. In return, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria granted the island several million dollars’ worth of trade credits and machinery, plus scholarships for Grenadian students.¹³

Emboldened by his new alliance with the Soviets, Bishop announced that he would send 500 Grenadian sol­diers to Namibia to fight alongside South West Africa Peo­ple’s Organization (SWAPO) forces. Grenadian brigadis- tas were also sent to Nicaragua in October 1980, where some were reported to have been killed in counterinsur­gency operations against the Miskito Indians.¹⁴

Throughout 1981, Grenada strengthened its ties with Soviet allies and subject states while the Cubans continued to expand their military construction projects on the is­land. They finished work on a dirt-strip auxiliary airfield and a small naval facility, the latter located in a strictly guarded “national security zone.”¹⁵ After a Libyan “technical mission” visited Grenada, Muammar Qadaffi gave Bishop three patrol boats of Soviet manufacture. Cuba also donated a 75-kilowatt transmitter to Radio Free Grenada to enable the station to broadcast “revolutionary news and messages of solidarity” into the Caribbean and Latin America.¹⁶

In a speech to Jamaica’s official Communist Party, the Workers’ Party of Jamaica, in December 1981, Grenadian Minister of National Mobilization Selwyn Strachan stated that the Soviets and Cubans would have access to his is­land’s new international airport.¹⁷ This pledge may have engendered Prime Minister Bishop’s invitation to Moscow in July 1982, where he was officially welcomed as “chair­man of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the New Jewel Party.” At a press conference held after his arrival in Moscow, Bishop said that Grenada’s ‘‘strategic aim ... is to further develop relations with the socialist coun­tries . . . and we want to follow our own way, the way of close relations with the socialist community, the Soviet Union in particular.”¹⁸

Amid extensive coverage by Pravda and Moscow Do­mestic Television Service, Bishop met with Nikolay Tik­honov, Chairman of the Politburo’s Council of Ministers, and Mikhail Gorbachev from the CPSU’s Central Com­mittee. Emerging from the meetings, Bishop announced that he had “concluded substantial economic and political agreements with the Soviet Union to cut his country’s de­pendence on the West.”¹⁹ The Kremlin had granted him $1.4 million to buy “500 tonnes of steel, 400 tonnes of flour and other essential goods,” in addition to a ten-year credit of $7.7 million to finance the construction of a satel­lite earth station, the purpose of which, according to Bishop, was to “give us the opportunity of receiving di­rectly in Grenada all the programs that are taking place on television, on radio and what-not in the Soviet Union.”²⁰ The Soviet Union further agreed to fund and construct a new port on Grenada’s east coast; Soviet ships would be granted ‘‘recreational calls” at the facility.²¹ The Grenadian leader also said that the Soviet Union

Maurice Bishop

Kenrick Radix

Bernard Coard

Hudson Austin

Cubans installed 450 tons of telephone and electronic equipment.²⁷       .,

Prime Minister Bishop also established close ties wi Surinam’s leader, Desi Bouterse, who had overthrown ¹ country’s democratically elected government in 1980. October 1982, Bishop arrived in Surinam on a state ^vlS* amidst widespread political, social, and labor unres ■ Irked by the small crowd at one of his public appearances' Bishop publicly told Bouterse, “Your government is

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had agreed to buy Grenada’s two main crops, nutmeg and cocoa, at “stable prices.” He stated that he had signed an inter-party agreement with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

On his way home, Bishop stopped in Havana to brief Fidel Castro about his “historic signing of party and gov­ernment agreements” with the Kremlin. No longer believ­ing it had to play down its association with the Soviet Bloc, the Grenada Government promptly announced that 21 of the island’s students had been accepted to study in the Soviet Union and 84 had been granted scholarships in Cuba.²² One week later, Libya gave Grenada $4 million to help build the “international airport.”²³

On the night of 25 August 1982, during a self-imposed nationwide power blackout, a Cuban ship, docked in Grenada’s capital city of St. George’s, unloaded six So­viet BTR-60 armored personnel carriers, seven 130-milli­meter artillery pieces, and tons of other weaponry.²⁴ Much of this Soviet military equipment was displayed dur­ing a massive parade in St. George’s on 13 March 1983.

In September 1982, the Soviet Union established an embassy in Grenada, headed by Gennadiy I. Sazhenev, a high-ranking GRU (the army intelligence directorate) in­telligence officer in his mid-sixties who imported a pair of white Mercedes Benzes and a staff of 26 to the impover­ished island. The Soviets shrewdly established their em­bassy at Morne Rouge—five miles from St. George’s, yet only a stone’s throw from both Radio Free Grenada and the finest beach on the island. Ambassador Sazhenev also saw to it that the official Soviet news agency Tass opened an office next to Prime Minister Bishop’s office “to in­form Grenadians of world events.”²⁵

Grenada’s incorporation into the Soviet system acceler­ated. East Germany sent $1 million worth of modem print­ing equipment and five technicians to instruct the workers of the government-owned Free West Indian newspaper.²⁶ (All other newspapers had been banned by People’s Law Number 18 in 1981.) Next, five East Germans and nine

friendly to its enemies. You must eliminate them or will eliminate you. ’ ’²⁸ Six weeks later, most of Bouterse political opponents were arrested and “shot while Wjr to escape.”²⁹ Following this act, it was announced, . Suriname (sic) military government will study the P°^sS!_ bility of inviting Soviet and Cuban troops in if the opp°^sl tion resorts to foreign assistance.”³⁰        .

In January 1983, a Grenada-Soviet Friendship Socie y was inaugurated at the Grenada Teachers College. Teen aged native soldiers in civilian clothes gave clench-tts salutes and chanted, “Long live the Soviet Union! Lone live Proletarian Internationalism!”³¹ An official spokes man said that “the formation of the society was very ^1,0 portant and significant because the Soviet Union was greatest champion for peace.”³²                  .

Also in January, Cuba donated a “Sandino housing plant’ ’ to Grenada to manufacture houses for members the island’s armed forces, now numbering some 9,000 ⁰ of a total population of 110,000 (2,179 in the People Revolutionary Army; 7,000 in the People’s Revolutionary Militia). The number of Cuban military personnel °ⁿ 33 island was conservatively estimated to be 300- Grenadian hostility towards the approximately 1,200 bans, Soviets, East Germans, Libyans, and Bulgar’³ residing in their country increased after several y°^u army deserters and other dissidents were executed by Cuban “death squad” in 1982, leading to an extension ^ the state security apparatus. In February 1983, Minister National Mobilization Selwyn Strachan ordere^ Grenadians to report anyone they heard “actively ^an

lutin^C*°^US^ spreading rumors about the People’s Revo- onary Government.³⁴

_Sum^ish°P ^and Bouterse flew with Castro to the Seventh India™* °[ ^on-Aligned Nations held in New Delhi, _vj_cj •’ ^ln ^^arch. As their Ilyushin 11-62 flew over the (Jioej ^ Moscow, the Marxist Caribbean leaders ra- Andr ³ ₃™^essaS^e °f fraternal greetings to Yuri gift _Of^o' bishop thanked the Soviets for their recent Unio • ^rn‘Mi°ⁿ worth of equipment from the Soviet ^crops’’ T^"⁸ *^a '*§ht aircraft to be used in spraying to be _t^W. ^c^’ ^w^^en unloaded in St. George’s, turned out airlin ^{3 Wln}'^engined transport with the name of the Soviet In M eW^^ot Pouted on its fuselage.³⁶ Mini_sf ³^ ^a ten-man delegation from the Grenada traini ^ °^^onst^ruction traveled to the Soviet Union for a Soviet** ^C°^Urse *ⁿ planning.³⁷ This followed a visit by a Soviet »^arvey^ⁿ8 team in March, which concluded that the Produc' ⁿ*°^{n Wou}^ ^{build a new} P^{ort an}d ^a cement plant ^Clng 50,000 tons of cement per year on the island of

Carriacou, an isolated, 11-square mile dependency of Gre­nada with a population of 7,000 farmers and fishermen. The Soviets reported that the cement plant would require a new power facility capable of generating 7,500 kilowatts of electricity and that the site chosen for the new harbor would be Tyrrel Bay, a commodious and sheltered anchor­age used by the British fleet in the 18th century. As part of this development package, the Soviet Union “also offered to supply Grenada with 2,000 tons of steel as a gift for building roads, buildings, bridges or so on.”³⁸ The Soviet visit occurred during a Cuban construction project to ex­tend the runway of Carriacou’s airfield, located less than a mile from Tyrrel Bay.

In June, Grenada hosted a regional “Conference on Peace,” during which Foreign Minister Unison Whiteman advised his youthful audience to “follow the courageous lead of the USSR,” adding that “the policies of the United States were undermining the universally accepted doctrine of peaceful co-existence.”³⁹ The following day, Grenada’s Ministry of Planning signed a series of con-

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tracts “in the areas of education, communications, water supply and seaport development” with Boris Nikolayev, economic counselor at the Soviet embassy. Under the terms of these agreements, 16 Soviet teachers arrived in Grenada in September 1983 to teach science and mathe­matics, while development proceeded on the new Soviet- built seaport on the island’s east coast.⁴⁰

One of the most interesting contracts signed between Grenada and the Soviet Union provided for the Soviet Union to build a ground communications station on the island as part of the Soviet Intersputnik satellite system. By coincidence or design, only the day before the Grenada agreements were concluded, a contract for the construc­tion of an Intersputnik ground station in Nicaragua had been signed in Managua by Sandinista Deputy Com­mander Enrique Schmidt and the Soviet embassy’s eco­nomic adviser, Yuri Rubetsov.⁴¹

In July 1983, coinciding with the much publicized de­liveries of Soviet Bloc military materiel in Nicaragua, similar equipment was unloaded in Grenada. Included in these shipments were 75 East German trucks.⁴² Along with other military vehicles, the trucks were kept at a spe­cially constructed parking area, leading to the speculation that they were part of a Soviet effort to stockpile military equipment throughout the Caribbean.

The events which triggered Prime Minister Bishop purging and the subsequent invasion by U. S. and a'¹¹ forces began in the fall of 1982, when Bishop and sever^ of his nationalistic government ministers prohibited Cuba ambassador Torres Rizo from further attendance at cabins meetings. This act angered the Soviets and Cubans a estranged the Bishop faction from hard-line Grenada Marxists led by Bernard Coard and People’s Revolution ary Army General Hudson Austin. In the ensuing mont ^ this schism increased as Bishop indicated an interest establishing better relations with the United States an appeared reluctant to speed up Grenada’s transformat¹⁰ into a doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist state.

On 13 October 1983, Prime Minister Bishop was ^e posed by officers of the People’s Revolutionary Arm; who accused him of not being “a true revolutionary an ominously added that the army would “tolerate absolute^ no manifestations whatsoever of counterrevolutions. Bishop was executed along with other Grenadian govern ment officials and union leaders on 18 October reportedly on the direct order of Soviet ambassador Gcn^ nadiy Sazhenev.⁴⁴ The state of anarchy which follow¹- endangered the lives of American residents on the islan > leading to the momentous decision to launch a multm^a tional invasion to secure their safety.      .

What accounted for the growing Soviet involveffl⁰ with a 120-square mile island in the Caribbean, which ^a_? no natural resources aside from beaches and palm ^tre^^s'. The answer lies in its location. Located less than 100 m¹ ^ off the coast of Venezuela, an important Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member, Grena formed part of what General Wallace H. Nutting, f°^rriie U. S. Southern Commander, Central and South Americ^3, called a “triangular base complex,” incorporating C^u J Nicaragua, and Grenada, which would allow Sovi Cuban forces to project tactical air power over the ent¹ Caribbean basin.⁴⁵