Grenada

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Grenada is a country of approximately 89,500 inhabitants situated in the Windward Islands of the Eastern Caribbean. The land is of volcanic origin, with good harbors, a heavily forested and mountainous interior, and rich but limited arable areas. The population is principally of African origin, the result of slavery under French and British colonial rule.

Sugar and cocoa dominated the economy until the 1930s, when nutmeg, mace, and bananas became leading export crops. Grenada is the world's second largest exporter of nutmeg; however, light industry, tourism, and construction are the most important sources of export earnings and employment. By global standards Grenada is a lower-middle-income country with a well-educated population. In 1991, the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) was $3,965 and adult literacy 98 percent. Public education is compulsory and free, but students pay for books, supplies, and uniforms. Grenada belongs to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and uses its common currency, the Eastern Caribbean dollar.

Christopher Columbus sighted Grenada in 1498, but resistance by Caribs, the local Indians, delayed European colonization for a century. The French defeated the Caribs in 1651 and ceded control to Great Britain in 1763 at the end of the Seven Year's War between those two nations.

Grenada developed a parliamentary democracy under British rule. In the early twentieth century pressure from activists such as journalist T. A. Marryshow and labor leader "Buzz" Butler resulted in limited self-rule. The 1925 constitution established a legislative council and gave the vote to male property owners. In the early 1950s the charismatic labor leader Sir Eric Matthew Gairy (1922–1997) organized the country's first mass-based political party. In 1967 Grenada was granted associate statehood and control over its internal affairs. During this period a group of young, progressive intellectuals organized the New Jewel Movement (NJM) to oppose Prime Minister Gairy. Gairy violently suppressed the NJM and held on to power when Grenada gained its independence on February 7, 1974. In 1979, responding to economic decline and increasing repression, Maurice Bishop (1944–1983) and the NJM overthrew Gairy in a bloodless coup. With support from Cuba, the NJM government instituted popular programs of agrarian reform, public works, and social services. On October 19, 1983, a radical Marxist movement within the NJM deposed Bishop, who was executed by the military under the direction of Bernard Coard, leader of that NJM faction. Six days later, citing national security and the safety of U.S. medical students attending St. George's University as his justification, President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) ordered an invasion by U.S. Marines. The revolutionaries were overthrown.

During a brief U.S. occupation political stability was restored. The army of the People's Revolutionary Government was defeated. Bernard Coard and his closest associates (the so-called Grenada 17) were tried and imprisoned. Some of the social and economic programs of the revolutionary period were halted or reversed, but multiparty elections resumed, leading to regular, peaceful transfers of power and political stability. Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) is the official head of state; she is represented by a governor-general. The government consists of a prime minister and cabinet selected by a parliamentary majority. The parliament is bicameral, with a fifteenmember House of Representatives elected to five-year terms from single-member districts and a thirteen-member Senate appointed by the governor-general in consultation with the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. The 1974 constitution guarantees basic civil and political liberties and the right to work. Rights generally are respected by the government, but evidence of de facto gender discrimination in employment does exist. All citizens over the age of eighteen may vote. The press is free and partisan and criticizes the government without fear of reprisal. The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court acts as the ultimate court of appeals in Grenadian legal matters but does not review acts of parliament for constitutionality.

Grenada continues to struggle with problems of economic underdevelopment. Environmental problems such as coastal zone erosion and habitat loss are gaining worldwide attention.

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United Nations Development Programme. 2003 Human Development Report, Millennium Development Goals: A Compact Among Nations to End Human Poverty. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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