RELEASE OF LAST OF THE GRENADA 17 BRIEFLY SHAKES

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRIDGETOWN 000656

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM XL
SUBJECT: RELEASE OF LAST OF THE GRENADA 17 BRIEFLY SHAKES
UP POLITICS

Classified By: CDA Brent Hardt for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) The release on September 5, 2009 of the last of the
"Grenada 17" -- those in prison for their roles in the
assassination of then-Prime Minister Maurice Bishop --,
caused a brief but energetic outpouring of political vitriol
in the days following the government's action. The
government, noting the releases were only one year ahead of
the original 2010 end of sentences, maintained that the
decision was made for purely humanitarian reasons.
Nevertheless, the move sparked a range of commentary,
including inflammatory hints by former Prime Minister Keith
Mitchell that parolee Bernard Coard and his associates were
plotting to overthrow the current government and restore a
socialist state. Reactions of the man in the street,
meanwhile, ranged from disinterest to disappointment. The
move also generated extensive commentary in regional media,
with Barbados' largest circulation daily running several
days' worth of retrospection on the events. The varied
views, for and against the release, made clear that 26 years
after the traumatic event that prompted the U.S.- led
intervention, emotions and political divisions still run
strong. End Summary

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Government Downplays Release
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2. (C) Philip Alexander, one of Prime Minister Tillman
Thomas' chief aides described the release of the remaining
seven of the original "Grenada 17" as nothing more than a
humanitarian gesture aimed at reconciliation. He noted that
the convicts were due to be released the next year and, as
far as the government was concerned, it was simply not a big
deal. He noted that the remaining prisoners had been in
prison for over 25 years, and most were in declining health.


3. (C) Bernard Coard, Bishop's former deputy, who led the
assassination plot against him, gave extensive interviews in
the press following his release in which he described the
revolution as having gotten off track due to Bishop's
developing a cult of personality. He remained unrepentant,
generating heated discussions in the media and within
political circles. Coard described being tortured in prison
during the first five years of his imprisonment, but claimed
that the torture stopped thereafter. He alleged that his
trial was rigged against him and his co-defendants as the
judge was clearly biased and made many procedural and other
legal errors. To deflect public attention from one of the
last mysteries of the period -- that of the resting place for
Bishop's remains -- Coard called for the USG and the
Grenadian government to reveal what happened to Maurice
Bishop's body. Coard and others have long maintained that
the U.S. Army recovered the bodies during the intervention
and still have them in the U.S. Following his release, Coard
has left Grenada and moved to Jamaica to join his wife and
work on his memoirs.


4. (C) Many Embassy opposition contacts expressed outrage
that Coard was released at all, unconvinced by the
government's explanation that the decision was merely a
humanitarian gesture aimed at reconciliation. Younger
Grenadians, however, were generally dismissive of the issue,
many of the opinion that the incident is "ancient history."
They also generally thought that, since the remaining
prisoners were due to be released soon in any event, and were
in bad health, that an early release was of little concern.

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Extensive Media Coverage
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5. (U) The leading papers in the region all devoted
considerable coverage to the release, as did the local
television programs. The Barbados and Grenadian media
carried multi-page inserts rehashing the history of the
events, interviews with Coard and the other released
prisoners, as well as interviews with other key players
including the Judge in the case who was from Barbados. In
his column, "Congrats, Grenada", Barbadian political pundit
and pollster Peter Wickham sparked a round of critical
commentary from other op-ed writers by asserting that it was
right to release the prisoners because "Grenada and the 17
learned an important lesson from that October's events...and
the country is better off as a result. Bernard Coard now

understands and indeed every Grenadian now appreciates that
he understands the nature of his actions and that he and
others are genuinely sorry for what they did." Much of the
press coverage, by contrast, focused on Coard's lack of
remorse. A number of papers noted that he was treated almost
as a hero upon his release. One contact noted to emboff that
this was almost as distasteful as watching Khaddafi give the
Lockerbee bomber a hero's welcome upon his release. He went
on to say that Coard and the others should have been executed
for their crimes a long time ago and he was aghast that they
were being treated as heroes.

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Opposition Spins, Spins, Spins
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6. (C) Opposition leader and former PM Keith Mitchell was
quick to use the release for his own political gain.
Mitchell alleged to emboff that Coard was working secretly
with Finance Minister Nazim Burke to raise funds from
Venezuelan and Iranian interests to support the current
government. He further alleged, although he provided no
proof, that Coard and Burke are plotting to overthrow the
current government and install a socialist state. Making
full use of the attention generated by Coard's release,
Mitchell passed to emboff a document alleging, inter alia,
that Burke authorized a transfer of USD 4.3 million to a
Swiss bank account owned by the Cuban Central Bank, and
dubbed it sovereign debt repayment. The money was then
allegedly used by Burke and his family and associates to
support their exile in Canada. Burke was also accused of
extorting money from Amerijet corporation when he was finance
minister in 1981. According to the document, the firm
transferred over USD 1.2 million to Burke's Cayman Islands
accounts.

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Comment
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7. (C) The early release of the remaining seven of the
"Grenada 17", though billed as a humanitarian gesture aimed
at reconciliation, has evoked a new wave of soul-searching
about a series of events that continue to traumatize and
confound Grenadians, and that reverberate throughout this
generally stable and peaceful region of democracies.
It was not surprising that this government, with its close
links to Grenada, would release Coard early as a gesture to
the party's "base." While younger Grenadians have limited
emotional investment in the assassination and subsequent
events, the release has irritated old scars among the older
generation in Grenada and elsewhere in the region, who recall
the fear that the militarization of Grenada spread internally
and externally, and the violence and repression that this
ill-fated deviation from the region's democratic traditions
generated.
HARDT