Maurice Bishop Airport
Published:Monday | June 1, 2009 | 9:54 AM
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves welcomed the decision to rename the Point Salines International Airport in Grenada after the slain former Prime Minister, Maurice Bishop.
Dr. Gonsalves described the move as a symbolic gesture that should help to lessen the pain of not according Bishop an official burial.
Bishop, who would have celebrated his 65th birthday on Friday, was shot dead along with other members of his short-lived People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) in October 1983.
It happened four years after his New Jewel Movement (NJM) had taken over the government from then Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy, in the first-ever coup in an English-speaking Caribbean country.
However, internal fighting between Bishop and his deputy, Bernard Coard, led to the demise of the PRG.
Many Grenadians have accused the United States troops that led an invasion of the island to restore democratic rule in 1983 of hiding the remains of the former charismatic leader.
The renaming of the airport was in keeping with a promise made to the electorate by the Tillman Thomas led National Democratic Congress during the campaign for the July 2008 general elections.