GRENADA - MORE USEFUL DOCUMENTS, BUT NO SMOKING GUN
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
C
Document Page Count:
3
Document Creation Date:
December 22, 2016
Document Release Date:
November 3, 2010
Sequence Number:
24
Case Number:
Publication Date:
November 4, 1983
Content Type:
MEMO
File:
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8.pdf | 160.93 KB |
Body:
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8
This State anarsis of the latest batch of Grenadian
documents--which Dewey Clarridge brought up on Saturday--
contains some very interesting items; Dewey thought you
might find them useful with PFIAB.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8 25X1
INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
TO: The Secretary S/S
FROM: INR - Natale Bellochi, Acting
United States Department of State
Washington, D. C. 20520
November 4, 1983
C
SUBJECT: Grenada - More Useful Documents, But No 'Smoking Gun'
Preliminary analysis of the third group of captured
Grenadian government documents to be flown to Washington (610
of these documents arrived Wednesday) indicates that the
success of the Grenadian 'revolution" was important to the
highest levels of the Soviet government. The Nicaraguans also
appreciated the value of the Grenadians in their attempts to
control the Socialist International (SI). No evidence of
Grenadian support for regional terrorists was found, however.
Nonetheless, evidence pointing toward the existence of a
Grenadian intelligence service known as the 'Secret Office' was
uncovered. Files from this organization, if they are obtained,
promise to be extremely interesting.
military assistance to Grenada. Ogarkov noted that only twenty
years ago "...there was only Cuba in Latin America, today there
are Nicaragua, Grenada and a serious battle is going on in El
Salvador.'
The importance of Grenada to Soviet strategy was
illustrated graphically in March of this year at a meeting in
Moscow in which Marshall Ogark-ov, the Chief of Staff of the
Soviet army, met with a Grenadian Major to review Soviet
Grenada also played'a significant role in the Secret
Regional Caucus (SRC) of progressive SI parties which took
place in Managua in January during the NAM Coordinating Bureau
meeting there. This caucus, which included the Sandinistas and
a representative of the political arm of the Salvadoran
guerrillas, as well as Michael Manley's People's National Party
(PNP) of Jamaica, adjourned after determining that in the Latin
America and the Caribbean section of the SI, the 'progressives'
are in control. It was felt that of the 14 regional SI member
parties, '...there are seven parties that are generally
progressive and some within a Marxist-Leninist trend."
The SI document indicates that quite a gap separates the
European parties from their Latin American and Caribbean
brethren. The SRC met in Managua to '...strengthen the
DECL: OADR
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8
-- iLWJ.LLY l1ML
position of progressive forces of Latin America and the
Caribbean within the organization," and ..neutralize forces
within SI that are against us." The tone of the SRC document
hardly evidences solidarity:
-- "Many of the European SI parties expect us to understand the
concept of 'the Soviet Menace.'
-- Our friends (in Europe) are prepared to accept the Latin
American Revolutionary process as being palatable if restricted
to the Latin American context.
Our strongest allies in Europe are the Nordic SI parties and
that of Holland. Our principal enemies are to be found among
the parties of Soares and Horgo in Portugal and Italy
respectively..."
The political nature of Grenada's. governing New JEWEL
Movement'(NJM) is clear from the introduction of a secret
treaty betweent the NJM and the Communist Party of Cuba. It
states:
The Communist Party of Cuba and the New Jewel Movement,
brotherly united by the same ideals of struggle in their
respective countries, as well as of active solidarity in
favor of the peoples that struggle for national
liberation...
One of the more interesting examples of active solidarity
which Cuba and Nicaragua showed Grenada was adviSebin how to
deal with the IMF. At the August 3 meeting of the NJM's QC~
Political/Economic Bureau, the late Prime Minister Bishop
stated that Grenada should "...use the Cuban and Suriname
experience in keeping two sets of records in the banks." He
then noted that a Cuban and a Nicaraguan would soon arrive to
train the "...comrades in the readjustment of the books."
Public disaffection with the New JEWEL Movement grew
steadily during the four years it held power. This disafection
paralleled the degree to which the NJM steadily grew more open
about its Marxist-Leninist character. By the time of Bishop's
murder, the NJM was having very little success in maintaining
the support of the people. Morale in the militia was rock
bottom; the 'comrades' were resigning in droves. No one signed
up for the 20 scholarships to study in the Soviet Union, to the
chagrin of the Soviet Ambassador.
The privileged position of the Cubans at the airport grated
on the Grenadians. After one rock-throwing incident between
Grenadian and Cuban workers there, a Grenadian was punished.
Workers. at the airport felt "...that Grenadians cannot get
rights when incident occur (sic) between Grenadian and Cuban
workers.
063QA
CONFIDENTIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/01/20: CIA-RDP85M00363R000601500024-8