Following the execution of Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters on Bloody Wednesday, a Revolutionary Military Council was formed.
The Revolutionary Military Council announced on October 19, 1983 that it had become Grenada’s legal government.
RMC Members
Sixteen (16) military officers of the PRAF made up the council although Bernard Coard, Selwyn Strachan and John Ventour were the ‘invisible’ advisers and masterminds who kept a low profile. The official RMC members were announced as:
- Hudson Austin, chairman
- Ewart Layne, vice-chairman
- Liam James, vice chairman
- Dave Bartholomew
- Leon Cornwall
- Ian St. Bernard
- Christopher Stroude
- Keith Roberts
- Basil Gahagan
- Lester Redhead
- Hughie Romain
- Cecil Prime
- Rudolph Ogilivie
- Callistus Bernard
- Kenrick Fraser
- Raeburn Nelson
On the evening of October 19, 1983 in a statement read over Radio Free Grenada, General Hudson Austin announced that four soldiers and “several civilians had died in what it called a crossfire. The council also went on to blame Maurice Bishop for what it described as a tragic gunfight at the Fort Rupert army headquarters in St. George’s, the Grenadian Capital.
The RMC imposed a 24-hour curfew on October 19, 1983 and warned that ‘anyone found violating the curfew would be shot on sight.’ The curfew was lifted two (2) days later.
The RMC did not seem to be recognized by any other countries as a government. A letter to the RMC from Fidel Castro barely offered any support.
By October 21st, Bernard Coard and his wife Phyllis Coard disappeared from public view and Leon Cornwall became the spokesperson for the RMC.
The short-lived, six-day term of the RMC ended when the US led an invasion of Grenada on October 25, 1983.
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