Scoop

A coup! Wait, no!

Tuning in to Radio Free Grenada for an afternoon earful is usually about as much fun as listening to a hinge squeak. The broadcast, courtesy of the Marxist-led government of the minuscule Caribbean island (pop. 110,000), is chockablock with monologues about evil Yankee imperialists and the marvels of socialism. Not last week.

Shortly past noon on Friday, the station began amusing listeners across the Caribbean with hot flashes about coups and countercoups. First came word that Prime Minister Maurice Bishop's security chief was under arrest for alleging that two Cabinet ministers had tried to over throw the government. But wait. Then the station announced that Bishop, 39, had been deposed by his Finance Minister, Bernard Coard, also 39. No, hold on. Now Coard was resigning so he could clear his name of the "vicious rumor" that he and his wife Phyllis had plotted to kill the Prime Minister.

Whatever was really going on in the seaside capital of St. George's remained a mystery, perhaps even to the participants. Callers to the Prime Minister's office were told that staff members were sorry, but everybody was too tied up in meetings to come to the telephone. In another bizarre twist, charter flights into Grenada were politely informed that sure, they could land, as long as they were not carrying any Grenadians as passengers. Most islanders were too muddled by the proceedings even to choose sides.

The reports did confirm what citizens had been gossiping about for months: not only were the charismatic Bishop and the brilliant Coard intense rivals, their wives were barely on speaking terms. More serious matters also might have been at stake. Last month Bishop accepted a $14.1 million loan from the International Monetary Fund. Some factions may have suspected Bishop of agreeing to tone down his socialist rhetoric in exchange for the money, particularly after Bishop's closed-door meetings last spring at the U.S. State Department with a group that included National Security Adviser William Clark.

The squabble marked the first open split among Bishop's youthful band, who staged a real coup in 1979 with only 40 men and a handful of creaky weapons. At the end of last week came the humiliating news that the People's Revolutionary Army would step in to restore order. What happens now? Tune in next week, same station. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.