Keeping the Welcome Mat Out

By Pico Iyer

Can the U.S. restore democracy before the good will wears thin?

"Thanks be to Papa God and Daddy Reagan!" cried one exuberant islander. Local musicians sang the praises of America to a lilting calypso beat, while other townsfolk sold T shirts emblazoned with the slogan THANK YOU U.S.A. FOR LIBERATING GRENADA. When 653 Americans stepped ashore last week from the Cunard Countess, the first cruise ship to glide into St. George's since the U.S.-led invasion of Grenada last October, they received a rousing welcome. "This," said a smiling taxi driver, "is the invasion we've been waiting for." The island will greet an even more significant invader with open arms this week: U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, who will be the guest of honor at the celebration of Grenada's tenth birthday as an independent nation. Shultz may find, however, that the islanders are at present more interested in dependence. According to an informal poll conducted by Professor William Adams of George Washington University, three out of every four Grenadians would like their country to become part of the U.S. Some 60%, moreover, want Washington to increase the 275-strong American contingent that maintains order on the island. Yet behind the Spice Island's extravagant gratitude loom problems for the U.S. To justify its "rescue mission" internationally, Washington must show that it can restore democracy to the island, then withdraw its troops before the good will wears thin. Governor-General Sir Paul Scoon is Grenada's largely ceremonial leader, but the island has been run since mid-November by a nine-man advisory council made up of technocrats and civil servants.

Nicholas Brathwaite, an educator who serves as the body's chairman, told TIME last week that it was committed to holding elections within a year. But Grenada's self-confidence has been so shattered by its recent political turbulence that many citizens seem quite content to postpone elections indefinitely. Their fears have been fanned by the ominous reappearance of the island's most distinguished and distrusted politician, Sir Eric Gairy, 61. Grenada's first post-independence Prune Minister, Gairy ruled the island from 1974 until the bloodless coup staged by Maurice Bishop and his Marxist-oriented New Jewel Movement five years later. During that time, Sir Eric won dubious international fame by claiming that he had been divinely chosen and compounded it by urging the United Nations to look into UFOs. More alarming, he backed up his mysticism with despotism, choosing to police the island with an unruly pack of thugs known as the Mongoose Gang. After a five-year exile, mostly in San Diego, Gairy returned home last month claiming that he had no designs on the leadership and insisting that he had developed "better respect for moral values." But his sense of divine mission could shift at any moment. Most Grenadians believe that at the very least he will install himself as the island's mightiest powerbroker. Last week the white-shirted Gairy could be seen in his headquarters pointing with messianic fervor to a huge cross and boasting that he had won six of Grenada's last seven elections. U.S. officials concede that Washington would be highly embarrassed if democracy brought Sir Eric back to power. None of Gairy's political rivals, however, can muster much short-term confidence. Herbert Blaize, 65, leader of the Grenada National Party, maintains that "elections held too soon will not be a fair reflection of the will of the people." Chief Education Officer George Brizan, 41, is planning to form and lead the National Democratic Party, but its main draw is Robert Grant, a longtime lecturer in law who also happens to be "Soca Boca," one of the island's hottest disc jockeys. Winston Whyte, 39, who was released from four years of imprisonment during the invasion, hopes to drum up support in the villages. But he too concedes that "Gairy is the most organized force in the country." All three men are also overshadowed by the memory of Bishop, the popular former Prune Minister who has been locally regarded as a martyr ever since he was executed during last October's traumatic coup. While his former deputy and usurper, Bernard Coard, still languishes in jail awaiting trial, T shirts depicting Bishop are selling for $15 apiece in a small second-floor room now known as the Maurice Bishop Memorial Center. Yet the New Jewel Movement remains coy about its political plans. Small wonder, then, that when Professor Adams asked the islanders whom they would like to see as Prime Minister, 77% would not name any local politician; 7% wistfully chose Ronald Reagan.

That attitude largely reflects desperation over the country's economy. Unemployment, which was 14% before the invasion, has ballooned to 33%. Business is at a standstill, awaiting completion of the Cuban-built airstrip (estimated cost: at least $70 million) that the U.S. saw as a strategic threat to the region. These days the two-mile runway mainly serves as a jogging track for the U.S. charge d'affaires, Charles Gillespie. "If the U.S. doesn't do something quickly," says a local businessman, "the well of pro-American enthusiasm could run dry."

Washington has already contributed $15 million in arms and equipment to the 500 Caribbean personnel who patrol Grenada. It has also sent down eight-man Army units to train defense forces in the seven Caribbean nations that called for the U.S. invasion. But its work is far from over. At a meeting in St. George's last week, Caribbean leaders unanimously agreed that the U.S. troops would most likely have to remain at least through the elections. "As peaceful as Grenada is today," says Brathwaite, "we cannot, must not, dare not keep our guard down."

With reporting by Bernard Diederich