The Grenada International Airport, whose Cuba-sponsored construction spearheaded the United States invasion of 1983, was renamed Maurice Bishop International Airport in honor of the slain revolutionary leader. The renaming ceremony took place on Friday May 29^th, Bishop’s birth date (he would have been 65). Bishop died during a bloody internal uprising in 1983, executed with members of his government by a firing squad. A new departure lounge will also be unveiled at the airport, which was formally opened on October 28, 1984. His mother Alimenta Bishop was present at this weekend’s ceremony, along with other members of his family. St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who delivered the main address at the dedication ceremony, said the renaming was “an act of the Grenadian people coming home to themselves, out of the agony and compromises, pain and joy. Grenada and Maurice has come home symbolically and in reality…this belated honor to an outstanding Caribbean son will bring closure to a chapter of denial in Grenada’s history,” he said.

The renaming project, ordered by the 10-month-old Tillman Thomas administration, has been embroiled in much controversy with critics suggesting that the honor was not befitting of the man who had years earlier deposed the duly elected leader, Eric Gairy, in a revolution.

A vigil was took place at the airport from 7 p.m. Friday until midnight, led by former leader of the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement (MBPM) Terrence Marryshow and former Grenadian ambassador to Cuba Vyra Mc Queen, who have been advocating for the name change for some years now.

In 1979, I had the privilege to spend an afternoon with Maurice Bishop in Santo Domingo, accompanying him as guide and interpreter through his scheduled engagements when he visited the Dominican Republic to attend the inauguration of Dominican President Antonio Guzmán. One of the subjects of discussion through the afternoon—as we waited in traffic or cooled our heels waiting for official photographs to be taken—was the planned construction of the airport and the benefits that would accrue to Grenada from it. It was a discussion that included how to secure the necessary funding and which was joined briefly by Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos (who would himself die two years later in a suspicious plane crash). It was, needless to say, aun unforgettable afternoon.

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