Gairy, Sir Eric Matthew

▪ 1998

      Grenadan politician (b. Feb. 18, 1922, St. Andrew's Parish, Grenada—d. Aug. 23, 1997, Grand Anse, Grenada), served as the first prime minister of Grenada after it gained independence from Britain in 1974. Although he was initially viewed as a champion of the working class, he turned into a ruthless dictator who silenced critics by dispatching the "Mongoose Gang," his unique security group. Born near Grenville to a peasant family, Gairy was educated at a Catholic parish school. He left Grenada during the early 1940s to seek employment, first at an American military base in Trinidad and then at an oil refinery in Aruba. After running afoul of Dutch authorities in Aruba because of his union activities, Gairy returned to Grenada in 1949. The following year he formed the Grenada Manual, Maritime and Intellectual Workers' Union and later the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP). His political efforts against the planter aristocracy won him the support of the island's poor and launched his political career in 1951, when he was elected to the Legislative Council. He became minister of trade and production in 1956 and chief minister and minister of finance in 1961. Charges of petty corruption led to his dismissal in 1962, but he and the GULP came back in 1967, and in 1974 he was elected prime minister. As prime minister, he had a tenure marred by accusations of election tampering and his eccentric claim to being divinely appointed. In 1979, while addressing the United Nations in New York City on the subject of UFOs, Gairy was ousted by the left-wing New Jewel Movement (NJM). He went into exile (1979-83) in the U.S., and though he returned home, his party failed to return to power in the elections of 1984, 1990, and 1995.

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