Sir Eric Gairy; Former Leader of Grenada

Sir Eric Gairy, widely regarded as an eccentric and authoritarian leader during his 12-year term as Grenada’s prime minister, died Saturday, a close associate said. He was 75.

Gairy died at his home in Grand Anse in southern Grenada, said Jerry Romain, a top leader of Gairy’s political party. The cause of death wasn’t disclosed. Gairy suffered a stroke last year.

Gairy dominated politics on this Caribbean island for three decades, and became Grenada’s first prime minister after independence from Britain in 1974. He was accused of numerous human rights abuses, and a paramilitary band of thugs, dubbed the “Mongoose Gang,” terrorized scores of his opponents.

From 1967 until his ouster in a 1979 coup, Gairy personally approved government spending and hiring decisions and granted contracts to his supporters. He responded to growing dissent with repression and restrictions on organized labor and the news media.

The eccentric Gairy urged the United Nations to investigate UFOs and despite his political stature once accepted an invitation to judge a Miss World beauty contest.

On March 12, 1979, Gairy left Grenada for talks at the United Nations on UFOs. The next day, Maurice Bishop of the opposition New Jewel Movement overthrew Gairy’s government. The United States gave Gairy refuge but quickly recognized the new People’s Revolutionary Government.

A rift in Bishop’s government led to his assassination, along with 10 other people, on Oct. 19, 1983. Six days later, U.S. Marines and paratroopers, along with a small regional force, invaded the island and ousted a Marxist junta that had seized power.

Gairy returned home and campaigned for his Grenada United Labor Party. He told supporters that he was a different man from the high-living “Uncle Gairy” who ran the island before the 1979 coup.

But his party lost elections in 1984, 1990 and 1995. On June 7, 1996, he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized in Venezuela.