GRENADA - According to the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Point Salines International Airport will be renamed the Maurice Bishop International Airport from May 29 this year, the day on which the slain Grenadian leader (Maurice Bishop) would have been 65 years old. A newly built departure lounge will also be commissioned on the day of the renaming. At the time, Hon. Peter David was talking to members of the media at a press conference. This year also marks 25 years since the airport at Point Salines was opened (first opened in October 1984) and the renaming of the airport is part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations. Other activities planned by the special celebrations committee will be revealed to the nation in the fullness of time. The Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister said that the renaming of the airport came about as a result of a decision reached by Cabinet and should not be a surprise to anyone. He said that this was one of the campaign promises of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and that they were honoring that promise to the nation. The building of the international airport, he said, was the most significant economic project that has taken place in the country in recent times and its current importance towards the nation’s economy is an indication that those who undertook the building of the airport were right in their thinking. At present, moves are already afoot to have the name of the airport changed on international charts and the necessary changes are to be made locally to remove the signs with ‘Point Salines International Airport’ on them and to replace them with ‘Maurice Bishop International Airport.’ The decision to go ahead and rename the airport is bound to cause some degree of controversy and debate in the country since there are a number of persons, both inside and outside of Grenada, who will be bitterly opposed to the renaming of the airport after such a controversial figure. Maurice Bishop was Prime Minister of Grenada from March 19, 1979 to October 19, 2003. He led a coup d’état against elected Prime Minister of Grenada, Sir Eric M. Gairy in 1979 and established a revolutionary regime. During the period of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) as his administration was known, Grenada experimented with Marxism and undertook a number of social, military, infrastructural, economic and political changes, some of which have been beneficial to the country while others were absolutely devastating and has led to a bitter polarization among the Grenadian people. This is why this period (1979 – 1983) remains one of the most controversial periods in Grenada’s turbulent history. On October 19, 1983 a long suspected power struggle within the ranks of the PRG culminated in the bloody massacre of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, other members of his government along with an unknown number of Grenadian citizens on Fort Rupert (now present headquarters of the Royal Grenada Police Force). A number of individuals from the PRG were tried and convicted for the murder of Maurice Bishop and others and were incarcerated at the Richmond Hill Prisons. A death sentence that was issued at the end of the trial was commuted to life imprisonment later on. Already, a number of these persons have been released and the others are expected to be released during the next few years as a result of a ruling which came about after a retrial. A number of persons associated with the PRG have remained in active politics and are members of the previous New National Party (NNP) administration as well as the current National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.