Most Grenadians, not to mention those outside of Grenada, are unaware of the following facts about John ‘Chalky’ Ventour:

• He was not a member of the 22-person People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG);

• He was not a member of the 11-person Cabinet of the Government of Grenada;

• Except for the first days and weeks following March 13^th, 1979, when, like thousands of Grenadians, he took part in the overthrow of Gairy and consolidation of the Revolution, he was not a member of the People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA);

• He was not a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC).

Why, then, was he arrested by U.S. soldiers and tried and convicted of killing Maurice Bishop and others? To understand the reasons for this, we must understand two things about Ventour: he was one of NJM’s leaders and he was a leader in the trade union movement. Let us start with the first of the two reasons for his frame up:

John ‘Chalky’ Ventour is one of the most outstanding Trade Unionists Grenada has produced in the last fifty years.

• In August 1977, when only twenty (20) years of age, he was elected General Secretary of the Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (CIWU);

• He was reelected to this position in the CIWU in 1978,1979,1980 and 1981;

• In July 1982 he was elected President of the CIWU, and reelected President in July 1983;

• He was elected General Secretary of the Grenada Trade Union Council (TUC), Grenada’s umbrella body of trade unions, in March 1980;

• He was reelected General Secretary of the TUC in 1981, 1982, and 1983.

John ‘Chalky’ Ventour was therefore the President of the CIWU and the General Secretary of the TUC at the time of the U.S. invasion. He was imprisoned by United States invasion and occupation troops for the same reason that Chester Humphrey, another outstanding Grenadian Trade Unionist, was: BECAUSE he was an outstanding workers’ leader, and the Reagan administration wished to replace militant, incorruptible trade union and other leaders with their puppets. In Chester Humprey’s case, they had him held in Richmond Hill Prison for two years without bail, while they sought to have him extradited to the U.S. to face arms smuggling charges. In the meantime, they called a meeting of his union (TAWU), at which there was less than a quarter of the number required for a quorum, and illegally elected a manager in one of the companies represented by TAWU as the new President of the Union to replace Chester Humphrey! When the Grenada Court of Appeal finally dismissed the extradition request against him because of the statute of limitations and other reasons and freed Humphrey, the Occupation Forces and their local puppets tried to keep him from running for reelection as President of his union on the grounds that he was no longer a member of the union (TAWU), as he had missed paying membership dues while in prison (a claim that was in any case false)! [Indeed, they tried the same thing in the case of Ventour’s union (CIWU) on January 11, 1984. While he was in his prison cell, the Americans used a Grenadian who had migrated to the U.S. (and had returned soon after the Invasion) to call a CIWU meeting to elect a new President. However, the workers almost bodily removed him from that meeting.

                            They Framed Ventour For The Same Reason

                                           They Tried To Frame De Riggs…

John ‘Chalky’ Ventour was also singled out for framing on murder charges because of being a leader in Grenada’s governing party under the Revolution, the NJM. The proof of this can be seen from what happened to Christopher De Riggs. He was a member of NJM’s leadership, and the Minister of Health in the PRG. He was fortunate to have left Grenada on October 12^th , and returned to Grenada on October 24^th, 1983. Embarrassingly for the foreign police torturers and foreign prosecutors, none of them was aware of this. As a result, they tortured an army Major for twenty three hours to get him to state, in a signed ‘confession’, inter alia, that Christopher De Riggs was in a (mythical) meeting of the CC of NJM in Bernard Coard’s home on the morning of October 19^th, 1983 – at the very moment when he was several thousand miles away, in Sweden, successfully negotiating with the Swedish government a grant of five million U.S. dollars for Grenada, for the purchase of medicines and the building of health clinics! [This false testimony is still part of the official prosecution case against the Grenada 17, and can be found in the 34-volume official Court Record!] Had De Riggs not been speaking with the Swedish government, in Sweden, at the time of October 19^th, 1983, he too would be still in Richmond Hill Prison, serving a life sentence for murdering Maurice Bishop! [Even so, the U.S. Occupation Forces kept him in prison, without charge, for 7½ months before being finally forced to release him.]

In December 1983, U.S. Investigators Declared Ventour Innocent…

That the U.S. Invasion and Occupation Forces knew of Ventour’s complete innocence of the charge of murder, can be seen from the following incident. The Americans had two of their top investigators (who called themselves only by first names: ‘John’ and ‘Forrest’) interrogate literally hundreds of Grenadians about the events of October 19^th, 1983. They questioned NJM party members, soldiers, members of the public, and took detailed statements from everyone, which they then cross-checked with other people and with documents, etc. In December 1983, they informed Ventour – and several members of the Grenada 17, including Cecil Prime – that they had formally recommended that he (and the others) be freed immediately, as there was no evidence of his (and the others they spoke to) involvement in the death of Maurice Bishop and others. One week later, with Ventour still detained in prison without charge, one of these two U.S. official investigators returned, clearly embarrassed, to announce that their recommendation had been rejected ‘at higher levels’, and that these ‘higher levels’ had taken a political decision to prosecute Ventour for the murder of Maurice Bishop and others.

 Now, Secret U.S. Documents Suggest That

Now, with a U.S. Court Order to the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies to hand over certain documents regarding the case of the Grenada 17, we discover that, towards the very end of the presentation of arguments by both the defense and prosecution before the (unconstitutional) Grenada Court of Appeal, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) is telling the Political Officer of the United States Embassy in Grenada that she believed that both Ventour and Prime would be freed by the Appeal Court, AND THAT SHE DID NOT DISAGREE WITH A DECISION TO FREE JOHN VENTOUR!!! This could only mean that Hylton never believed that Ventour was guilty! What other reason could there be for saying that she would not disagree with such a decision? And this fits in perfectly with the original conclusion of the U.S. investigators, back in October 1983-December 1983 – before their political bosses overruled them.

Who Ever Said Money Can’t Talk?…

At the time that the DPP, Velma Hylton, revealed this information about what the Court of Appeal was likely to do with respect to Ventour and Prime (namely, free them of the murder conviction and send them home) in August 1990, she said that the Court would be giving its ruling ‘within six weeks’. But, eleven months later – having demanded an additional US$650,000 from the government of Grenada to render its verdict, PRESTO!! – the Court found both Ventour and Prime and all the others (surprise, surprise) guilty!!

Free Ventour NOW!!

In the meantime, John ‘Chalky’ Ventour who devoted his entire adult life – since age 20 – to trade union work on behalf of the workers of Grenada, remains in prison. He is serving a life sentence for a crime he clearly did not commit – and which his accusers have secretly acknowledged he did not commit. He has already spent seventeen (17) years behind bars, his family life destroyed, his good character callously assassinated. Successive Grenadian governments have refused to release him, or to repeal an oppressive law – Act #19 of 1991 – which was passed to specifically prevent Ventour and his co-accused having their case heard and determined by the highest court of Grenada’s constitution, the Privy Council. ALL OTHER GRENADIANS HAVE THAT RIGHT EXCEPT VENTOUR AND THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GRENADA 17.

The time has come to put an end to this criminal injustice. We call upon all who read this to:

1. Contact your local and national trade unions, inform them of Ventour’s circumstances, and seek to get them involved in an international campaign to free the brother NOW, or let him take his case before Grenada’s highest court, the Privy Council.

2. Contact your local church, and your national church organizations to get them to do likewise;

3. Contact your local and national, and also international human rights bodies to do likewise;

4. Contact your local MP, MEP, Congressman, Senator, government minister, etc, and seek to get them involved also;

5. Seek to get your local and national media (newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, etc.) to become interested, and to publish letters from you on Ventour’s case;

6. Write to all the Heads (Prime Ministers) of CARICOM governments, calling on them to use their good offices with the Grenada government to put an end, immediately, to this injustice;

7. Write to the Prime Minister (and other Cabinet Ministers) of Grenada. Let him (them) know that their continued incarceration of Ventour (and all other political prisoners) is hurting the image of Grenada internationally, and will adversely affect both tourism and investment in the country;

8. Write to the (i) President of the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce; (ii) The President of the Grenada Hotels Association; (iii) The Grenada’s Employers Federation (St. George’s, Grenada, West Indies, in each case) calling on them and their membership to intervene in the case of Ventour (and other Political Prisoners) to ensure immediate release OR the taking of the case to the Privy Council, in order to avoid growing damage to the country’s tourist and investment climate;

9. Write to U.S. Senators and House Representatives, calling for a Congressional Inquiry into U.S. Agencies interference into Grenada’s Judicial Process with respect to the case of the Grenada 17; and the handing over of all U.S. government documents re this;

10. Make a personal financial contribution, and actively solicit from your family and friends, and trade unions and NGO contacts, that they do likewise, to the Defense Fund so that Ventour can retain a top lawyer to fight his case in the Courts (by way of Constitutional Motion and other means which may be advocated by such legal counsel.