October 25, 1983 - Mary Eugenia Charles - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Prime Minister Eugenia Charles stands with Ronald Reagan announcing Grenada invasion. Mary Eugenia Charles was born on May 15, 1919 in the village of Pointe Michel, Dominica, an island nation of 290 square kilometres in the Caribbean Sea. Eugenia went to school in Canada, graduating from the University of Toronto, then attended the London School of Economics before heading back home to become a lawyer in 1949. Charles practiced law for years until the Labour government passed laws restricting criticism of the government, prompting her to enter politics. She was elected to Parliament in 1970 under the new Dominica Freedom Party and became and leader of the Opposition in 1975. In 1979 Dominica became fully independent from Britain and in July 1980 Charles was elected prime minister, a post she held until June 1995. When elected prime minister, she became the first woman prime minister in the Caribbean and the first black woman to lead a country. She soon became known as the “Iron Lady of the Caribbean” for her political leanings. She was a staunch anti-communist and her notoriety came when on October 25, 1983, she stood on the steps of the White House in Washington with President Ronald Reagan as he announced the American invasion of Grenada. The power struggle within the communist regime in Grenada gave the American government the opportunity to take action against a country with strong ties to Cuba and the Soviet Union. Although Reagan said American students in Grenada were at risk, others strongly disputed that analysis. Charles survived her own coup attempts while in office, and she hanged one of the men involved. On September 6, 2005, some ten years after her retirement from politics, Charles died in Martinique.

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