Grenada ministers protest cabinet reshuffle
0 
One minister has resigned from the Grenada Cabinet and the ruling party's parliamentary team – and all eyes are on two others as the government of this Caribbean nation grapples with a potential crisis following a Cabinet re-shuffle last week by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas.
Former Environment Minister Michael Church, who was part of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) team that overwhelmingly won the last general election in 2008, on Monday tendered his resignation from the Cabinet of Ministers after he was demoted by the Prime Minister.
Church will now serve as an Independent member of the multi-island state's 15-seat parliament.
Thomas, whose majority of 11 seats has now been reduced to 10 by Church's resignation, explained that he had demoted the minister for attending a meeting in Switzerland without his consent or that of the Cabinet.
"Mr. Church has done something totally out of the way. He went to Geneva without Cabinet authority, so that is why he has been demoted," he said.
Two other ministers, who, with Church, absented themselves from a swearing-in ceremony for their reassigned portfolios at the Office of the Governor General last Friday (November 19), have taken up their new Cabinet posts.
But political tensions continue to run high on the 133 square mile (344 square kilometer) tri-island state of Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique, where the parliamentary and political opposition are hoping to cash-in on the government's latest internal problems.
It all began when Prime Minister Thomas on Thursday (November 18) announced the Cabinet reshuffle and named new ministers of Foreign Affairs, Tourism, Labor and Works.
