The solution surfaced the next day, Friday, October 21. Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica, another small Caribbean island, headed a group called the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States. They were meeting that day in Barbados, and word was sent to them that the likelihood of U.S. military action would be substantially increased if they requested it. The OECS decided to do so, phrasing their request for U.S. assistance to restore order and democracy on Grenada. The oral request was passed to the White House, which, in turn, asked that the OECS issue a formal written request for intervention.
Charles was a sixty-four-year-old passionately pro-American leader who Motley felt made British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher seem like a kitten. Menges considered her a Caribbean Jeane Kirkpatrick. In 1982, the United States had begun supplying funds to build a thirty-mile, $10 million road on Dominica.
CIA records show that at one point $100,000 had been passed to her government for a secret support operation. For the CIA, the $100,000 provided supplemental leverage, and a key senator on the Intelligence Committee considered it a “payoff.” Charles firmly denied any knowledge of any direct payment to her, her party or her government. She said that her decision to request U.S. intervention was based solely on her assessment and that of the leaders of the other islands in the group, Antigua, St. Lucia and St. Vincent.