George Brizan, Grenada Leader, Dies at 69 GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) - George Brizan, who served briefly as prime minister of Grenada and help found the Caribbean nation's ruling party, died here on Saturday. Prime Minister Tillman Thomas said Mr. Brizan died after a long battle with diabetes. Mr. Brizan became prime minister in February 1995 after the resignation of Prime Minister Nicholas Braithwaite. But his National Democratic Congress Party was swept out of power four months later. The party, which was elected on a no-tax platform in 1990, had angered voters by bringing back personal income taxes and imposing tight budget measures to offset huge foreign debts, cuts in United States aid and reduced agriculture income. In elections in 1999, Mr. Brizan's party lost all of its parliamentary seats. Disappointed by the defeat and suffering health problems, Mr. Brizan announced his retirement from politics. George Ignatius Brizan was born in Grenada on Oct. 31, 1942. He helped start at least three parties during more than a quarter century in politics, including the National Democratic Congress, which returned to power in 2008. He also was a member of the radical New Jewel Movement in the mid-1970s, and returned to that party as a government education administrator before the party's government was toppled in a coup by Marxist hard-liners that triggered an invasion by the United States. Mr. Brizan also worked as a professor of history and economics, author, trade union leader and consultant. He is survived by his wife and four children.