|
Caribbean Islands Political Violence
Although the political system has enjoyed a tradition of
stability, a darker side of politics--endemic violence--intruded
increasingly on public consciousness after the mid-1970s. Violence
has characterized Jamaican politics since the slavery era and has
surfaced at times of protest or repression. Almost every general or
municipal election since independence has been preceded and
followed by gang warfare, street outbreaks, and occasional
assassinations.
The first use of guns in Jamaican politics reportedly took
place in Seaga's West Kingston constituency in the months before
the 1967 election between Seaga and PNP politician Dudley Thompson.
The political tension heightened after Walter Rodney, a Guyanese
university professor and Black Power movement advocate (see Glossary), was banned from Jamaica in October 1968. The government
of Prime Minister Shearer suppressed the riots that ensued.
The level of political violence escalated dramatically in the
1976 election campaign, in which 162 persons were killed. The
political disorder and rising crime caused the Manley government to
declare a state of emergency that remained in effect until June
1977. Some observers blamed the JLP for the sharply increased
political violence in the late 1970s, but others attributed it to
PNP militants linked to Cuba. More likely, extremist elements of
the three parties--PNP, JLP, and WPJ--all bore some responsibility
for the increase. These parties are all known to have employed and
armed thugs and criminals at election time. In 1979-80 Estrada,
Cubia's Ambassador to Jamaica, aided an extreme left PNP faction in
smuggling an estimated 600 M-16 assault rifles into Jamaica from
Cuba. Some of these automatic weapons originated from former United
States stockpiles in Vietnam; others may have been obtained from
black-market sources by JLP extremists. Their use during the ninemonth 1980 election campaign escalated the level of violence in
Jamaican politics. Rampant electoral violence during that period
left 745 persons dead, including one member of Parliament.
In contrast with 1980, the 1983 and 1986 elections were
generally peaceful. Whereas political and gang feuds had accounted
for 19 percent of all murders in 1984, this percentage declined to
12.2 in 1986. At the inauguration of the new Parliament in January
1984, however, Manley led about 7,000 PNP supporters in
demonstrations against Seaga's snap elections, resulting in 4
persons killed and 160 arrested. A municipal election code of
conduct between the JLP and PNP minimized violence in the local
elections of July 29, 1986. Nevertheless, there were some reports
of beatings of electoral clerks, the seizure of polling stations by
armed men, harassment of voters, and a mob killing.
By raising popular expectations and not fulfilling them,
Jamaica's political parties and governmental leaders were partly
responsible for the alienation and protest that surfaced in
violence. Until Manley's tenure at Jamaica House in the 1970s, each
party in power had followed cautious policies designed to maintain
the status quo, so as not to lose domestic or foreign sources of
funds. In addition, on several occasions governments formed by each
party attempted to use repression to control violence, thereby
setting up a chain reaction. The legal system was not effective in
dealing with politically motivated violence because suspects,
victims, and witnesses remained silent and because police were
reluctant to get involved in political disputes. In the interests
of security, governments resorted to armed police, martial law, or
emergency powers, practices which sometimes resulted in violent
protests.
The nation's political violence derives from the socioeconomic
structure of Jamaican politics, that is, social stratification
along racial and economic class lines. Increasing political,
social, and economic polarization in Jamaica has contributed to
both political and criminal violence. According to Stone, it is
rooted in what he has called bullyism, or a propensity to resort to
violence, that is deeply ingrained in Jamaican culture. For
example, since 1960s armed gangs have "ruled" some ghetto areas of
Kingston, using violence and intimidation against anyone suspected
of sympathizing with a rival party. These and other gangs,
consisting of hardened criminals and numbering up to 3,000 members,
have been blamed by observers for much of the street and electoral
violence in Kingston since the late 1960s. Some groups believed or
were led to believe that their sectional interests, such as race
identity, would not be served by either of the two political
parties and that violent expression of demands was an alternate
form of participation in the national political process. Violence
also erupted occasionally as a result of trade union rivalries,
which were underscored by the affiliation of the major unions with
political parties. In a speech given at the PNP annual conference
on September 20, 1987, Manley made an emotional call for an end to
"political tribalism" in Jamaica.
No known armed terrorist or guerrilla group was active in
Jamaica in the first half of 1987, but there had been occasional
subversive incidents on the island in the 1980s and several armed
groups had been linked to such activities. The Seaga government
tied several subversive and criminal activities in Jamaica to
Cuban-trained extremists. In a speech to Parliament in 1984, for
example, Spaulding, then minister of national security and justice,
blamed the violence against policemen on the Hot Steppers Gang. The
minister described gang members as "specially trained and highly
motivated persons who constitute a special threat to Jamaica's
security," and he linked the group to drug trafficking and Cuba,
which, he alleged, provided guerrilla training for gang members.
Spaulding also charged that the gang had political links with
people in the top echelons of the WPJ, as well as with PNP
activists. Although security forces dispersed the gang from its
camps in the Wareika Hills in 1984, in 1985-87 there were several
armed attacks by unidentified groups against police stations, from
which weapons were stolen. The Seaga government blamed the WPJ for
several bank robberies.\
As of 1987, Jamaica had not been subjected to any significant
acts of international terrorism. Nevertheless, the country has
expressed concern about the potential threat of terrorism and has
subscribed to the principal international antiterrorism
conventions. In a UN speech in October 1986, Foreign Minister
Shearer called for a strengthened international law against
hostage-taking, as well as consideration of a UN convention on the
suppression of international terrorism. The Suppression of Crime
Act empowers the government to combat terrorism. At the request of
the Seaga government, the House of Representatives has extended
this Act at six-month intervals.
Data as of November 1987
|
