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Unrest Grows in Jamaica in 3rd Day of Standoff
Mark Brown/European Pressphoto Agency
A man injured during the clashes was taken to the hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, on Tuesday.
MEXICO CITY — Fierce fighting between Jamaican security forces and gunmen trying to protect a powerful gang leader extended into a third day on Tuesday in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, highlighting a convoluted political system in which Jamaican politicians and crime bosses have long teamed up to share power.
Related
Mark Brown/EFE, via European Pressphoto Agency
Soldiers battled groups opposed to the extradition of the crime boss Christopher Coke to the United States.
Enlarge This Image
Jamaica Constabulary Force, via Reuters
Christopher Coke, a kingpin, is wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges.
The police on Tuesday provided their first account of the toll of the fighting in the capital: 26 gang members and other civilians have been killed and 25 wounded. The government said three police officers and soldiers had also been killed. Two more people were killed Monday night in Spanish Town, outside Kingston, the authorities said.
The conflict, which prompted the government to declare a state of emergency over the weekend, pits supporters of Christopher Coke, wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges, against the government of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who has relied on Mr. Coke’s influence to win votes in the west Kingston neighborhood that both men share.
Mr. Golding had initially fought an effort by the United States to extradite Mr. Coke. But when criticism grew both at home and abroad and his government hung in the balance, Mr. Golding backed down and agreed to send Mr. Coke, one of the island’s most notorious crime bosses, to face the charges against him in New York.
That is when Mr. Coke’s backers began barricading streets and wielding weapons in his Tivoli Gardens stronghold in west Kingston to keep the police and soldiers at bay.
The police reported Tuesday that a total of 211 people had been detained, and that guns, ammunition and bulletproof vests had been recovered. Local television images showed people scattering in all directions, with some breaking into boarded-up businesses.
The fighting at times blocked access to Kingston’s airport and prompted the State Department to urge American citizens not to travel to Kingston, a city that even in the best of times has dangerous pockets.
In a nationwide address on Sunday, Mr. Golding said the standoff might just loosen the grip that gangs have on the country.
“This will be a turning point for us as a nation to confront the powers of evil that have penalized the society and earned us the unenviable label as one of the murder capitals of the world,” Mr. Golding said.
Jamaican politicians, no matter their party, know that their political survival often depends on the men Jamaicans call dons, inner-city emperors who hold enormous sway over their communities and pull in huge sums from both legitimate and illegitimate means.
In the case of Mr. Coke, who is known as Dudus, he has a consulting company that has earned millions of dollars in government contracts. According to an indictment handed down by the Justice Department, he also controls cocaine and marijuana trafficking operations in New York and other American cities. Proceeds, prosecutors say, are used to buy firearms that help protect Mr. Coke and his backers from arrest.
Mr. Coke’s lawyers have been in negotiations with American officials in hopes of bringing an end to the armed standoff. But there was widespread fear that the situation could spin further out of control.
An essential element of Mr. Coke’s enterprise is the support it receives from the Jamaica Labour Party, one of two main political parties in Jamaica. At election time, Mr. Golding, who represents the Tivoli Gardens area that Mr. Coke controls, has benefited from the support of Mr. Coke and his men, who have helped get out the vote in the party’s favor, according to Jamaican politicians from both parties.
The People’s National Party, although strongly critical of the Golding-Coke connection, has similar arrangements with dons of its own. “This has been part of our history,” said Victor Cummings, a former member of Parliament from the People’s National Party. “It’s been institutionalized. Every politician knows who the dons in their area are. If you want to be elected, you have to know them and you need their support.”
Mr. Cummings knows the system well. He said he initially dealt with the dons but later lost his political backing when he tried to sidestep them. He also has a familial connection with the Jamaican underworld: His brother, Donald Phipps, who is known as Zekes, is a don who is now in jail.
The dons command strong community support, a mixture of fear and respect. With the government doing little to improve the lives of poor, inner-city residents, the dons often fill the void, buying food, sending neighborhood children to school and sponsoring raucous parties.
“They are the godfather, and they provide protection in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Cummings, whose words were interrupted by sounds of gunfire in the background as he spoke by telephone on Monday not far from the fighting.
Among the hundreds of residents who held a demonstration to back Mr. Coke last week was one hoisting a placard that read, “After God, then Dudus.”
The system goes back generations. When Mr. Coke’s father died under mysterious circumstances in 1992 while also facing extradition to the United States, the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party at the time, Edward Seaga, led his funeral procession.
After the Jamaican government initially balked in sending Mr. Coke to the United States, the State Department complained publicly. In its annual narcotics control report issued in March, the State Department said Mr. Coke’s well-known links to the governing party highlighted “the potential depth of corruption in the government.”
A businessman who knows Mr. Coke insisted that he did not support the idea of dons but nonetheless considered Mr. Coke a stabilizing force.
“Because of his ongoing and long-term presence he has been a stabilizing force to allow business people and civil society in the area to exist in a way that successive elected governments have been unable to guarantee,” said the man, who spoke on the condition he not be identified out of fear of antagonizing Mr. Coke or his backers.
“A lot of this has to do with the failure of government. He shouldn’t exist, but until the government can take up the responsibility for proper governance of Jamaica then we are better served with him existing, simply.”
Ross Sheil contributed reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 26, 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.
Mark Brown/European Pressphoto AgencyA man injured during the clashes was taken to the hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, on Tuesday.
MEXICO CITY — Fierce fighting between Jamaican security forces and gunmen trying to protect a powerful gang leader extended into a third day on Tuesday in Kingston, the Jamaican capital, highlighting a convoluted political system in which Jamaican politicians and crime bosses have long teamed up to share power.
Related
- The Lede Blog: Following Jamaica's State of Emergency Online (May 25, 2010)
Mark Brown/EFE, via European Pressphoto Agency
Soldiers battled groups opposed to the extradition of the crime boss Christopher Coke to the United States.
Enlarge This Image
Jamaica Constabulary Force, via Reuters
Christopher Coke, a kingpin, is wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges.
The police on Tuesday provided their first account of the toll of the fighting in the capital: 26 gang members and other civilians have been killed and 25 wounded. The government said three police officers and soldiers had also been killed. Two more people were killed Monday night in Spanish Town, outside Kingston, the authorities said.
The conflict, which prompted the government to declare a state of emergency over the weekend, pits supporters of Christopher Coke, wanted in the United States on gun and drug charges, against the government of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who has relied on Mr. Coke’s influence to win votes in the west Kingston neighborhood that both men share.
Mr. Golding had initially fought an effort by the United States to extradite Mr. Coke. But when criticism grew both at home and abroad and his government hung in the balance, Mr. Golding backed down and agreed to send Mr. Coke, one of the island’s most notorious crime bosses, to face the charges against him in New York.
That is when Mr. Coke’s backers began barricading streets and wielding weapons in his Tivoli Gardens stronghold in west Kingston to keep the police and soldiers at bay.
The police reported Tuesday that a total of 211 people had been detained, and that guns, ammunition and bulletproof vests had been recovered. Local television images showed people scattering in all directions, with some breaking into boarded-up businesses.
The fighting at times blocked access to Kingston’s airport and prompted the State Department to urge American citizens not to travel to Kingston, a city that even in the best of times has dangerous pockets.
In a nationwide address on Sunday, Mr. Golding said the standoff might just loosen the grip that gangs have on the country.
“This will be a turning point for us as a nation to confront the powers of evil that have penalized the society and earned us the unenviable label as one of the murder capitals of the world,” Mr. Golding said.
Jamaican politicians, no matter their party, know that their political survival often depends on the men Jamaicans call dons, inner-city emperors who hold enormous sway over their communities and pull in huge sums from both legitimate and illegitimate means.
In the case of Mr. Coke, who is known as Dudus, he has a consulting company that has earned millions of dollars in government contracts. According to an indictment handed down by the Justice Department, he also controls cocaine and marijuana trafficking operations in New York and other American cities. Proceeds, prosecutors say, are used to buy firearms that help protect Mr. Coke and his backers from arrest.
Mr. Coke’s lawyers have been in negotiations with American officials in hopes of bringing an end to the armed standoff. But there was widespread fear that the situation could spin further out of control.
An essential element of Mr. Coke’s enterprise is the support it receives from the Jamaica Labour Party, one of two main political parties in Jamaica. At election time, Mr. Golding, who represents the Tivoli Gardens area that Mr. Coke controls, has benefited from the support of Mr. Coke and his men, who have helped get out the vote in the party’s favor, according to Jamaican politicians from both parties.
The People’s National Party, although strongly critical of the Golding-Coke connection, has similar arrangements with dons of its own. “This has been part of our history,” said Victor Cummings, a former member of Parliament from the People’s National Party. “It’s been institutionalized. Every politician knows who the dons in their area are. If you want to be elected, you have to know them and you need their support.”
Mr. Cummings knows the system well. He said he initially dealt with the dons but later lost his political backing when he tried to sidestep them. He also has a familial connection with the Jamaican underworld: His brother, Donald Phipps, who is known as Zekes, is a don who is now in jail.
The dons command strong community support, a mixture of fear and respect. With the government doing little to improve the lives of poor, inner-city residents, the dons often fill the void, buying food, sending neighborhood children to school and sponsoring raucous parties.
“They are the godfather, and they provide protection in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Cummings, whose words were interrupted by sounds of gunfire in the background as he spoke by telephone on Monday not far from the fighting.
Among the hundreds of residents who held a demonstration to back Mr. Coke last week was one hoisting a placard that read, “After God, then Dudus.”
The system goes back generations. When Mr. Coke’s father died under mysterious circumstances in 1992 while also facing extradition to the United States, the leader of the Jamaica Labour Party at the time, Edward Seaga, led his funeral procession.
After the Jamaican government initially balked in sending Mr. Coke to the United States, the State Department complained publicly. In its annual narcotics control report issued in March, the State Department said Mr. Coke’s well-known links to the governing party highlighted “the potential depth of corruption in the government.”
A businessman who knows Mr. Coke insisted that he did not support the idea of dons but nonetheless considered Mr. Coke a stabilizing force.
“Because of his ongoing and long-term presence he has been a stabilizing force to allow business people and civil society in the area to exist in a way that successive elected governments have been unable to guarantee,” said the man, who spoke on the condition he not be identified out of fear of antagonizing Mr. Coke or his backers.
“A lot of this has to do with the failure of government. He shouldn’t exist, but until the government can take up the responsibility for proper governance of Jamaica then we are better served with him existing, simply.”
Ross Sheil contributed reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
A version of this article appeared in print on May 26, 2010, on page A10 of the New York edition.
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