TO DATE 49 people have died in four days of the unsuccessful attempt to arrest and extradite one of Jamaica’s most notorious drug gang leaders or “dons”. Barricaded streets, bombings, random automatic fire, and house to house fighting between 2,000 troops and the supporters of Christopher “Dudus” Coke have turned the capital’s shanty district of Tivoli Gardens into a bloody warzone. Part of Kingston is under a state of emergency, while Coke remains at large.
Already one of the murder capitals of the world, with about 1,500 deaths a year in a population of only 2.7 million, this is the other side of the idyllic island holiday resort that its millions of tourists do not see. Jamaica’s teeming poverty-ridden slums have become refuges to the leaders of some of the most violent international criminal gangs whose links with corrupt local politicians across the political spectrum have until now allowed them impunity. The gangs, like Coke’s “Shower Posse”, maintain their heavily armed presence through a combination of fear, protection and a patronage that amounts to an unofficial welfare system.
What makes the Tivoli operation particularly unusual is that it has seen prime minister and Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) leader Bruce Golding ordering a massive military assault into the heart of his own constituency of West Kingston to root out a man who, it is widely reported though denied by Golding, was until recently one of his own most crucial supporters and vote mobilisers. But the Coke relationship with the JLP goes back a long way too – the party’s then leader Edward Seaga in 1992 presided over the funeral of Coke’s father, who had died in mysterious circumstances and was also then under extradition threat to the US.
Mr Golding had prevaricated over taking action since August when the US applied for the extradition, arguing that the warrant had been issued on the basis of illegal wiretaps. But international pressure from the state department became too much for him, forcing his hand. He now says the operation marks a turning point in the government’s war against the dons, a claim that will be met with much scepticism.
Coke is implicated in hundreds of deaths in US drug gang wars of the 1980s and the continued supply of huge quantities of drugs to New York and other US cities. (Reflecting his political contacts, he also has a consulting company that has earned millions in government contracts.) And many Jamaicans believe that if caught his testimony could yet bring down the government.