Latinnews Archive
Latin American Weekly Report - 25 June 1976
Jamaica: state of emergency
A state of emergency was declared in the wake of disturbing revelations by a leading member of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party and the discovery of arms caches in Kingston and Montego Bay. The forthcoming election campaign threatens to be the nastiest in the country's history.
Jamaica's political crisis reached a new climax last weekend as the government declared a state of emergency and the prime minister, Michael Manley, repeated his charge that the continuing violence in Kingston was being deliberately planned with the aim of 'destabilising' the country's democratic institutions.The government's decision came four days after the murder of the Peruvian ambassador, Fernando Rodriguez, apparently by burglars, and the day after Herb Rose, a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) organiser and executive member, resigned. Rose declared that the opposition party had been training young men to commit violent crimes as part of its strategy to undermine confidence in the government and win next year's election.
According to the government, the most important factor in its decision to give the security forces emergency powers was information discovered by those forces indicating that the violence which has led to 105 deaths so far this year (see Vol. X, No. 19) was part of an organised plan, and that there would be even more widespread disruption in the near future. The national security minister, Kable Munn, had previously alleged that funds were being raised abroad to buy arms for use against the Manley government. He launched a bitter attack on the five big North American bauxite companies which dominate the economy and extract in Jamaica 60% of United States bauxite requirements. A junior minister, Francis Tulloch, suggested that the murderers of the Peruvian ambassador might not have been plain criminals, and noted that it had occurred in the same weeks that the Jamaican foreign minister, Dudley Thompson, was carrying out a one-man campaign at the OAS assembly in Santiago against the excesses of the Chilean junta.
Whatever the security forces uncovered -- and this has so far not been revealed -- the accusations of Herb Rose against the former party leaders seemed to confirm all the worst fears expressed by government ministers ever since the violence exploded in front of the world press at the International Monetary Fund meeting last February. In a statement Rose claimed that violence and arson would be used by the JLP 'for striking panic and driving fear into the hearts of those who see their property and personal effects burnt to cinders'. He also said he had seen leaders of the JLP giving arms to the tough young slum-dwellers of West Kingston and the 'party's leading spokesman' telling them that 'before the PNP wins we must be able to see from Rema straight through to Half-Way Tree Clock' -- meaning that a good part of central Kingston would have to be razed to the ground to stop Manley's ruling People's National Party (PNP) winning the next election.
The PNP has every reason to believe that it will be confirmed in office next year despite the country's pressing financial problems (see last week's LAER).Its confidence is based on the popularity of the government's nationalist stand against the bauxite companies and its education, land and trade union reforms. In July and September last year it overcame the traditional mid-term disillusionment with the party in power to win four by-elections with an increased vote. Edward Seaga, the tough and pro-American ex-finance minister who now leads the JLP, has attacked the government bitterly for its management of the economy, its income redistribution policies and its rapprochement with Cuba. He now says Manley will use the state of emergency to postpone the elections, which under the constitution have to take place by June 1977. The prime minister has strongly rejected this charge.
The JLP's election chances will not have been helped by the arrest of three of their members (including two prospective party candidates) under the state of emergency regulations. The party's public relations director, Ray Miles, who is also a vice-president of the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association, was detained but later released.Strangely enough, a PNP parliamentary candidate, Edwin Singh, was also jailed, an indication that the ruling party's leadership may itself be involved in arming and training its own youth groups to do more than merely canvass for votes.
Meanwhile the suspicion of United States involvement grows.Two of the bauxite firms, Kaiser and Reynolds, have said they have paid bribes to politicans. The disclosure of names and the consequent outcry would undoubtedly boost any destabilisation plan, particularly if government members were involved.Three weeks ago the government banned a demonstration by a group of women's organisations which was ostensibly to protest against the Kingston violence, but which recalled to many the march of Chilean middle- class women against the Allende regime in 1971.
Whether JLP will be tied in with last week's arms finds remains to be seen. What is certain is that the election campaign which opens this summer will be marred by increased violence at home, and will be watched with increasing nervousness by a Washington determined to prevent the spread of socialism -- even Manley's democratic variety -- in its Caribbean bailiwick.
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