Gunfire and smoke have pierced through Kingston’s skies for days, but for some Jamaicans the bloodshed offers hope — that the long-cozy relationship between governments and gangs may be snapped.
Since independence from Britain in 1962, the nation’s two major parties have barely hidden their links to gangs who were convenient in bringing out votes at election time and overseeing slums where even many Jamaicans dare not tread.
When Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared a state of emergency on Sunday to capture Christopher “Dudus” Coke, he was targeting not a rival but a supporter of his own Jamaica Labour Party.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Golding acted, after months of hesitation, on an extradition request from the US which accuses Coke of running a network that supplies New York and other major eastern cities with much of its cocaine and marijuana.
However, Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said Coke’s whereabouts were unclear and declined on Wednesday to comment even on whether authorities were certain he was still in the country.
Despite a mounting death toll in western Kingston, many Jamaicans removed from the area have welcomed what they believe could be the beginning of the end of so-called “garrison politics.”
Ricardo Thomas, 30, who works at a coffeehouse, said there was only so long that politicians could keep ties to a figure sought by the US.
“When there is a rat that starts to stink in your house, it’s time to do some cleaning,” Thomas said.
The Reverend Earlmont Williams, the pastor of a local church, said: “It’s unbelievable, it’s very sad, but I believe that what is happening here could be the dawn of a new day.”
“This was the mother of all garrisons,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of resources, a lot of time and probably a lot of lives as we try to get rid of this cancerous disease.”
Williams said gang kingpins owed their popularity to the failure of the government to improve life in crowded slums blighted by poverty, crime and unemployment.
“They tried, but they didn’t have a sustained program of socioeconomic empowerment,” he said.
Instead, Coke and other druglords have nurtured fanatical support by providing protection, schooling and food to slum dwellers. In turn, experts say that residents are expected to help the dons with anything he may desire — from help running from the law to finding young girls to perform sexual favors.
Some experts are skeptical that Jamaica can change its ways.
Michael Chettleburgh, a Canadian expert on crime and author of Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs, said politicians would find it difficult to go without thugs at the street level for the next election.
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