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Cable: Jamaica mayor turned to Coke to fight crime
<span style="font-size: 14pt">KINGSTON, Jamaica -- A U.S. diplomatic cable leaked Wednesday says the mayor of Jamaica's biggest city acknowledged forging an alliance of convenience with an alleged drug baron to reduce crime in a sprawling patchwork of gritty slums.
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The September 2009 cable says that Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a U.S. Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher "Dudus" Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labor Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission. It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian.
Coke was the alleged crime "don" of Tivoli Gardens, providing services and a lawless, violent sort of order in the slums.
McKenzie "predicted that there would be 'severe repercussions' and 'collateral damage' if Coke were arrested, and that this would "risk destroying everything the government was trying to do on the economy and crime,'" the leaked U.S. communique said.
In fact, at least 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the U.S. request for nine months - even to the point of hiring a U.S. lobbyist to oppose it.
The diplomatic cable was written in August 2009, days after the U.S. first asked Jamaica to extradite Coke to face federal drug and weapons-trafficking charges in New York. The U.S. indictment accused Coke of leading the "Shower Posse" - a gang with agents in Jamaica and the United States that was named for its tendency to spray victims with bullets.
<span style="font-size: 17pt">Jamaica has a long history of politicians forging alliances with gangsters in vote-rich ghettoes. The political parties built the gangs: Dons received government contracts, and in exchange delivered the votes of their people. Slum dwellers were caught in the middle.
Still, the image of a powerful Jamaican mayor working for years on crime-fighting strategies with a man portrayed by the U.S. Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins is stark, especially since Kingston is a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.
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McKenzie's main office line at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation went unanswered Wednesday.
The government's information minister,<span style="font-size: 17pt"> Daryl Vaz,</span> did not immediately provide comment about the WikiLeaks cable.
Washington's extradition request for Coke immediately became a problem for the Jamaican government because the reputed gang leader was widely known for loyalty to the governing party. The U.S. cable says that Coke was reputedly close to leading figures within Golding's Jamaica Labor Party, including McKenzie.
washington post
STORY A COME TO BUMP .Is this the beginning of the end for some politicians in Jamaica. Jamaica dutty clothes de pon lightpost top.
<span style="font-size: 14pt">KINGSTON, Jamaica -- A U.S. diplomatic cable leaked Wednesday says the mayor of Jamaica's biggest city acknowledged forging an alliance of convenience with an alleged drug baron to reduce crime in a sprawling patchwork of gritty slums.
</span>
The September 2009 cable says that Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a U.S. Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher "Dudus" Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.
McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labor Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission. It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian.
Coke was the alleged crime "don" of Tivoli Gardens, providing services and a lawless, violent sort of order in the slums.
McKenzie "predicted that there would be 'severe repercussions' and 'collateral damage' if Coke were arrested, and that this would "risk destroying everything the government was trying to do on the economy and crime,'" the leaked U.S. communique said.
In fact, at least 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the U.S. request for nine months - even to the point of hiring a U.S. lobbyist to oppose it.
The diplomatic cable was written in August 2009, days after the U.S. first asked Jamaica to extradite Coke to face federal drug and weapons-trafficking charges in New York. The U.S. indictment accused Coke of leading the "Shower Posse" - a gang with agents in Jamaica and the United States that was named for its tendency to spray victims with bullets.
<span style="font-size: 17pt">Jamaica has a long history of politicians forging alliances with gangsters in vote-rich ghettoes. The political parties built the gangs: Dons received government contracts, and in exchange delivered the votes of their people. Slum dwellers were caught in the middle.
Still, the image of a powerful Jamaican mayor working for years on crime-fighting strategies with a man portrayed by the U.S. Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins is stark, especially since Kingston is a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.
</span>
McKenzie's main office line at the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation went unanswered Wednesday.
The government's information minister,<span style="font-size: 17pt"> Daryl Vaz,</span> did not immediately provide comment about the WikiLeaks cable.
Washington's extradition request for Coke immediately became a problem for the Jamaican government because the reputed gang leader was widely known for loyalty to the governing party. The U.S. cable says that Coke was reputedly close to leading figures within Golding's Jamaica Labor Party, including McKenzie.
washington post
STORY A COME TO BUMP .Is this the beginning of the end for some politicians in Jamaica. Jamaica dutty clothes de pon lightpost top.
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