“Jamaica is an increasingly significant transshipment point for cocaine destined for the United States since it is located midway between South America and the United States. Cocaine is primarily smuggled into Jamaica by maritime methods, and the cocaine transshipped through Jamaica often is destined for the Canadian, European, and U.S. markets. Cocaine destined for the United States is usually smuggled from Jamaica to the Bahamas aboard go-fast boats. The cocaine is subsequently smuggled to the Florida coast using go-fast boats, pleasure craft, and fishing vessels.”
That’s the most extensive US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) mention I’ve been able to track down thus far describing Jamaica’s role in the global networks of drug trafficking, which reach from the Andes, through Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and West Africa and on to North America and Europe. The Caribbean island is at the center of the story this week, engulfed in violence over the last three days as state security forces face off with supporters of Christopher “Dudus” Coke, a notorious drug baron, who has controls large sections of West Kingston. The latest from the AP is that state forces have gained a “tenuous hold” on the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood where Coke is holed up.
The New York Times’ Marc Lacey begins his reporting this morning saying the situation – which began after the government of PM Bruce Golding finally attempted to arrest Coke per an extradition request from the US – highlights “a convoluted political system in which Jamaican politicians and crime bosses have long teamed up to share power.” In a national address Tuesday, Golding insisted that the crackdown seeks to break this tradition. Here’s Golding, as quoted in the Times:
“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.”
But those words seem pretty optimistic given the pervasiveness of Coke’s networks. According to the report, Coke also operates a consulting company that has “earned millions of dollars in government contracts.” A recent indictment handed down by the Justice Department, also indicates that Coke’s Shower Posse gang controls trafficking of that other coke, cocaine, (in addition to marijuana) in New York and various other US cities. And Coke has played an active role in Jamaican politics as well, mobilizing his supporters to vote for politicians from both of Jamaica’s two major parties, including the governing Labor Party of Bruce Golding.
A short blog post by the editors of the Christian Science Monitor [as well as the Wall Street Journal’s coverage], makes a brief comparison between the situations of Jamaica and Mexico. But some are saying the more apt comparison is the Colombia of Pablo Escobar – the drug lord who, unlike most of the current Mexican cartels, became famous for securing popular loyalty through the disbursement of “social services.” “Coke and his gang hand out sandwiches in the streets, send children to school, build medical and community centers – ‘all the things to ingratiate himself that Pablo Escobar used to do in Colombia,’” says Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. But unlike Colombia, the US will likely walk a very fine line with Jamaica, knowing that, any action that exacerbates economic troubles, could, in Birns’ words, set off a “large-scale illegal migration of Jamaican nationals to the U.S.” [COHA has more analysis in a recent briefing on Jamaica and the drug trade].
On casualty figures over the last three days, most are reporting somewhere between 25 and 30 civilian deaths on the island. Reports I’ve seen confirm just one security force fatality. The government, meanwhile, is trying to provide reassurance that its operations are not violating the rights of Jamaicans. According to Jamaica’s Education Minister, “This government is one that is big on protecting human rights.” More in two good video reports from Kingston, by Al-Jazeera and the BBC.
Below the headline:
· The New York Times’ top story this morning looks at President Obama’s decision yesterday to send 1200 additional US National Guardsmen to the US-Mexico border. The Washington Post adds that the president also will seek an additional $500 million for law enforcement there in an attempt to combat drug smuggling – this after new demands from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The new “surge” of troops will be dispatched to four border states, say White House officials. No time frame for their arrival, however, has been set. Rick Nelson, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, calls Tuesday’s announcement a mere “symbolic gesture.” Currently 340 National Guard members are stationed at the border. And the Post says the Obama plan “echoes 2006's Operation Jump Start, in which President George W. Bush devoted 6,000 guardsmen to a two-year commitment in support of the Border Patrol.” In Mexico, a statement from the Mexican Foreign Relations Minister, Patricia Espinosa, says Mexico “trusts that the National Guardsmen will strengthen the fight against organized crime, in accordance with their duties, and will not carry out activities related to the implementation of immigration laws.” More good questions about the surge from Boz.
· Also from Mexico, the AP reports that federal police arrested the mayor of Cancún, Mexico yesterday, on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, and involvement in organized crime. The detained PRI politician, Gregorio Sanchez, had taken a leave of absence from the Cancun mayoral post to run for governor of Quintana Roo state. But, officials say, Sanchez has been offering information and protection to both the Zetas and the Beltran Leyva cartel, active in his state. The case may be the first time a gubernatorial candidate has been arrested on drug charges. However, former Quintana Roo governor Mario Villanueva was extradited to the United States just this month. He faces charges of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine and launder millions of dollars in bribe payments through Lehman Brothers in New York.
· I am trying to get access to a “subscription-only” copy of a new New Yorker investigative piece out this week by William Finnegan on La Familia cartel. But for now, I link to an interview with Finnegan on the magazine’s site. Finnegan talks “about life under La Familia rule, the cartel’s religious and political rhetoric, and the steps Mexico would have to take to combat organized crime.”
· In The New Republic, Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez, director of entrepreneurial development programs for the Sucre municipal government in Caracas, has a piece entitled “Wiki-Constitutionalism,” which is certainly worth a look. The piece looks at the history of redrafting and amending constitutions in Latin America – a trend the author sees associates with the region’s “caudillismo.” Here’s an excerpt:
“Not only are presidents exceptionally powerful [in Latin America] … but, in addition, Latin American leaders have a nasty habit of rewriting their countries' constitutions more than anywhere else in the world.
This is a phenomenon I call "Wiki-constitutionalism." In Latin America, constitutions are changed with great frequency and unusual ease (though not through any open-source collaborative process), as if they were Wikipedia pages. The evidence is staggering: The Dominican Republic has had 32 separate constitutions since its independence in 1821. Venezuela follows close behind with 26, Haiti has had 24, Ecuador 20, and Bolivia recently passed its seventeenth. In fact, over half of the 21 Latin American nations have had at least ten constitutions while, in the rest of the world, only Thailand (17), France (16), Greece (13), and Poland (10) have reached double digits.”
· One of those leaders Lansberg-Rodriguez is critical of, his own President Hugo Chavez, has just launched a new blog to match his very popular Twitter account (432,000 followers!). It can be read at chavez.org.ve. – I recommend browsing the photos.
· Meanwhile, the AP says Chavez’s top anti-corruption chief, Comptroller General Clodosbaldo Russian, has blocked the candidacies of two former presidential candidates, Manuel Rosales and former Sucre state Gov. Ramon Martinez, who appeared on the opposition’s list of National Assembly candidates. Both men have been accused of “irregularities” during their time in public office.
· Both IPS and EFE have picked up the new WOLA/LAWG/CIP report on US Latin American policy in new pieces out today.
· The UN says it will investigate the extrajudicial killings in a Haitian prison, reported in a New York Times investigative piece over the weekend.
· The Miami Herald has analysis of political prisoner talks which have begun between the Catholic Church and the Castro government. The paper writes:
“The meetings with Cardinal Jaime Ortega are the first time in memory the communist government has negotiated with a national, independent organization like the Cuban church, on an island where authorities try to control virtually all activity. They also represent Castro's most important political shift since succeeding his ailing brother, Fidel, two years ago.
· Finally, some opinions. The Hudson Institute’s Jaime Daremblum, in the Weekly Standard, along with Tom Friedman in the New York Times, criticize Lula for his attempt at mediation (read “embrace” by Daremblum) in Iran. In World Affairs, Soli Ozel, professor of international relations and political science at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, provides a counter to those arguments. As does CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot at the Huffington Post and Folha do Sao Paulo. Weisbrot’s argument is about more than Iran, however. “Over the past decade, Latin America has become vastly more independent of the United States than it has ever been - and its people, especially the poor and the majority, have clearly benefited. And as the Brazil/Turkey diplomacy shows, a multi-polar world will help reduce the risk of war,” argues Weisbrot. And in editorials, the New York Times calls for an investigation into the Haitian prison murders while the Miami Herald comments on Jamaica.
No comments:
Post a Comment