Jamaica faces questions over politicians' links to drugs gang

The toll of days of firefights between police and opposition supporters was marked in Jamaica by streets stained with blood, the hulks of burned-out vehicles, and the heat-bloated body of an elderly man, who had been shot in the back.

Suddenly, hundreds of people who had locked themselves indoors for days erupted into the street.

‘‘Shower! Shower!’’ they yelled in praise of the notorious Shower Posse, a drug gang the United States FBI blames for 1,400 murders on the US east coast at the height of the cocaine wars in the 1980s.

Jamaica’s politicians created the country’s fearsome gang culture in the 1970s by arming criminals so that they could intimidate voters as the two main parties fought for supremacy.

Now, with the gangs financially independent because of the drug trade, many people are asking if the politicians can put the genie back into the bottle.

Monsignor Richard Albert, a Roman Catholic American priest who has lived in Jamaica more than 20 years, said: ‘‘The politicians say they do not support these people, but the links between politicians and organised crime are very much alive.

‘‘It’s dangerous for the survival of a democracy. The power isn’t the ballot box, it’s the gun. That’s the scary part.’’

It also could hurt an already hard-hit economy, especially the $1.3bn tourist industry.

Travel agents said tourists were not alarmed, and the Royal Caribbean cruise line said its vessel Voyager of the Seas would be calling at Ocho Rios today.

Joanie Waskevich of the Caribbean Travel Network said: ‘‘Most of our travel is into Montego Bay, which is nowhere near Kingston ... so we haven’t had any cancellations.’’

Two victims reported yesterday included a police officer killed when he was hit on the head by a rock hurled by protesters 40 miles from Montego Bay.

Flights to Montego Bay were packed yesterday, and one tourist, Jerry Helwig, a 42-year-old retired doctor from Chicago, said the protests ‘‘might be interesting’’ for his vacation.

Business leaders said the fighting could only hurt Jamaica’s stagnant economy.

Peter Moses, head of the prominent Private Sector Organisation said: ‘‘Our main industries, like tourism ... can’t handle this kind of news.’’

Seaga’s party and Prime Minister P J Patterson’s People’s National Party accuse each other of orchestrating the violence ahead of a general election due to be held by the end of next year.

This latest upsurge in violence highlighted the plight of the poorest Jamaicans, most of whom depend on allegiance to a drug gang or the party it supports for jobs in the towns, land in rural areas, or handouts.

Claudia McKay, a 23-year-old seamstress, said: ‘‘Anyone who tried to move got shot at. It’s pure murder from both ends ... the police and the gangs.’’

Yesterday, she made an unsuccessful attempt, despite the heavy security, to get food for the four children she had locked in her home.

The farmers’ market was abandoned and she said it was too dangerous to leave the neighbourhood.

The problems started on Saturday when police moved in to disarm gangsters involved in fighting in which 37 people were killed in two months.

At least another 22 people have been killed since then Seaga and his supporters claim they were mainly innocent victims targeted by police in opposition strongholds.

Labour Party supporters mounted roadblocks of smelly smouldering tires, bags of garbage, and blazing vehicles.

Some stores were looted, Jamaica police reported, and many business boarded up.

In Tivoli Gardens, as Seaga made his tour, veteran police Constable Cecil Walker described how he was walking in plainclothes Sunday beside a girl aged seven or eight who was killed when police opened fire.

‘‘She got shot down and I had to run I barely made it alive,’’ Walker said. ‘‘The police were shooting at us.’’

On Monday night, Patterson ordered Jamaica’s entire army more than 3,000 troops to deploy, declaring: ‘‘The Government cannot stand idly by and allow criminal elements to hold this country to ransom.’’

Seaga called the move ‘‘a state of emergency under another name’’.

By last night there were only pockets of sporadic fighting.

Police spokeswoman Dahlia Garrick said the situation was unpredictable, so ‘‘the police and the army are maintaining a heavy presence’’.