Jamaica: Delayed Departure

I arrived in Halifax a couple days ago with my immediate future a bit uncertain. I had been selected for an internship through Dalhousie University with CIDA funding a month earlier, and was flown out to the East Coast for my pre-departure training. Along with other interns heading for the Caribbean and South America, I was given a brief introduction to my position in Kingston, Jamaica and attended a government course on 'intercultural effectiveness'. However, a few days before arriving in Nova Scotia, Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared a state of emergency in parts of the capital city, Kingston. It didn't take long for my in-country and Dalhousie supervisors to decide that my departure date would have to be delayed.

Here's a brief (and therefore incomplete) timeline of recent events in Kingston:

In August of 2009, the United States requested the extradition of Jamaican citizen Christopher "Dudus" Coke on drug and gun charges. Dudus is known as the don of the Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood in West Kingston, and as an alleged drug lord and the leader of the Shower Posse gang. PM Golding stated that evidence the US was using had been collected illegally, making it against Jamaican law to extradite Dudus. The law firm Manatt, Phelps and Phillips was hired to lobby on behalf of the Government of Jamaica against the extradition. The US began criticizing Jamaica for unprecedented delays, unexplained disclosure of law-enforcement information and unfounded allegations, making relations tense. Citizens of Jamaica began criticizing PM Golding for the use of an American law firm to lobby for an alleged drug lord. By April it was announced that the decision of whether or not to comply with the request would be made by the Supreme Court of Jamaica, and on May 17th the extradition was approved.

On May 23rd, violence broke out in parts of Kingston with police officers being assaulted and police stations being attacked. PM Golding declared a state of emergency, and the Jamaica Defense Force was called in. Raids were made on Tivoli Gardens, with gunmen supporting Dudus fighting back, and civilians being caught in the crossfire. Much of Kingston remained free of the violence, and some areas continued to operate close to "normal". For a brief span of time, Jamaica made headlines in international news. By May 27th, the death toll was estimated at 73 people, and international coverage became scarce.

There's more back story to the situation, such as Tivioli Gardens being the PMs constituency. Due to a lack of government involvement the citizens rely on Dudus for protection, employment and education. Which makes it a bit easier to understand why citizens were protesting the extradition. Without Dudus, turf wars may break out to gain control, creating a worse situation than it was with him. Also of note, Dudus' father (Lester Lloyd Coke) was the previous don of Tivioli Gardens and was going to be extradited to the US. He died in a "mysterious" prison fire in Kingston before the extradition took place in 1991. Clearly I don't have all the information, but there are always many sides to every story and a lot of little events leading up to the big ones.

So, for now we're hoping that the situation will improve in Kingston and that my departure date will take place in mid-June. But we'll play it by ear.