'Jah Kingdom Goes to Waste'

Recently, Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley invited supporters attending the tenth annual conference of his central Kingston constituency to study closely a film called The Rise and Fall of the CIA, a British-made documentary about alleged agency operations in Laos, Viet Nam and Salvador Allende's Chile. "I cannot prove in a court of law that the CIA is here," Manley told his audience. "What I have said is that certain strange things are happening in Jamaica which we have not seen before."

By "strange things," the Prime Minister meant random acts of violence that so far this year have led to the death of more than 100 people, mostly in the slums of West Kingston. Last week, though, Peruvian Ambassador Fernando Rodriguez Oliva was stabbed to death by burglars in his home in an upper-class section of the capital.

In a stern effort to halt violence that has been causing a death a day in Jamaica, Manley's government took the extreme step of declaring a state of emergency. This move gives the Jamaican Security Force broad and tough powers to maintain law and order. Said the Prime Minister: "We have witnessed a type and scale of violence unique in our history, terrorist activities previously unknown to us which have caused fear and concern to every decent Jamaican citizen." Security forces, he insisted, had found evidence that terrorism was to be deliberately stepped up this week.

Nighttime Sounds. The Prime Minister, announcing the state of emergency, also gave a vivid example of the kind of violence he intended to stop. On the night of May 19, Manley recalled, in what has become known as the "Orange Street Massacre," a gang seeking vengeance for the stabbing of one of its members set fire to a tenement house. With gunfire the gang held firemen at bay and the occupants inside the burning building. Eight children and three adults died in the fire.

Even before the state of emergency, police and soldiers of the 8,000-man security force had been carrying out nightly cordon-and-search operations in Kingston under the country's weapons control laws (automatic life imprisonment for anyone caught with guns, grenades or explosive devices). A new addition to the nighttime sights and sounds of the city is the loud whir of an army helicopter with a powerful searchlight, hovering over an area where security forces have moved in to make a sweep.

U.S. Ambassador Sumner Gerard has protested that the CIA is not in any manner trying to upset the Jamaican government, even though Washington is less than happy about Manley's warming friendship with Fidel Castro. Gerard's denials were reinforced last week by William H. Luers, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Affairs, who told a House subcommittee that allegations of U.S. interference were "totally false." If American citizens are engaged privately in "destabilizing" activities, Luers added, "we are prepared to cooperate fully with the governments of the area to bring them to justice."

Prime Minister Manley is not totally convinced. "We have not said that destabilization in Jamaica is the result of deliberate top-level U.S. Government policy," he told TIME Correspondent Bernard Diederich last week. "Dr. Kissinger has said that it is not so, and that may be so. Nonetheless, what upsets people now is that assurances were being given Allende and his ambassadors up to a few weeks before [his death] -bland assurances saying 'Of course we're not doing that' -and yet we now know it was happening."

Specifically, Manley blames the violence on his right-wing political enemies who are trying to impede Jamaica's path to socialism. If, in fact, they do get help from American sources, he claims, it is partly because of his friendship with Castro (who may visit Kingston in August) and partly because Jamaica backed the pro-Soviet regime of Agostinho Neto in Angola. The U.S., argues Manley, "has been resentful of any country in the Western Hemisphere that came out in support of Neto and the Cubans against the South Africans. They have been very bitter about it."

A more plausible explanation for Jamaica's unrest is Manley's efforts to turn the island republic into a socialist state. Even the Prime Minister's supporters concede that the economy is in a shambles. Unemployment is running at about 22%, and is particularly high among urban youth, who police say are guilty of most of the recent murders. The country's foreign exchange earnings, principally from bauxite, sugar and tourism, are down 40 to 60% below last year's total of $400 million, and reserves have dropped from more than $102 million in November to less than $38 million. Wealthy Jamaicans have illicitly exported perhaps $200 million abroad; some of the currency has been smuggled out in fake cigarettes, fortune cookies and pork carcasses. Says one member of an intelligence force trying to halt the financial outflow: "It has replaced the smuggling of ganja (marijuana) to Grand Cayman, Miami and Canada."

Chance of Winning. In addition, many wealthy Jamaicans have set up second residences abroad. Whether they emigrate will depend on the outcome of the next general election (probably in February). Manley's People's National Party currently has 35 seats in Parliament, to 17 for the opposition Labor Party, led by Edward Seaga. An able economist, Seaga faces the ethnic disadvantage of his Lebanese ancestry; he is light-skinned in an overwhelmingly black nation. Nonetheless, he stands a good chance of winning if there is more violence and the economy continues to stagger. Many Jamaicans are convinced that will be the case. In the sad words of a current hit by Ernie Smith, one of Kingston's top reggae singers, "As we fight one another fe de power and de glory, jah kingdom goes to waste."

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