Jamaica Salt

Christopher Coke, aka Dudus has been in US custody on narcotics and firearms charges for nearly a year now and there is still no sign of a trial date.  He made his 7th court appearance in Manhattan today – Tuesday May 10th, 2011.   No-one’s talking to the press yet, but despite this, there’s already a book out about him, called ‘Jamaica’s First President’ , he was known locally as the Prezzie for short.

Zinc fencing photo by Benjamin Lozovsky

So what is going on in Tivoli gardens since his removal? At the time, there was much talk about the power vacuum that would be left behind in  his wake, which would lead to more violence and gang warfare.   I wrote this blog post about it around that time and also Kingston Mayor Desmond Mckenzie met with US Embassy officials, as detailed in a leaked wikileaks cable – read more about that here.

PM Golding on a wall

Meanwhile, the Jamaican JLP Bruce Golding government has stubbornly clung on to an illusion of power, through an enquiry into the Manatt Phelps and Phillips affair – which basically showed how the Golding govt were protecting Dudus from US extradition all along as they were telling the Jamaican people something else entirely.  It led to an admission in Parliament that he had lied to them previously.   Naturally, his reputation is shot to pieces, but he thinks he can claw it all back for the general election next year.

Judging by a useless opposition leader by the name of Portia Simpson miller, this is not beyond the realms of imagination.