The Conflict

When on July 7, 2001, the Jamaican security forces entered the community of Tivoli Gardens as part of an operation in the West Kingston area, to deal with a spiralling problem of violence between rival political gangs, violence erupted between the security forces and alleged gunmen. At the end of the conflict, 21 civilians were killed and many more injured. This incident should be seen as part of a long history of turbulence that has characterized the Jamaican society, beginning with the Spanish occupation of the country in the sixteenth century. In the 1960s, however, a new kind of violence, largely partisan political in orientation, began to emerge. This violence increased in the 1970s culminating in the most violent elections ever in the history of the country in 1980. While the current wave of crime and violence in the country has multiple...