Jamaica
In the lead-up to the 1980 elections, Jamaica was embroiled in four years of bloodshed. The sitting Prime Minister Michael Manley headed the “progressive” People’s National Party (PNP) while Edward Seaga headed the “reactionary” Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). Manley had openly criticized American foreign policies and began to build a relationship with U.S. enemy Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Given the Cold War the United States was involved in with Russia, the CIA did not want Jamaica to be friendly with communists.
According to Gary Webb’s book,”The Dark Alliance,” Norman Descoteaux, the CIA station chief in Jamaica began a destabilization program of the Manley government in the late ’70s. Part of that plan was assassinations, money for the Jamaican Labour Party, labor unrest, bribery and shipping weapons to Manley’s opponents, like Lester “Jim Brown” Coke. Coke was a political enforcer and bodyguard to Seaga.
According to a 2010 article on newsone.com, former CIA agent, Philip Agee, said the “CIA was using the JLP as its instrument in the campaign against the Michael Manley government, I’d say most of the violence was coming from the JLP, and behind them was the CIA in terms of getting weapons in and getting money in.”
There was reportedly an assassination attempt on the late legendary singer Bob Marley’s life funded by the CIA. Writer Timothy White speculates, in his biography of Marley, “Catch A Fire,” that Jim Brown was part of a team of armed gunmen led by JLP enforcer Carl “Byah” Mitchell that attempted to assassinate Marley.
