Days of gunbattles between police and his supporters had stained the streets with blood. Suddenly, hundreds of people, frightened into hiding for days, flooded the street. Edward Seaga, Jamaica's Labor Party leader, called back to them through a bullhorn. He told them police had killed the elderly man over the weekend, as part of a crackdown on communities loyal to Seaga's opposition party. Police moved into a tough Kingston neighborhood Saturday to disarm gangsters who had waged two months of shootouts that had already left 37 people dead.
Politicians disavow ties to Jamaica's ruthless gangs, but their histories are intertwined.
The fearsome gang culture developed in the 1970s when politicians armed criminals to intimidate voters as the two main parties fought for supremacy. The gangs, made financially independent by the drug trade, now have evolved into a virtually uncontrollable force. Seaga's party and Prime Minister P.J. Patterson's People's National Party have accused each other of orchestrating the violence ahead of next year's general elections. Seaga and his backers say most who were killed since the weekend were innocent victims, slain by police targeting opposition strongholds. Labor Party supporters have raised roadblocks of burning tires, bags of garbage and blazing vehicles.