JAMAICA GANG VIOLENCE CHRONOLOGY

A Look At Gang Violence In Jamaica Over The Past Three Decades:

1970s: Jamaica's two main political parties enlist gangs to intimidate
voters, arming them and dividing Kingston's poor neighborhoods into areas
loyal to either the People's National Party of Prime Minister Michael
Manley or the Labor Party of Edward Seaga.

1980: More than 800 people killed in the general election campaign in which
the conservative Seaga wins power from the socialist-minded Manley. With
the gangs firmly entrenched, most poor people are forced to affiliate
themselves with a party since they rely on party patronage for jobs, houses
and land.

1980s: The Kingston gangs move into the lucrative cocaine and marijuana
trade. They become financially independent from politicians, and more
dangerous as they battle for territory in urban wars that claim an
increasing number of innocent lives.

1989: General elections tainted by gang violence restore Manley to power.
He retires in 1992.

1993: Armed gangs burst into polling stations and grab ballot boxes,
spoiling general elections that elect Manley's hand-picked successor, P.J.
Patterson.

1997: Even as gang violence rages, political party leaders sign the
"declaration of political tolerance," sponsored by former President Jimmy
Carter and Gen. Colin Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants. But the
country suffers a high murder rate and increase in drug-related violence.

1999: Patterson sends troops into dangerous Kingston areas who impose
curfews and disarm gangs. His government attributes the crackdown to an 11
percent decrease in murders that year, along with lowering other violent
crimes like robberies and rapes.

2001: With some 600 murders in the first six months of the year -- nearly
40 in gang wars in May and June -- Patterson sends in the troops again.