Jamaica and US relations at an all time low

[malaise]

Despite words from both sides, things are getting worse
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110304/lead/lead3.html

A Senior member of the Golding administration and his wife have had their visas revoked by the US Embassy - James Robertson is a Vice President of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party government. This is a first in history.

There are several rumours - is this about Dudus and GPS links, is this about David Smith of Olint who was transferred from prison in the Turks and Caicos to Florida over that massive ponzi scheme, is this about exporting drugs, laundering money and importing guns.

Anyway word is that five more visas will be revoked.
Now one newspaper on the weekend said that the PM has asked the JA Ambassador in DC to ask Hilary Clinton to arrange a meeting with Golding and Obama. Word is that Golding was told to follow protocol and make the request through the US government Ambassador in Jamaica.

Well Golding is traveling to the US this weekend and word is that he is hoping his visa won't be revoked. There is no meeting with Obama.

Remember the entire fall out began with Golding refusing to extradite Christopher Dudus Coke . The fall out from that and the lies spewed by Jamaican officials at the Manatt Phelps and Phillips Inquiry have not helped.

One more thing - unions are threatening to strike soon and very soon.
Despite the rain, it's getting very hot in Kingston.

[panader0]

1. It's hard to imagine that the Dudas incident could cause

such fallout. This seems rather childish behavior from the US.

[malaise]

2. It was the treaty violation and then the attempt to use a US

Law firm to prevent the extradition that has caused the fallout.
The WikiLeaks on the subject are quite interesting - looks like Golding was saying one thing in parliament and something else to the US Embassy.

[leveymg]

3. Is this the usual high level corruption, drug & gun running, and offshore accounts scandal, or is

something else going on down there, again?

US-Jamaican relations couldn't be worse than during the Manley years when the Agency was calling the shots for the opposition, literally. I've always found the near-simultaneous demise of Michael Manley and Cheddi Jagan of Guyana to be just a bit too much of a coincidence.