MONTEGO BAY, St James — Wayne Cummings, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), has called on Government to break its bond with criminals for the sake of the citizenry and the many legal productive ventures that are under threat of demise.
Cummings also called on the Government to engage the army in the crime fight.
“The Government, while they cannot divorce themselves of the criminal antecedents, now has the unenviable task of extricating the known purveyors of the horrors we are now subjected to each day. The crime plans are there, the many analyses have been done and it is now time for action,” Cummings told the JHTA’s 49th annual general meeting at the Half Moon Shopping Village in Rosehall, St James, this afternoon.
Close to 600 persons have been murdered since the start of the year in what is believed to be one the country’s worst crime waves, even as the Government butts heads with the United States over that country’s request for the extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the strongman of the prime minister’s West Kingston constituency. Coke is wanted by the US to answer drug charges.
In a veiled reference to the scandal that has been getting progressively nastier in the face of indications that the government is acting below board on the issue, Cummings pointed out that the country is now reaping the effects of the unofficial support that successive administrations have provided for criminal enterprises over the past few decades.
“What is now playing out itself is the worst form of drug-running, scamming and other manifestations, due to the strong base of legitimacy that the criminals have secured during these last generations. Sadly we are now faced with independently powerful camps that are exacting dominance and jungle justice as a show of force to protect their ill-gotten gains,” Cummings said.
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