Politics do indeed make strange bedfellows. The Associated Press is reporting a September 2009 cable that says Mayor Desmond McKenzie of Kingston, Jamaica, told a U.S. Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher "Dudus" Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding. The cable was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper the Guardian. You may remember that the U.S. Justice Department declared Coke one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins, asking Jamaica to extradite Coke to New York to face drug charges. Approximately 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the U.S. request for nine months. McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labor Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission.
Alliances between politicians and drug lords are not unheard of in Jamaica, but a partnership with an internationally wanted drug kingpin like Coke is exceptional. This alliance definitely explains Jamaica's resistance to extraditing Coke to the U.S. However you feel about WikiLeaks, the organization is definitely closing some gaps in knowledge for the general public.
Read more at Yahoo News.