JAMAICA: GOVERNMENT FEARS ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06805642
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: July 25, 2019
• Case Number: F-2017-01652
• Publication Date: August 3, 1981

Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C06805642
tliuiiat
I Foreign
- .�
( viitcr
Latin America
Review (u)
3 August 1981
-Strrret-
-Secret�
PA LAR 81-012
3 August 1981
Copy 173
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Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C06805642
Approved for Release: 2019/07/10 C06805642
LATIN AMERICA REVIEW (U)
3 August 1981
CONTENTS
Jamaica: Government Fears Economic Sabotage (U) . . 3
Prime Minister Seaga believes that extreme
leftists are using bank robberies to finance
labor strife and criminal activities that
would deter foreign investment and tourism,
thereby undermining his economic recovery
program.
"sTeRra._
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Record
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JAMAICA: GOVERNMENT FEARS ECONOMIC SABOTAGE (U)
Prime Minister Seaga has publicly accused local
Communists of being behind a recent spate of sensational
bank robberies. He probably hopes primarily to expose
and intimidate the left and forestall a campaign of
economic sabotage. Security forces already are severely
taxed and may have some difficulty coping with additional
violence, while continued strike activity would further
undermine Seaga's faltering economic recovery program
On 16 July, a well-disciplined group of gunmen kid-
naped an accountant who worked at the University of
West Indies Bank and drove her to the bank, where they
forced her to open the vault and then seized some
$281,000 that had just been delivered. Police suspect
that the Jamaican Communist Worker's Party and its af-
filiate--the University and Allied Workers' Union--were
responsible
Moreover, the theft coincided with
the arrival of the Rockefeller Committee to discuss for-
eign investment opportunities in Jamaica.
Since Seaga's election last October, there have
been five other bank robberies
leftist extremists were behind sev-
eral recent holdups at prominent tourist hotels as
well as some arson attacks and threats against small
businessmen and shopkeepers. Seaga fears the money
will be used to call unneces-
sary strikes and to finance leftist political activi-
ties and economic sabotage. Vitally needed foreign
investment and tourism also would be adversely affected
by a surge in criminal activity and labor strife
3 August 1981
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Cuba has sought to maintain good relations with the
Seaga government, but it would not be out of character
for Havana to follow a dual strateay.
�
Seaga probably would not
seek an open confrontation on this issue, but he might
surface allegations of Cuban complicity in order to em-
barrass the leftist opposition and keep Havana on the
defensive.
several recent
strikes involving public-service workers and a threat-
ened strike in the critical bauxite industry were po-
litically motivated, and that leftist pressure for such
strike activity may increase. In most cases, rank-and-
file support was lacking--workers usually lost wages
and gained few concessions. New strike calls probably
would also receive little hacking unless the workers
came to believe that Seaga had made concessions to
other groups that were substantially better than their
own agreements.
Icontinued labor problems are
not likely to pose an immediate threat to the govern-
ment, which still enjoys strong popular support.
Continued leftist-inspired violence, however, could
pose difficulties for Seaga. Joint military and police
patrols have been instituted in parts of downtown Kings-
ton to deter further arson attacks, and special bank pa-
trols--which proved effective following a rash of bank
robberies in 1976--may be formed.
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3 August 1981
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