$Unique_ID{COW01981} $Pretitle{233J} $Title{Jamaica Chapter 2C. Foreign Relations} $Subtitle{} $Author{Rex A. Hudson, Daniel J. Seyler} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{jamaica states relations united government cuba seaga caribbean jamaica's manley} $Date{1987} $Log{} Country: Jamaica Book: Caribbean Commonwealth, An Area Study: Jamaica Author: Rex A. Hudson, Daniel J. Seyler Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1987 Chapter 2C. Foreign Relations Relations with the United States, Britain, and Canada Close ties with the United States, Britain, and Canada traditionally have been of prime importance and have existed at the political, commercial, and personal levels. After World War II, the three nations all provided economic assistance to Jamaica through international organizations, private investment, and encouragement of the idea of West Indian federation. By the 1950s, the United States and Canada had replaced the once dominant British trade role. On August 7, 1962, the day after independence, Prime Minister Bustamante described Jamaica as pro- Western, Christian, and anticommunist, and he announced "the irrevocable decision that Jamaica stands with the West and the United States." Independent Jamaica adopted Western models for internal development and external perspective. Jamaican leaders, recognizing the strong United States disapproval of Soviet influence in Cuba and British Guiana (present-day Guyana), rejected the Soviet alternative. As British influence in Jamaica eroded rapidly following independence, the United States began paying closer attention to political events on the island. Beginning with the seizure of power in Cuba by Fidel Castro, Jamaica's proximity to both Cuba and the United States raised Jamaica's profile in American foreign policy circles. Growing United States economic interest in Jamaica paralleled the former's increasing political interest. Jamaica sided frequently with the United States in its United Nations (UN) voting on cold war issues during the first few years of independence. The nation became visibly less pro-West in its UN voting beginning in 1965-66, however. Jamaica moved out of the United States orbit for the first time when it abstained on the 1971 vote to admit China into the UN. According to a survey by academic researchers, favorable attitudes toward Jamaica's alignment with Western nations declined from 71 percent in 1962 to 36 percent in 1974. Nevertheless, during his visit to the United States in 1970, Prime Minister Shearer declared that his party, the JLP, had reoriented its foreign relations priority away from Britain to the United States. Relations between Jamaica and the United States, Canada, and Britain remained generally friendly. Tensions arose occasionally, however, over the dominance of foreign firms in the Jamaican economy in the 1970s, continuing colonial patterns of trade, racial antagonism, emigration of well-educated Jamaicans to the United States, and the nation's ambivalent attitude toward the United States as a global power. Jamaica's foreign policy orientation shifted again under Michael Manley, who decided that Jamaicans, in order to solve their economic problems, needed to break out of their traditional reliance on the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations. Jamaican-United States relations were strained after the Manley government established diplomatic relations with Cuba in late 1972, at a time when a majority of the Organization of American States (OAS) had voted against such recognition. In July 1973, the Manley government declared the United States ambassador, who was a political appointee, persona non grata; the ambassador had claimed before a congressional committee that he had made a "deal" with Manley, promising United States support of Manley's candidacy in the 1972 elections in exchange for his promise not to nationalize the bauxite industry. Also contributing to strained relations were the Manley government's imposition in mid-1974 of a production levy on companies producing bauxite in Jamaica and its move to acquire 51-percent control of the industry; however, subsequent negotiations largely overcame these issues (see Role of Government, this ch.). In the late 1970s, Jamaican- United States relations were aggravated further by Manley's anti-United States rhetoric in Third World forums, his government's close relations with Cuba, his staunch support for Cuban interventionism in Africa, and his defense of the placement of Soviet combat troops in Cuban bases. After becoming prime minister in 1980, Seaga reversed Jamaica's pro- Cuban, Third World-oriented foreign policy and began close, cooperative relations with the United States administration of President Ronald Reagan. Seaga was the first foreign leader to visit Reagan following Reagan's inauguration in January 1981. A Stone Poll conducted that month indicated that 85 percent of the Jamaican electorate supported Seaga's close ties to Reagan. That year United States aid to Jamaica increased fivefold; it averaged more than US$125 million a year during the 1981-86 period but was cut by 40 percent in 1987 (see External Sector, this ch.). The Reagan administration made Jamaica the fulcrum of its Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), a program that Seaga helped to inspire (see Appendix D). Seaga met periodically with Reagan and other senior United States government officials during 1980-87, and in April 1982 Reagan became the first United States president to visit Jamaica. In addition to its pro-CBI stance, Jamaica adopted pro-United States positions on Grenada and relations with Cuba (see Economy, this ch.). The Seaga government favored a return to principles of detente in hopes of ensuring the security of small states, and it firmly supported nuclear weapons reductions with adequate verification. The Seaga government has disagreed strongly with the United States, however, on two issues in particular: South Africa and the Law of the Sea Treaty. Jamaica, for example, disputed territorial water boundaries recognized by the United States. Jamaica's international horizons remained limited mainly to the United States, Canada, and Britain, except during the 1970s, when Manley's government maintained close relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. Although twenty-seven countries had missions in Kingston in 1985, Jamaica maintained a minimal diplomatic presence in foreign capitals. Even its most important missions abroad--in London, Washington, Ottawa, and at the UN--were kept small. Jamaican ambassadors usually were accredited concurrently to several countries. Relations with Communist Countries Jamaica had no formal relations with any communist state until Manley's government opened ties with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China in 1972. The Manley government later developed diplomatic ties with Eastern European countries. In addition to his ideological sympathies with the socialist world, Manley sought new relationships of trade, technical assistance, loans, and direct aid from communist countries. He made his first visit to the Soviet Union in April 1979. While there, he signed a long-term agreement for Jamaican aluminum exports, as well as joint accords on sea navigation and fisheries. In addition, Moscow granted Jamaica a long-term loan to finance the purchase of Soviet goods. Manley also signed trade agreements with Hungary and Yugoslavia and established diplomatic and commercial relations with Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Manley's government developed particularly close relations with Cuba during the late 1970s. Manley visited Cuba in July 1975 and sent a PNP delegation to the First Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in Havana that December. Cuban president Fidel Castro reciprocated Manley's visit by going to Jamaica in October 1977. Numerous Jamaicans, including members of the Manley government, were sent to Cuba for ideological indoctrination and paramilitary training as members of "brigadista" groups. According to the United States Department of State, by 1980 nearly 500 Cubans were working in Jamaica. Having made Jamaica's relations with Cuba a major issue during the 1980 election campaign, Seaga, in his first official act as prime minister, terminated the "brigadista" program with Cuba in January 1981. He also expelled most of the Cubans, including Ambassador Armando Ulises Estrada, identified by the Department of State as a Cuban intelligence operative. Although the Seaga government stopped short of severing diplomatic ties with Cuba at that time and allowed a few Cuban embassy officials to remain, it broke diplomatic relations with Cuba on October 29, 1981, in an unprecedented move of major significance in Jamaica's foreign relations. Havana's refusal to extradite three Jamaicans wanted on murder and other charges served as an apparent pretext. In a speech to Parliament on November 1, 1983, Seaga announced the expulsion of a Cuban journalist and four Soviet diplomats, whom he identified as operatives of the KGB, for espionage and conspiracy to murder a protocol officer at the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Industry. Jamaican-Cuban relations have remained severed under Seaga's government. The Seaga government has maintained correct but limited relations, mainly of an economic nature, with other communist governments, mostly with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and China. The Soviet Union and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) have maintained embassies in Kingston. Under Seaga, Jamaica has not had any military relations with communist countries. Relations with Latin American and Caribbean Countries Jamaica joined the OAS in 1969 in an effort to overcome the tradition of mutual indifference between the English-speaking Caribbean and the Hispanic countries. Jamaica and Mexico were the only countries to speak out in OAS meetings in the early 1970s in favor of normalization of relations with Cuba. In addition, Jamaica made a number of exchanges and agreements with Hispanic countries in the 1970s, particularly with Mexico and Venezuela; it also established a shipping line with seven Latin American countries. Jamaica was one of the signatories to the treaty establishing the Latin American Economic System in 1975 and has been an active member of the Inter-American Development Bank. Jamaica supported Panama in the Panama Canal dispute with the United States in the 1970s, and in 1986 the Seaga government sought and received assistance from Puerto Rico, with which it signed a trade agreement. Jamaica's closest non-English-speaking neighbors in the Greater Antilles-- Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic--were not a significant factor in its foreign policy, with the exception of Cuba during the Manley administrations (1972-80). Jamaica did, however, play a key role in negotiating the exit of President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier from Haiti in late 1986. The Seaga government's position on the Central American crisis has been that it can best be resolved on the basis of peace initiatives introduced by the Contadora Group, which initially consisted of Panama, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela, whose representatives first met on the Panamanian island of Contadora in January 1983 to address the problems of Central America. Jamaican relations with Nicaragua were not nearly as controversial as those with Cuba. Jamaica's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and industry received the first ambassador of Nicaragua to Jamaica on September 19, 1984. Seaga's government has been concerned, however, about the authoritarian nature of the Sandinista regime. Jamaica has been an active member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It hosted a conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in 1964 and became the first Caribbean country to host a Meeting of Heads of Government of the Commonwealth in 1975. Jamaica's relations with other Commonwealth Caribbean members have been determined more by the nation's incorporation in the British West Indies than by geography. Jamaica has preferred to cooperate more with these members than with its closer Hispanic neighbors; the Manley government's close relations with Cuba in the 1970s were an exception. An advocate of regional economic integration with the other English-speaking Caribbean countries, Jamaica in 1968 joined the Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta). On July 4, 1973, Carifta was replaced with Caricom, formed by Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Guyana. Jamaica also joined several institutions associated with Caricom, including the Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Examinations Council, Caribbean Marketing Enterprise, Caribbean Meteorological Council, Council of Legal Education, and Regional Shipping Council. Jamaica's diplomatic ties with the Commonwealth Caribbean increased during Seaga's administration. For example, having supported the right of the Belizean people to self-determination and independence, Jamaica welcomed Belize's independence, which was granted on September 21, 1981. The Seaga government declared its solidarity with Belize in the event of an armed attack against it and opened diplomatic relations with Belize in late October 1984. Jamaica also developed closer ties to the Eastern Caribbean microstates. Jamaican-Trinidadian ties, which had long been relatively close, increased. In return for a visit to Jamaica by Prime Minister George Chambers in November 1985, Seaga visited Trinidad and Tobago on March 1-4, 1986. Jamaica was not close to all of the Commonwealth Caribbean members, however. Jamaica's relations with the Cayman Islands were poor. The islands were close when they were ruled (along with the Turks and Caicos Islands) under the same protectorate from the mid-nineteenth century to 1962. They drifted apart, however, after Jamaica received independence. As Jamaica suffered financial hardships as an independent state, the Cayman Islands prospered as a tax haven and banking center. In 1985 Jamaica reportedly had a negative image in the Cayman Islands because of Jamaican higglers, marijiuana, and marriages of convenience entered into by Jamaicans seeking residency status in the Cayman Islands. Although Jamaica avoided any formal political or military integration with the other Commonwealth Caribbean islands, it actively sought regional cooperation in these areas in the 1980s. At a meeting of regional prime ministers and other high government officials held in Kingston in January 1986, Seaga fulfilled a long-held dream by forming a conservative regional organization called the Caribbean Democratic Union (CDU) to provide a forum for exchange of views on political matters of a regional and international nature. A regional affiliate of the International Democratic Union, the CDU included the ruling centrist parties of seven other Caribbean countries: Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Christopher and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Montserrat. The prime minister of Bermuda attended the inaugural meeting as an observer. Seaga, who was elected CDU chairman, described the organization as an attempt to revive a regional political alliance similar to the West Indies Federation of 1958-62. Other Third World Relations After independence Jamaica's foreign policy increasingly emphasized the nation's connection with Africa and issues such as colonialism, racism, and South Africa's apartheid system. These concerns reflected the African ethnic origin of about three-fourths of Jamaica's population. In recognition of the political importance of the Rastafarians, who actually constituted less than 5 percent of the Jamaican population, the government of Prime Minister Shearer hosted a state visit by Ethiopia's Haile Selassi on April 2, 1966. Jamaica opened low-level diplomatic relations with black African states in 1968 but established an embassy only in Ethiopia. Shearer and Manley, the leader of the opposition, made extended tours of Africa in 1969, including visits to Addis Ababa. In the early 1970s, Jamaica opened resident missions in Algeria and Nigeria. Jamaica's UN voting in the 1960s reflected its pro-African stances on four issues: Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), Namibia, African territories under Portuguese administration, and apartheid in South Africa. Since independence Jamaica's voting record on these issues has closely followed that of other Commonwealth Caribbean and other nonwhite states. Until 1973 Jamaica gave only verbal and moral support to the antiapartheid and anticolonial causes. That year, however, Prime Minister Manley visited several African countries on his way to the Nonaligned Movement summit conference in Algiers and pledged material support for guerrillas seeking to overthrow the white-dominated regime in Southern Rhodesia. In 1976 Jamaica signed the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The Seaga government continued to support UN resolutions and actions against apartheid and for the independence of Namibia, rejecting the view that Namibia's independence must be conditioned on the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola. Jamaica, which had become a full member of the Nonaligned Movement by the time of the Belgrade Conference in 1968, began playing a prominent role in that organization after Manley became prime minister in 1972. Saying he was trying to find a "third way" between capitalism and communism, Manley emphasized nationalism and railed against what he called United States imperialism. He headed a high-level Jamaican delegation to the Nonaligned Movement conference in Algiers in 1973, traveling to the meeting by airplane with Fidel Castro. In addition to its leading role in establishing the International Bauxite Association (IBA) in early 1974, Jamaica was involved in the international negotiations that led to the signing of the Lome Convention in early 1975. A Jamaican delegation also played a key coordinating role in promoting a New International Economic Order at the 1976 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Seaga's government continued the nation's nonaligned status on key political and economic issues before the UN. Jamaica generally continued to vote with the positions of the Nonaligned Movement. For example, in 1986 Foreign Minister Shearer advocated a comprehensive settlement of the problem in the Middle East and the right of the Palestinian peoples to a homeland. He also called for Israel to pull back to its 1967 borders but, at the same time, stressed the right of the Jewish state to exist. The Seaga government advocated the UN as the best forum for negotiating a solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Although Seaga expanded his nation's relations with Third World countries in the 1980s, he lowered its profile as an advocate of Nonaligned Movement causes. In addition to participating in the UN, Jamaica has participated actively in international institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, EEC, IBA, INTELSAT, and the International Seabed Authority, which made Kingston its headquarters.