Jamaica: Surveillance Flight Part of Normal Agreement with United States

Above: a Lockheed P-3 Orion (Photo: Lockheed)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The deployment of a United States surveillance plane during last year’s raid of the Tivoli Gardens neighbourhood in Kingston was part of a normal agreement Jamaica enjoys with the US and other governments, according to Major General Antony Anderson, chief of defense staff in Jamaica.

The US intervention was designed to “provide general imagery assistance and communications” during the May. 24, 2010 raid to serve a warrant for strongman Christopher Coke.

The flight was aimed at providing “general imagery assistance and communications” during the operations.

“At that time, what we wanted was an enhanced picture if it was available,” he said. “The more information we had would lead to better planning. The planning that took place was between ourselves and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, no one else.”

The flight, which was revealed in an article in the New Yorker this week, caused a stir when National Security Minister Dwight Nelson claimed that no US help occurred on that day, something later contradicted by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who said that the US had offered assistance.

The government maintained that the US was not involved in any ground operations.