The new documentary, The Two Escobars, is a unique examination of how drug cartels infiltrated, built up, and contributed to the downfall of Colombian professional soccer.

* Fidel Castro invited The Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg to Havana over one weekend over the summer to discuss an article he had written about Iran and Israel. Goldberg’s two blog posts on the trip are a fascinating read. While it sounds like semi-retired Fidel has time for odd activities like watching Havana’s dolphin show, his mind is as probing as ever, and offered a good deal of concern for world peace and self-reflection on his own rule of Cuba. In fact, after Goldberg posted his statement that “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” which was picked up by international media, Fidel claimed Goldberg had misunderstood him.

* Caribbean blogs are reporting that a coalition of lgbtq organizations of CARICOM are preparing to file complaints of discrimination to the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

* Picked up by newspapers worldwide was Hillary Clinton’s wide-ranging speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, offering details of the gov’s foreign policy interests. Of concern to Mexico and Jamaica were her comments on escalation of the drug trade’s violent ramifications in Mexico, and the U.S.’s plans to increase aid to Central America and the Caribbean to fight drug trafficking, comparing such efforts to Plan Colombia. On Just the Facts, Adam Isacson parses the danger of comparing Mexico’s narco-issues to those of Colombia, and to a similar response.

I’ve been spinning, sharing, and singing along (loudly) to Abrázame by Los Rakas since it dropped in May. Not only does it contain the elements of a flawless 2010 summer banger–with a mix of song and rap, male and female voices, and a minimalist dancehall riddim, but it connects the dots of my latest travels. I’ve been living this summer in Kingston, where the orginal song that Abrázame remixes, Hold Yuh by Gyptian, secured an early spot as THE summer tune.

Its keyboard ditty has become as omnipresent Usain Bolt billboards in the  Jamaican capital. Both versions of the song are irrepressible, but I’m partial to the refix by Los Rakas, who happen to be from my hometown of Oakland, California. I love how they respect the sentiment of the original romantic lyrics, while adding the sting of heartbreak in Spanish, and producer Uproot Andy’s touch adds the perfect amount of twist. (Okay, I do think it could use a third verse, so I’m working on my own.)

I’ve been waiting for this video all summer long, and now that mango season, and my time in Kingston, are coming to an end, the Bay Area that it depicts like a third lover beckons me home.

P/S: I’ve been watching Raka Dun and Raka Rich, the Panamanian cousins that comprise Los Rakas, carve out their own musical identity and audience for several years now, and it’s great to see them getting the attention they have worked hard for. Click here for a public radio report I filed on the group way back in 2007.

In this case, though, the shooting happened in front of a crowd of onlookers, among whom was a citizen who captured it all on a cellphone video. Shortly after the CCN’s release was published in the press, prime time evening news broadcast the chilling video which clearly contradicted the CCN’s boilerplate statement. It shows the man on the ground, knocked repeatedly by police batons like he were an animal. Once or twice, he feably tosses what looks like a rock toward an officer. Finally, a plainclothes officer walks around him with his pistol at his side, points it at the man’s chest, aims, and fires.

Not only was the amateur recording, and prime time broadcast of it, pioneering here, but so too was the JCF’s response. Police Chief Owen Ellington immediately ordered the arrest of the involved officers and placed a stop order on them at all ports of exit. Three officers allegedly involved were arrested the following day.

Officers associations, politicians, pastors, and human rights leaders quickly condemned the brutality of the killing. But as Jamaicans for Justice director Carolyn Gomes pointed out, “this has been happening for a long time…we have in our files, cases in which police beat, abuse, shoot and then lie at will.”

It is yet to be seen what will happen to the officers following their arrest, but if this motivates more citizens to use technology to record abuses by the state, it has the potential of bringing about great change in the pattern of dishonesty and impunity on the part of the security forces.

The final chapter of the book includes the back-to-back deaths in 1992 of Dudus’s brother, “Jah T,” who was attacked in Kingston, and father Lester “Jim Brown” Coke, who died in a mysterious prison fire on the eve of his extradition to the United States. That could have been seen as the end of the Coke empire, but Gunst knew it was merely the close of one chapter. With an eye toward the next one, Gunst, in the final paragraph, introduces us to Dudus.

I haven’t been able to track the author down to ask about the latest news myself, so I hope she doesn’t mind my publishing an excerpt of these most prescient closing words.

The Tivolite don behind the rampage against Rema was none other than Christopher “Dudus” Coke, another of Jim Brown’s sons. Paradoxically, it was a peacemaker’s overture that had ignited Coke’s rage: Ziggy Marley, Bob’s son, was building a recording studio almost on the border of Trench Town and Rema, trying to provide aspiring musicians there with a community base. Ziggy didn’t give the construction work to Dudus and his posse, so the Tivoli don was taking his revenge. He was following in Jim Brown’s footsteps, musch as Ziggy was dancing in his own father’s light.

Her legal battle, while protracted, frustrating, and littered with repeated injustices, set a precedent in fighting police abuse in Jamaica.

Obituary in The Observer.

Jamaicans for Justice Press Release.

2003 UK Guardian article on police abuse in Jamaica.

Then, last weekend at the funeral procession for Edwards, graffiti artist LA Lewis scrapes Beenie Man’s SUV, so Beenie Man allegedly gets out of the car to give Lewis a few punches, and is then detained by the police.

A few days later, Gyptian gets in a motorcycle accident with a pedestrian.

After all this and then some, Trinidad has decided it just doesn’t want the kind of luck that tends to surround Jamaican artists, so when Ding Dong arrived in Port-of-Spain for a show, authorities promptly turned him away.

Oh yeah, Buju Banton is still in a Miami jail cell. His trial for charges of cocaine distribution has most recently been rescheduled for September. If you haven’t heard, you can buy a t-shirt to support his legal defense, which sadly failed to win a transfer to another prison that would have been more suitable for the artist’s rasta diet. I can’t wait to hear the songs Gargamel’s working on in there.

From The Jamaica Observer, May 31, 2010

The article also provides a good and rowdy comment section, and an entertaining sampling of nicknames of posse ringmen, who seem to often have badass names to begin with (see Prince Bucket, aka ‘Tugman’).

The Financial Times gives the best analysis yet of the ongoing Dudus affair, and explains why the raids in Tivoli Gardens “are the culmination of a political scandal.”

From my own informal poll in Kingston today, opinion is split on whether Dudus remains on the island, or is long gone.

Tivoli Speaks

On Thursday, Jamaican security forces took journalists on a tour of Tivoli Gardens, the center of the violence, an area led by alleged trafficker Christopher “Dudus” Coke and represented by Prime Minister Bruce Golding. What reporters were allowed to see was selective, but The Gleaner put together this video of the voices of some residents.

For those of you trying to catch up on why this all went down, this report from the Miami Herald lays out a pretty good background including, most importantly, why Bruce Golding resisted the US’s extradition request for Christopher Coke for eight months, and the potential political fallout for his party, the Jamaica Labor Party,  now that he has signed it.

International followers have been hearing a lot about this Shower Posse and Tivoli Gardens. This is the second time this year that both made it to international newspapers. The first was in late March, when the passing of Vivian Blake in Kingston was cause for a reflection of the Jamaican government’s affiliations with illicit leaders. Here’s the NYT’s obit of Blake, another leader of the Shower Posse with intercontinental tentacles, a US rap sheet, and a legendary history in Western Kingston.

News reports have also mentioned the stunning detail of former Golding’s predecessor, Edward Seaga, attending the funeral of Christopher Coke’s father, Lester “Jim Brown” Coke. Well, Seaga has added his voie of response to the crisis in Tivoli Gardens. Like current PM Bruce Golding, Seaga represented Western Kingston. Apparently, some must suspect that with his close ties to Shower Posse leaders and Tivoli Gardens, Seaga may have some insight into the whereabouts of Mr. Coke. “I haven’t got a clue,” he told the Gleaner.

The most important and distressing reports out of Kingston reveal just how dire the situation is in Tivoli Gardens, and how ill-prepared the country, despite a high murder rate in normal times, is to deal with it. The morgue is full. Rumors are spreading of mass graves. Radio stations are imploring listeners to donate blood, and alerting them that the hospitals are only accepting emergency medical situations.

As for the US government, whose extradition request spawned the Jamaican government’s action that led to this outbreak of violence?  The New York Times rightly asked, and the Obama administration expressed support for Golding’s actions:

“As the Jamaican government seeks to uphold the rule of law, the United States stands in support of its efforts to ensure public safety and to combat drug trafficking and other criminal activity,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.