Violent Actors and Embedded Power: Exploring the Evolving Roles of Dons in Jamaica
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Violent Actors and Embedded Power: Exploring the Evolving Roles of Dons in Jamaica Damion Keith Blake Dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical and Cultural Thought Max O. Stephenson Jr. (Chair) Karen M. Hult (Co-Chair) Robert P. Stephens Onwubiko B. Agozino November 9, 2012 Blacksburg, VA Keywords: Dons, Roles, Garrisons, Embeddedness, Governance Copyright @ 2012 Damion K Blake Violent Actors and Embedded Power: Exploring the Evolving Roles of Dons in Jamaica Damion Keith Blake ABSTRACT The Jamaican don is a non-state actor who wields considerable power and control inside that nation’s garrison communities. A don is a male figure, usually from the community in which he plays a leadership role. Garrisons in Jamaica have often emerged as neighborhoods that are don-ruled shadow versions of the official State. These are poor inner city communities characterized by homogeneous and, in some cases, over-voting patterns for one of Jamaica’s two major political parties: the Peoples National Party (PNP) or the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP). This dissertation explores the major roles dons played in Jamaican garrisons. It focused on one community in the downtown metro area of one of the nation’s cities. Additionally, it investigated the factors that account for the evolution of such roles performed by dons from the 1960s to the present. I used governance theories and the concept of embeddedness as an analytic framework to interpret the power and authority dons have in garrisons. Dons, as it turned out, perform four central roles in garrisons: security/protection, social welfare, partisan mobilization and law, order and conflict resolution via “jungle justice” measures. Different types of dons perform alternate mixes of these roles. The case study described here led me to develop a taxonomy of these informal community leaders by separating them into Mega, Area and Street Dons. I argue overall that dons are embedded governing authorities in Jamaican garrisons based on the socio-economic and political roles they carry out. By examining the responsibilities of dons in Jamaica, this analysis contributes to the literature on the activities of non-state criminal actors and their forms of influence on governance processes. The study suggests that it may now be appropriate to re-think the nature of governance and the actors we broadly assume are legitimate holders of power and authority in developing nation contexts. Dedication To my parents, brothers and the people of Brown Villa, Jamaica. iii Acknowledgements I would like especially to thank the chair and co-chair of my dissertation committee for the dedicated support and guidance they provided throughout every stage of the research process, from its design to completion. I also want to acknowledge the guidance and support received from the other members of my advisory committee. The financial support of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the Open Society Foundation (OS) enabled me to conduct six months of field research in Jamaica. I would like to thank particularly the SSRC for awarding me a dissertation fellowship in its Drug Security and Democracy (DSD) program. I am grateful also to the many Jamaicans who assisted me in obtaining and scheduling interviews. Their support was invaluable. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1- Introduction: Dons: Despots of Jamaican Garrisons 1 Chapter 2- Literature Review: The Criminalization of the Jamaican State: Power, Legitimacy and Criminal Actors 29 Chapter 3- Research Design: Research Design and Methods 60 Chapter 4- Data Findings Part I: Brown Villa: The Garrison Context 83 Chapter 5- Data Findings Part II: Don Roles: From Partisan Enforcers to Embedded Governance Actors 114 Chapter 6- Conclusion: Re-thinking Governance and Dis-embedding Garrison Dons 166 References: 190 Appendix A- Consent Form: 206 Appendix B- Examples of Interview Questions: 207 v List of Figures and Tables Figures: 1: Brown Villa Residents’ Perception of Community Challenges 2007 and 2011 92 2: Theme 1: Problems Facing Garrison Residents 100 3: Weapons used in murders 2011 110 4: Interviewees’ description of roles dons play in garrisons 115 5: Power structures in garrisons Pre & Post-1970s 143 6: Impact of drug and gun trafficking on roles of dons (1970s-2012) 150 7: Cocaine introduced in the United States by Corridor 1981-2001 152 8: Impact of the Gun-for-Drugs-Trade between Jamaica & Haiti 160 9: Interviewees perceptions of dons’ status in garrisons 180 Tables: 1.0: Interviewee list by VT number and Category 84 1.1: Age and Sex of Brown Villa Residents 2011 94 1.2: Major Public Safety Threats in Brown Villa 97 1.3: Murders by type, 2009-2011 109 1.4: Qualification/Training by gender in Brown Villa 2011 112 1.5: Level of Training/Qualification for Household Heads Brown Villa 2011 113 1.6: Dons’ Sources of Wealth and Weapons by Type 119 1.7: Gang-related Murders 129 1.8: Major Roles of Dons by Types 179 vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION DONS: DESPOTS OF JAMAICAN GARRISONS Introduction Since its independence in 1962, Jamaica’s democratic system of government and governing has not had a reversal or collapse. The country’s democracy however, has been dogged by rampant corruption (especially among the police), political and gang related violence. The country’s political history reveals an unholy union between elected officials and informal community leaders known as dons. The status and control dons tend to have in Jamaican garrisons are broadly analogous to the power of a dictatorial ruler. Such informal community leaders, today typically have partisan ties, have benefitted financially from the narcotics trade in the Americas, and on occasion have used the material wealth they acquired thereby to provide socio-economic services to garrison residents. A don has significant power based on his command of a gang and his access and willingness to use guns and violence as a means of creating fear and acquiring respect inside garrisons. The term ‘garrison’ was first used in the Jamaican context by Carl Stone (1985) to describe inner city communities characterized by bounded political partisan loyalties among residents for either the Jamaican Labor Party (JLP) or the Peoples National Party (PNP). Violence of various sorts has long characterized these communities. To date, dons have been male and have usually hailed from the communities in which they play governance roles. I did not read about or learn during interviews of any female 1 dons. This fact raises the important issue of masculinity and violence in Jamaica, but also the wider Caribbean and Latin America region (Baird 2012; Chevannes, 2002; Moser and Bronkhost, 1999). Boys and men in Jamaica especially in urban and some rural communities are socialized differently from girls and women in the nation. Many Jamaican boys are acculturated to the use of force and to the perceived significance of exercising control over the home to “become men” (Chevannes, 2002). The use of force and violence against women and other men are also features of the male masculinization process in other Latin American and Caribbean countries. Jamaican boys are allowed to go onto the streets and the “corner” to interact with other boys and men who are considered dominant in their communities while girls are expected to stay inside the home. On the streets and in the “yards”1 of Jamaican garrisons young boys and men learn social codes of bravado and machismo. The don is often viewed as the consummate male, the “real big man2”; he controls his gang, several women, has financial power and demonstrates physical violence and prowess as a marker of his hegemonic position. This background of masculinity and gender is important to attaining a full understanding of who dons are, the status they have in garrisons and the roles they perform in such communities. During the first decade of Jamaica’s independence, 1962-1970, elected representatives used dons as agents of political enforcement and mass mobilization inside garrison communities (Sives, 2002). By the 1980s, however, the roles dons performed in 1A yard in Jamaica refers to the physical living space of a home(s). In some inner city and garrison communities, several families share one yard. 2This phrase is used in Jamaica to refer to men considered to be dominant males on account of their sexual prowess, financial strength and the respect they have among their peers and within their communities. The phrase is popular among the lower middle and working class. 2 their neighborhoods changed and expanded beyond the realm of partisan politics. This study investigates the multiple roles that different types of dons play today in Jamaica’s garrison communities. It also develops a fresh interpretation of “who” dons are, how they evolved over time and the different sources of funds they use to finance themselves and the gangs they lead. I use the example of one Jamaican garrison community, Brown Villa,3 to investigate the theoretical and empirical targets of this study. The Jamaican don role has evolved over time and the functions these community figures perform in garrisons symbolize how the state can lose its central authority and legitimacy within localities. There is no single sort of don. Instead, there are different types of dons, and they play different roles in the garrisons in which they are active. In a Jamaica Gleaner article entitled “The origins and roles of Dons,” Rattary (2001), for example, noted: The word “Don” is of Spanish origin (1523). It is from the Latin 'dominus', which means master or lord. When prefixed to the- Christian name, it becomes a title for a Spanish nobleman, gentleman, and a person of consequence, or university professor.