KINGSTON (Reuters) – Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the Caribbean nation’s southern Clarendon parish after eight people were killed in separate gun attacks on Sunday night, including a seven-year-old boy.
“This is an opportunity for the government to fully mobilize to have a very serious focus on gangs,” Holness told a news conference in his office. “We cannot allow murder to be normalized in our country.”
The prime minister did not immediately specify what measures would be introduced, but these could typically include night-time curfews, longer periods of detention without formal charges and the ability for police to search properties without a warrant.
Holness said he hoped the move would prevent reprisals, and said intelligence had warned there was a “very high likelihood” of retaliatory attempts.
Five people have been arrested so far in connection with Sunday’s shooting, Holness said.
Jamaica ranked last year as the second deadliest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a study by Insight Crime, with 60.9 murders per 100,000 people, second only to the tiny island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Holness noted that while the number of gangs estimated to be active in the country has fallen from 400 to 185 in five years, the numbers are still “very high”.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has tried to crack down on rising gun violence through stronger law enforcement and stopping the importation of illegal firearms.
About 87% of the weapons tracked in the Caribbean come from the United States, according to data from US authorities.
The US is advising its citizens to reconsider travel to Jamaica due to crime, and to avoid Clarendon altogether, ranking the congregation as “off-limits” for its embassy staff.
(Reporting by Zahra Burton in Kingston; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Kylie Madry)