The currently ruling People's Nationalist Party (PNP), led by Michael Manley, is one of the two major parties of Jamaica. It ruled Jamaica between 1972 and 1980, reportedly following a policy of very close co-operation with "left-wing third world countries". [ Political Parties of the World, (Detroit: Gail Research Company, 1984), p. 259.] In the early 1970's, the PNP was allied to the Workers' Liberation League, a Marxist-Leninist organization which later became the Workers' Party of Jamaica (WPJ), [ Ibid.] splitting from the PNP on its last years of rule following tensions between moderate and radical sectors of the alliance. [ 1984 International Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1984),
p. 145.] During the eight-year government of the PNP, Jamaican authorities reportedly had very close ties with Cuba, prompting a series of joint projects and increasing the number of Cuban personnel working in Jamaica. [ Ibid., p. 144.]

Regarding the existence of a para-military force known as brigadistas, no specific reference could be found among the sources presently available to the IRBDC. However, in December 1984, the Minister of National Security and Justice, William Spaulding, accused the PNP and WPJ of involvement in criminal activities and stated that leftist groups were supported by Cuba. [ Revolutionary and Dissident Movements, (London: Longman Publishing Group, 1988), p. 187.] He specifically stated that gunmen had been trained in Cuba, and:

"evidence clearly establishes that while all kinds of persons may engage in criminal acts, these special cells, linked in ideological solidarity, have been put up to commit acts throughout the entire country -the effects of which are seen in various types of crimes which would not ordinarily be recognized as "political": bank robberies, hold-ups on the streets, house breakings, murders, shootings and other crimes." [ Human Rights in Jamaica, (Washington: Americas Watch, September 1986), p. 9.]

Armed political violence is reported to be a feature of Jamaican politics since the late sixties, but this made a dramatic upsurge in 1973 with a series of killings of prominent citizens. [ International Handbook on Human Rights, (New York/West-port/London: Greenwood Press, 1987), p. 188.] A report indicates guns given to "political thugs" often ended up being used for criminal purposes, with political gun violence assuming unprecedented proportions and "an outright terrorist character" in 1976. [ Ibid.] In the seventies, the JLP, then in opposition, charged the PNP with forming death squads for eliminating JLP supporters, attributing the killing of Claudius Massop and the Greenbay Massacre cases to these squads. [ Ibid., p. 193.]