Edward Seaga:
Jamaica's Number 1 Terrorist

Fifty years ago, on October 6, 1976, Cuban exile terrorists took the lives of 73 innocent passengers and crew on board Cubana flight 455. From the champion Cuban fencing team returning home with their gold and silver medals to the Guyanese students embarking on a new journey in a foreign land, they were all casualties of a hot Cold War raging in the Caribbean. On one side you had Cuba and nations friendly to Cuba like Jamaica and Guyana, and on the other side you had the Cuban exile terrorists and U.S. intelligence. The terrorists did not respect the invisible battle lines. There was no depth they would not descend to. So, they did the unthinkable. They murdered teenage students, nine-year-old Sabrina Harripaul, and Nancy Uranga Romagoza, an Olympic fencer who was carrying her first child. They hid two bombs on the plane, one in a camera case and the other in a toothpaste tube. The plane caught on fire and plunged into the sea. Not one person survived.

A similar plan to blow up a Cubana flight from Jamaica to Cuba on July 9, 1976 failed because the flight was delayed.

Then-opposition leader Edward Seaga started a civil war. Claiming that he wanted to stop "communism" in Jamaica, he waged war on the Michael Manley-led administration. And he joined forces with U.S. intelligence and the Cuban exile terrorists from the same network that bombed Cubana flight 455. All three conspired to destabilize, sabotage and destroy Jamaica. Declassified files show Seaga had close ties to both the Cuban exiles and U.S. intelligence. His close friend author Robin Moore had offered his Jamaican property to Cuban exile terrorists for anti-Castro operations in the 60s. Ray Cline, the CIA's former deputy director for intelligence, said Eddie Seaga was his friend.

Manley wanted to make Jamaica a paradise for more than just the white establishment planter class. He did not realize that attempting to change the status quo and lift Black people out of debilitating poverty was a crime he would pay dearly for.

During Seaga's campaign of terror, he and his co-conspirators bombed the Cuban Consulate, manufactured food shortages, instigated worker unrest, delivered arms, oiled the road leading to a nighttime political rally to cause crashes, and attempted to assassinate Bob Marley. They even attempted to kill Michael Manley three times. These are some of their most notorious crimes. There are too many acts of terrorism to discuss them all here.

Despite the sabotage, Manley won the 1976 election.

The attempts on Manley's life and the plot to destabilize Jamaica appeared in a December 1977 Penthouse piece called "Murder as Usual." Yes, Penthouse of all places.

In a 1977 private meeting where the Penthouse article was discussed, Manley told U.S. Ambassador Frederick Irving that he could believe top U.S. officials and the intelligence service director had issued no orders, yet maintained that his intelligence and military services possessed "irrefutable" evidence of activity at lower levels. He specifically alleged that Edward Seaga had met Cuban exiles in Miami and lower-echelon intelligence service officials on several occasions in 1976.

Irving asked Manley to make a public statement concerning the accuracy of the Penthouse article. Manley said he understood what Irving wanted him to do, but that he would in no way "perjure his conscience" by making public statements merely for the sake of maintaining friendly relations with the U.S. That surely did not go over well with Uncle Sam. Manley had no idea how low they would go.

Manley's allegations were corroborated. In December 1976, the incoming Secretary of State told Kissinger that a reliable source said Cuban exiles in Miami were planning to kill Manley with U.S. intelligence involvement.

Had Manley's administration not been amputated at the knees, maybe, just maybe, Jamaica would not be the cesspool of corruption, fraud and violence it is today. We could have been the Sweden of the Caribbean. Instead, we are the hell of the Caribbean.

Seaga has been indicted and convicted of being Jamaica's Number 1 terrorist in the court of public opinion. History has vindicated Manley and crowned him one of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen.