Leader facing no-confidence vote in Jamaica

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Anger over Prime Minister Bruce Golding’s handling of a police operation last week against a suspected drug lord that left 73 people dead led Jamaica’s Parliament to introduce a no-confidence measure Tuesday that could cost the embattled leader his job.

The weeklong police and military search for alleged drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, which also saw 700 people detained, had drawn widespread criticism and calls for Golding’s resignation.

The failure of the sweeps to capture Coke – a 41-year-old neighborhood leader from the Tivoli Gardens slum who is wanted in New York federal court on drugs and arms smuggling charges – only made matters worse for Golding.

The government came under fire for having dragged its feet on the U.S. extradition request for Coke issued last August. In March, Golding denied reports that his government had hired the Washington law firm Manatt Phelps & Phillips to, among other things, contest the extradition, a denial he subsequently had to retract.