Jamaica

Geography

Of a 11425 km surface ², Jamaica is a mountainous island situated in the South of Cuba and in the southwest of Haiti. She presents a strong relief: in the East, the Blue mountains, covered with forests "the Blue mountain peaks in 2256 m"; on the West, a calcareous tray. The climate is tropical.

Population

Native of Africa, 75 % of the Jamaicans are black, the rest being crossed or of strictly European origin. The Protestants are majority. The population is urban in 55 %.

History

Discovered by Christophe Colomb in 1494 And occupied by the Spaniards, the island is conquered by the English people in the XVIIth century.

She reaches the independence in 1962. The political life is polarized by 2 parties which are in confrontation sometimes with violence: the Jamaican Labour Party, of liberal tendency, and the popular, social democrat national Party. Percival Patterson is a Prime Minister since 1992.

Further to several years of economic stagnation, the social movements of 1995 brought the constitution by Bruce Golding, member of the Jamaican Labour Party, one 3^E Political party, the national democratic Movement.