1984 Edition

Agriculture

main crops — sugarcane, coffee, cocoa, tobacco, rice, corn

main crops — sugarcane, citrus fruits, bananas, pimento, coconuts, coffee, cocoa, tobacco

Area

48,464 km2; 45% forest; 20% built on or waste; 17% meadow and pasture; 14% cultivated; 4% fallow

UR4^ Caribbean Sea ^NICARAGUA CSee reference map III) Land 10,991 km2; 23% meadow and pasture; 21% arable; 19% forest; 37% waste, urban, or other Water

Branches

President popularly elected for a four-year term; bicameral legislature (National Congress — 27-seat Senate and 91-seat Chamber of Deputies elected for four-year terms); Supreme Court

Cabinet headed by Prime Minister; bicameral legislature — 21-member Senate (13 nominated by the Prime Minister, eight by opposition leader, if any; currently no official opposition because of People's National Party boycott of December 1983 election; eight non-Jamaica Labor Party members appointed to current Senate by Prime Minister Seaga), 60-member elected House of Representatives; judiciary follows British tradition under a Chief Justice

Budget

revenue $1.0 billion, expenditure $1.6 billion (1982)

Capital

Santo Domingo

Kingston

Coastline

1,288 km People

1,022 km People

Communists

an estimated 7,000 to 9,000 members in several legal and illegal factions; effectiveness limited by ideological differences and organizational inadequacies

Elections

last national election May 1982; next election May 1986 Political parties and leaders: Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), Jose Francisco Pefta Gomez; Reformist Party (PR), Joaquin Balaguer; Dominican Liberation Party (PLD), Juan Bosch; Democratic Q uisqueyan Party (PQD), Elias Wessin y Wessin; Revolutionary Social Christian Party (PRSC), Rogelio Delgado Bogaert; Movement of National Conciliation (MCN), Jaime Manuel Fernandez Gonzalez; Antireelection Movement of Democratic Integration (MIDA), Francisco Augusto Lora; National Civic Union (UCN), Guillermo Delmonte Urraca; National Salvation Movement (MSN), Luis Julian Perez; Popular Democratic Party (PDF), Luis Homero Lajara Burgos; Fourteenth of June Revolutionary Movement (MR-1J4), Hector Aristy Pereyra; Dominican Communist Party (PCD), Narciso Isa Conde, central committee, legalized in 1978; Dominican Popular Movement (MPD), illegal; 12th of January National Liberation Movement (ML-12E), Plinio Matos Moquete, illegal; Communist Party of the Dominican Republic (PACOREDO), Luis Montas Gonzalez, illegal; Popular Socialist Party (PSP), illegal; Anti-Imperialist Patriotic Union (UPA), Ivan Rodriguez; Democratic Union (UD), Ramon Antonio Flores; Revolutionary League of Workers (LRT), Claudio Tavarez; several additional small leftist parties

at discretion of Governor General upon advice of Prime Minister but within five years; last held 15 December 1983 Political parties and leaders: Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), Edward Seaga; People's National Party (PNP), Michael Manley

Electric power

1,144,000 kW capacity (1983); 3.0 billion kWh produced (1983), 480 kWh per capita

1,300,000 kW capacity (1982); 2.0 billion kWh produced (1982), 871 kWh per capita

Ethnic divisions

73% mixed, 16% white, 11% black

76.3% African, 15.1% Afro-European, 3 4% East Indian and Afro-East Indian, 3.2% white, 1.2% Chinese and Afro-Chinese, 0.9% other

Exports

$768 million (f.o.b., 1982); sugar, nickel, coffee, tobacco, cocoa

$767 million (f.o.b., 1982); alumina, bauxite, sugar, bananas, citrus fruits and fruit products, rum, cocoa

GNP

$7.6 billion (1981), $1,400 per capita; no real growth in 1982

$3.0 billion (1982), $1,360 per capita; real growth rate 1982, 0.5% est.

Government leader

Salvador JORGE Blanco, President

Edward Philip George SEAGA, Prime Minister; Sir Florizel A. GLASSPOLE, Governor General

Imports

$1.3 billion (f.o.b., 1982); foodstuffs, petroleum, industrial raw materials, capital equipment

$1.2 billion (f.o.b., 1982); fuels, machinery, transportation and electrical equipment, food, fertilizer

Labor force

1.3 million; 47% agriculture, 23% industry and commerce, 16% government, 14% services

703,000(1980); 36.4% agriculture, 32.7% services, 16% government, 14.9% industry and commerce; shortage of technical and managerial personnel; 269,000 unemployed (1980)

Land boundaries

361 km Water

Language

Spanish

English, Creole

Legal system

based on French civil codes; 1966 constitution

based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction

Limits of territorial waters (claimed)

6 nm (fishing 200 nm; 200 nm exclusive economic zone)

12 nm

Literacy

68%

76%

Major industries

tourism, sugar processing, nickel mining, gold mining, textiles, cement

bauxite mining, textiles, food processing, light manufactures, tourism

Major trade partners

exports — 46% US, including Puerto Rico (1980); imports— 45% US, including Puerto Rico (1980) Dominican Republic (continued)

exports — US 45%, UK 19%, Canada 6%, Norway 5%; imports— US 32%, Venezuela 18%, Netherlands Antilles 12%,UK 10% (1979)

Member of

FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBA, IBRD, ICAO, ICO, IDA, IDB— Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTELSAT, INTERPOL, IOOC, IRC, ISO, ITU, OAS, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WMO, WTO Economy

CARICOM, Commonwealth, FAO, G-77, GATT, IADB, IAEA, IBA, IBRD, ICAO, ICO, IDE— Inter-American Development Bank, IFAD, IFC, ILO, IMF, IMO, INTERPOL, ISO, ITU, NAM, OAS, PAHO, SELA, UN, UNESCO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO Economy

Monetary conversion rate

3. 17 Jamaican dollars=US$l (February 1984)

National holiday

Independence Day, 27 February

Independence Day, first Monday in August

Nationality

noun — Dominican(s); adjective — Dominican

noun — Jamaican(s); adjective — Jamaican

Official name

Dominican Republic

Jamaica

Organized labor

12% of labor force Government

about 33% of labor force (1980) Government

Other political or pressure groups

Communist Party of Jamaica; New World Group (Caribbean regionalists, nationalists, and leftist intellectual fraternity); Rastafarians (Negro religious/racial cultists, panAfricanists); New Creation International Peacemakers Tabernacle (leftist group); Workers Liberation League (a Marxist coalition of students/labor)

Political subdivisions

26 provinces and the National District

12 parishes and the Kingston-St. Andrew corporate area

Population

6,416,000 (July 1984), average annual growth rate 2.7%

2,388,000 (July 1984), average annual growth rate 1.7%

Religion

95% Roman Catholic

predominantly Protestant (including Anglican and Baptist), some Roman Catholic, some spiritualist cults

Suffrage

universal and compulsory, over age 18 or married, except members of the armed forces and police, who cannot vote

universal adult at age 18

Type

republic

independent state within Commonwealth, recognizing Elizabeth II as head of state

Voting strength

(1982 election) 74% voter turnout; 46.76% PRD, 39.14% PR, 9.69% PLD; 4.41% minor parties

in the 1983 general elections 54 seats were uncontested; in 6 contested seats the JLP won overwhelmingly against several fringe parties; the PNP and WPJ boycotted the election; (1980 general elections) approx. 58.8% JLP (51 seats in House), 41.2% PNP (9 seats) Communist*.- Worker's Party of Jamaica (Marxist-Leninist), Trevor Munroe