Jamaica

A lush and beautiful island, Jamaica is struggling to overcome lawlessness which has given it one of the world's highest murder rates and threatens to jeopardise its tourism industry, the main foreign exchange earner.

Jamaica's political stability, plentiful bauxite deposits, attractive scenery and rich culture - best known for its reggae music - contrast with widespread crime and poverty.

Since independence in 1962, power in Jamaica has alternated between the social-democratic People's National Party and the conservative Jamaica Labour Party.

While elections have often been marred by violence, their results have always been accepted and, on the whole, political institutions have managed to retain their legitimacy.

But political stability has not turned into social and economic harmony. Contrasting with the luxury tourist resorts are densely-populated and impoverished ghettos.

The government has at times deployed army units to suppress violent unrest. There were more than 1,600 reported murders in 2005 and there have been accusations of extrajudicial killings by law-enforcers.

Jamaica is the birthplace of Rastafarianism, a religious movement whose followers venerate the former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I. Once regarded as a revolutionary threat, Rastafarianism became a cultural force, reflected in art and music.

With its roots in the island's ska and rocksteady forms, reggae made Jamaica a global force in music, with Bob Marley as its most-famous ambassador.