New night of violence in Guadeloupe, police targeted by gunfire in Martinique

Published on : 11/23/2021 – 10:25 PM

The fear of a conflagration in the West Indies. The French government wanted to be closed on Tuesday, November 23 in the face of the violence that continues in Guadeloupe, after several days of protest against the compulsory anti-Covid-19 vaccination for caregivers and firefighters. Paris is now monitoring a possible contagion of the movement in neighboring Martinique, where the police were targeted by live ammunition in the night.

If the fifth night of violence in Guadeloupe was quieter than the previous ones, according to the prefecture, it was however marked by live ammunition against the police, denounced the Interior Ministers Gérald Darmanin and from Overseas Sébastien Lecornu.

“The situation is still very difficult” in Guadeloupe, admitted on France Inter Gerald Darmanin. “What is certain is that the restoration of public order is the prerequisite for any discussion, of course,” he thundered.

Some fear that the movement will spread to Martinique, where a general strike began on Monday and significantly slowed down the island, whose roads are blocked by many roadblocks. Especially since the police and firefighters “received projectiles” and “9mm shots on several occasions” during the night from Monday to Tuesday, without causing any injuries, announced the departmental management of the public security of Fort-de-France.

The protest movement against compulsory vaccination against Covid-19 for nursing staff and firefighters was launched on November 15 in Guadeloupe, with a call for a general strike by a collective of trade union and citizen organizations who are also calling for the rise in wages and social minimums and fall in fuel and gas prices.

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The scars of the week of protest are still visible, as in Le Gosier, where the carcasses of charred cars, debris and the remains of barricades obstruct the main road that crosses the city.

In the city center, most shops are closed, with the exception of a few food shops, the pharmacy or a bank.

“The city has been dead since the start of the mobilization, not much is happening,” Nadège Tommely, 38, who runs a grocery store, told AFP.

In addition, the prefecture reports a death but without linking it directly to the ongoing protest movement. There is for the moment “no element on the cause of death” of this “young”, according to Xavier Sicot, prosecutor of the Republic of Basse-Terre.

Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex “take us for illiterates”

To calm the situation, Jean Castex announced Monday the creation of a “forum for dialogue” in order to “convince and support individually, humanely”, professionals concerned by the vaccination obligation.

A decision that did not convince in Guadeloupe where the unions behind the mobilization deplored not being associated with the initiative.

“Of course we continue the mobilization. We did not expect much from Castex and the Macron government, so we are not disappointed” with the result of yesterday’s meeting, says Hilaire Luce, member of the collective who called for a general strike, on a dam made of trees and burnt tires near Le Gosier.

“They show a marked contempt: they create a listening authority, that means that they take us for illiterates?”, He is indignant.

Dispatch of 250 police and gendarmes, including 50 members of the GIGN and Raid

“More than 90 arrests” and “more than 60 police custody” have taken place since the start of the crisis, said the Minister of the Interior, while 250 police and gendarmes, including 50 from the GIGN and the Raid, have were sent as reinforcements during the weekend and that a curfew was put in place from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized the sending of the GIGN and the RAID on the spot, “an absolutely unnecessary provocation”.

According to Sébastien Lecornu, the violence is committed by people “already unfavorably known to the police or the courts”, and “who are using this crisis to express themselves in violence”. “We can see that we are not dealing with a health and social issue,” he insisted.

The day before, President Emmanuel Macron had denounced those who use “the health of French women and men to wage political battles”.

Like other right-wing elected officials, the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher asked that Mr. Lecornu go there “because he is the one who represents the executive in the overseas territories”.

Mr. Lecornu however indicated that he did not intend to go there immediately so as not to “present a particularly significant overload for the police” who are already all on the ground.

With AFP