Four French journalists, including an Afp photographer, suffered three shots from men riding motorcycles in a deserted street in Fort-de-France, while they were filming and taking photos well away from a burning dam.
Guadeloupe and Martinique, 120 km from each other, are experiencing a major protest movement, born from the refusal of the vaccination obligation for caregivers and firefighters, which degenerated into a social crisis, revealing expectations of a population where many live below the poverty line and where youth unemployment is exploding.
This social movement is accompanied by nocturnal urban violence which prompted the prefect of Martinique to institute a curfew from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Thursday, while the prefect of Guadeloupe extended the one already in force on the island.
In pictures, an update on the situation in the Overseas Territories.
Director:
Olivier JUSZCZAK
In Guadeloupe, a call for an unlimited general strike has been launched by a collective of labor and citizen organizations to protest against the health pass and the vaccination obligation of caregivers against Covid-19 since Monday, November 15.
The president of the Guadeloupe Region, Ary Chalus, expressed his concern on Wednesday November 17 at the call for a general strike which causes many blockages on the island, but recalled that the vaccination obligation was not the only cause fed up with Guadeloupeans.
In the night from Friday to Saturday, November 20, when a curfew had been established between 6:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., pharmacies and businesses were notably targeted.
According to the Interior Ministry, 38 arrests were made.
Sunday, November 22, at the end of a crisis meeting at the end of the day in Paris, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced the dispatch to the island of about fifty members of the forces of elite of GIGN and Raid.
Born from the refusal of the vaccination obligation for caregivers and firefighters, the movement degenerated into a social crisis, revealing the expectations of a population where many live below the poverty line and where youth unemployment is exploding.
The department had alerted at the end of 2020, every day a thousand RSA requests were made to its services.
According to INSEE, the unemployment rate stood at 17% in 2020 and affected one in three young people under 29.
One third of the population lives below the poverty line.
A sign that the tension remains high, the prefect of Guadeloupe has decided to extend the curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., the application of which expired on Tuesday, until Saturday, November 28.
In France, nearly 70% of the population is vaccinated.
Guadeloupe, although hit by a very violent epidemic wave this summer, is struggling to exceed 35% of people with the complete vaccination course.
According to sociologists, opposition to vaccines also reflects the public's mistrust of the authorities since the chlordecone scandal.
Considered as an endocrine disruptor and probable carcinogen, this pesticide, banned in France in 1990, remained authorized in the banana fields of Martinique and Guadeloupe by ministerial exemption until 1993, causing significant and lasting pollution.
More than 90% of the adult population is contaminated by chlordecone, according to Public Health France.
While social protest has been raging in Guadeloupe for a week, a call for a general strike has been launched in Martinique, from Monday, November 22.
The prefect of Martinique instituted Thursday a curfew "from 7:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. until the return to calm" to deal with "nocturnal urban violence" since Monday, he announced in a statement.
After further violence during the night, the protest movement continued Thursday in the West Indies, pending the outcome of a meeting of Martinican unions with the authorities, and a videoconference from the Minister of Overseas Sébastien Lecornu with elected officials from Guadeloupe.
The blockage of certain axes persisted on the two islands, shaken for several days by a strong protest mixed with social demands and struggles against health measures.
Despite the establishment of a curfew, violence once again disturbed Martinique, on the night of Thursday to Friday, with shots aimed at journalists and police officers, one of whom was injured.
Four French journalists, including an Afp photographer, suffered three shots from men riding motorcycles in a deserted street in Fort-de-France, while they were filming and taking photos well away from a burning dam.
West Indies
riots
France
Strike
Guadeloupe
Demonstration
Martinique
Society