Laura Laplaud 8:42 pm, November 22, 2021
For a week, Guadeloupe has experienced violent disputes on its soil.
Originally, the rebellion against the vaccination obligation of caregivers but also against the implementation of the health pass.
However, the anger of the inhabitants seems deeper and could even be the result of several years of unresolved social conflicts.
Charred buildings, overturned cars, debris burned and piled up for several days, the roads of the island are transformed.
It has become almost impossible to navigate your way.
To go from one town to another, you have to cross the many roadblocks.
At the origin of these roadblocks, demonstrators on strike since November 15, in the fight against the vaccination obligation for caregivers and the health pass.
Behind the protest, years of social tension
But behind the riots, it is in truth months, even years of hidden social tensions which are finally revealed to the authorities.
"There are areas in Guadeloupe, in the south in particular, where they have water once every three days," Jean-Claude Dassier said on Monday on the "Punchline" plateau.
"This is not acceptable, let alone the pricing issues!"
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In Guadeloupe, the vaccination campaign has resonated the feeling of anger of many inhabitants.
Misunderstood, distraught, they decided to make themselves heard.
"I do not want the children to have this still experimental vaccination", testifies a resident of the island.
On the island, the vaccination coverage rate, that is to say at least one injection, of people over 18 years old is 46.43%.
By way of comparison, this rate is 91% in metropolitan France.
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"There is the excuse of the health pass, but it is an explosive situation which has been explosive in Guadeloupe for a long time!"
launches François Pupponi, related Member of the Modem of Val-d'Oise.
"With real delinquency, young people who have switched to drug trafficking, drug addiction, and there is chlordecone," he explains.
Chlordecone, this toxic pesticide used for more than twenty years in bananas in Guadeloupe and Martinique to fight against weevils.
"All this mixed up, at one point it explodes and everything is an excuse for things to get out of hand," he added.
"We are really faced with delinquents who are not afraid of anything, young people who are capable of going to kill anyone!"
An island upside down
At nightfall, there are hundreds, masked, looting businesses and burning cars.
Urban violence which has intensified in recent days and which causes a feeling of disgust among some traders.
"It is a feeling of nerves also because with all that we have undergone this year, we did not need that, there today, several people will find themselves unemployed", testifies Julien Guedj, manager of a shoe store on the island.
To help the authorities on the spot, the government announced the dispatch of 200 police and gendarmes and the reinforcement of about fifty members of the elite troops of the GIGN and the Raid.
"Our forces on the spot do not have the experience of people who have decided to wage guerrilla warfare", maintains Christian Prouteau, founder of GIGN, at the microphone of Laurence Ferrari.
An insurrectionary situation
This weekend, 38 people were arrested. "In the first batches of arrests, we have experienced delinquent, multi-repeat (...) what is happening in Guadeloupe is called looting, urban violence, extremely serious abuses", comments David Le Bars, secretary general SCPN / UNSA. In addition to the looting of stores, the weekend was marked by a fire in the premises of customs officers on the night from Friday to Saturday in Pointe-à-Pitre according to Le Figaro. Information confirmed by the police-justice service of Europe 1. The premises were also stolen. Among the safes present in the premises, one of them was taken by the thieves. It would contain weapons of war: Sig-Sauer semi-automatic 9mm pistols, a shotgun and a 9mm automatic pistol. At this stage,the authorities do not know if the criminals managed to open the safe. An investigation for theft with degradation in an organized gang, led by the Research Section of the Gendarmerie of Guadeloupe.
An explosive situation that could affect other neighboring islands like Martinique and Reunion which could also catch fire according to François Pupponi, related Member of the Modem of Val-d'Oise.
The curfew, introduced on Friday, remains in effect on the island from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.