Dams and looting in Martinique and Guadeloupe: 50 arrests against a backdrop of mobilization against the high cost of living

Fiery roadblocks against the high cost of living were erected in Martinique and 50 people were arrested on the island as well as in Guadeloupe during clashes during the night from Sunday to Monday, according to AFP and the authorities. In Martinique, blockades were installed on Sunday evening on national road 5 (RN5), an axis in the south of the island, ahead of a mobilization on Monday at the call of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), noted AFP.

Following the intervention of the gendarmes, roadblocks were “removed on the main roads” around 9:00 a.m., announced the Martinique prefecture. In total, “more than twenty roadblocks” were identified and “six individuals were arrested,” she said. Two businesses were “ransacked” in Robert and Saint-Pierre, and five armed robberies reported, added the prefect.

Skip the ad

In Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique, demonstrators blocked the Sainte-Thérèse district on Monday, AFP journalists noted. “We will go until the end. They gave us no choice,” explained Rodrigue Petitot, president of the RPPRAC, in a video broadcast on TikTok from his stronghold of Canal Alaric in Fort-de-France. Faced with the blockages, the mobile gendarmes, with the help of an armored vehicle, began clearing Maurice Bishop Boulevard, an artery in the neighborhood.

44 arrests, the majority of which were minors

In the neighboring archipelago of Guadeloupe, the night from Sunday to Monday was marked by “several attempted barrages and projectile throwing,” according to a press release from the prefecture. In total, 44 people were arrested there, “more than half of whom were minors”. Looting was noted by the police in Abymes, a town bordering Pointe-à-Pitre, said the state representation.

The senator from Guadeloupe Victorin Lurel considered that “the abuses, the looting, the material damage and especially the physical attacks on people” were “intolerable and inexcusable”. The elected official called on the State for dialogue, adding that “political responses must also be provided to the distress expressed by young people”.