French authorities have been cracking down hard with special forces police on the residents of their overseas possession, the Caribbean the island of Guadeloupe after three nights of looting and rioting in the streets followed protests against harsh COVID19 measures that have strangled the island. During the weekend of Nov. 21st, 38 people were arrested as shops were broken into and cars were set on fire. Authorities have alleged that gunmen opened fire at police and firefighters. By the following Monday, orders had come from Paris that French police special forces would be arriving to restore order as the unrest has threatened to spread to other French island possessions such as Martinique, where unions are threatening a general strike to end vaccine mandates and support to help the islands deal with devastating fuel costs.
According to Reuters,
“Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Saturday that France would send to the territory about 50 members of the GIGN and RAID elite tactical forces of the gendarmerie and police.”
A dusk to dawn curfew has been imposed on the island of some 400,000 people. The Jamaican Observer reports, “Government spokesman Gabriel Attal called the situation “intolerable and unacceptable” and vowed a tough response against a “small minority” who were intimidating health workers, preventing pharmacies from opening and even using barricades to block ambulances.”
Embattled French President Emmanuel Macron described the situation while touring similarly afflicted regions of France, lending to the assessment that government forces are spread thin and struggling to maintain control over the large volatile nation.
“We will not give in to lies, distorting of information and the exploitation by some people of this situation,” he told reporters on a visit to the northern French city of Amiens, calling the situation “very explosive”.
“We do not play with health and we will not let the health of the French be played with for the sake of political infighting,” he added.
Uncertainties, Special Forces, Continued Protests
In spite of the harsh measures and police crackdowns the UGTG, the largest trade union in Guadeloupe called for continued protests of the vaccination mandate and “the depth of suffering, inequality, poverty, and exclusion felt by the people, notably youths and the elderly,” said UGTG secretary-general Maite Hubert M’Toumo, the larger expression of dissatisfaction with Paris’ rule by the Macron administration has permeated the protests in the Caribbean just as they have throughout the yellow-vest protests in mainland France.
