VIDEOS. Guadeloupe: new night of violence, the dismantling of the dams has started but the rampages continue

The dismantling of the blocking roadblocks began Sunday in Guadeloupe where reinforcements of the security forces from the metropolis arrived, but the violence continued forcing the rectorate to suspend the reception of students in schools, colleges and high schools on Monday. “A first part of cleaning” could take place on Sunday “and it will continue tomorrow,” said Eric Dethelot, on-call manager of Route de Guadeloupe. “Thanks to the police present and the requisitions from the prefecture, we were able to clear the axes with larger means such as grapple trucks, dump trucks with more tonnage,” Dethelot explained. “It was also important to be able to store what we picked up somewhere, so that it wouldn’t end up on the road again just after.”

The reinforcements of police and gendarmes sent from metropolitan France, in particular 38 members of the GIGN and Raid units, arrived on the island on Saturday evening. Some axes have been cleared, such as the “route des Mamelles”, which crosses the National Park in the center of Basse-Terre. But a dozen dams “reinforced in the afternoon” remained in place, in several strategic points of the archipelago.

These barricades made of heterogeneous objects, such as metal sheets, garbage containers, or trees, are held by “11 at 50 people “underlines Colonel Jean-Pierre, from the command of the Gendarmerie of Pointe-à-Pitre. Groups that can “reform” a few hours after being dispersed, according to the same source.

Thirty immediate appearances

The continuation of “urban violence, abuses and other obstacles to movement” led the rectoral to suspend the reception of students “in schools, colleges and high schools” in mainland Guadeloupe on Monday. “The situation remains uncertain regarding road traffic and the possibility for staff and students to move safely and safely seems compromised at this stage,” he said in a statement.

Thirty people will be tried Monday in immediate appearance in Pointe-à-Pitre, suspected of having participated in the urban violence that has agitated the island for a week, said Sunday evening the public prosecutor, Patrick Desjardins. The night from Saturday to Sunday remained agitated in the streets and on the roads of the island, between roadblocks, fires and looting which led to 22 arrests during the night and left two wounded among the security forces. These incidents took place despite the curfew that runs until Tuesday morning, every night from 15 a.m. to 5 a.m.

In several towns on the island, food stores were looted, as well as pharmacies. “Each time, a barricade placed upstream prevented us from moving forward”, according to the gendarmes who also testify to suspicion of “false calls to lure us elsewhere, just like the firefighters”. In the town of Morne-à-l’Eau, a police station was set on fire. According to the prefecture, four pharmacies were thus fractured.

“Firmness”

The state’s response is first and foremost that of “firmness”, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Sunday, describing the situation as “intolerable and unacceptable” in Guadeloupe. “This small minority which blocked by words, by words (vaccination), today it is radicalized and it tries to block them, to intimidate them by violence”, he denounced, evoking “caregivers threatened”, “pharmacies prevented from opening” and “ambulances blocked on roadblocks”.

Since the summer, the vaccination rate has increased in Guadeloupe, with a rate of nearly 50% of caregivers vaccinated, and approaching 50% in the general population. Prime Minister Jean Castex, accompanied by Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Minister of Health Olivier Véran, must at the same time receive on Monday evening elected officials from the island, said Matignon on Sunday, in order to allow them “to expose their analysis of the situation on the spot “. The meeting should also allow “a dialogue on the consequences of compulsory vaccination for caregivers and firefighters.” A call for a general strike in Martinique, the neighboring island of the Antilles, was launched for Monday.