The prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, announced “having signed a curfew order”, coming into force from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., in the districts most affected by the violence.
This order will be effective at least until September 23, it is specified in a press release from the prefecture, and concerns “certain districts of the communes of Fort-de-France and Lamentin”.
For several nights, urban violence has been shaking certain districts of Fort-de-France, the capital of this island in the French Antilles with a population of around 350,000.
On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a McDonald’s in the Dillon district was set on fire, leaving its employees technically unemployed, and barricades were set alight.
In the same neighborhood, a Carrefour hypermarket was “invaded by about fifty individuals who set up a barricade in the parking lot and tried to set it on fire,” authorities told AFP. Fleeing on a scooter at the time of the dispersal by the police, a man fell, slightly injuring himself. He was arrested.
– Reinforcements –
“I have asked the internal security forces to saturate the roads and roundabouts with their presence, and to carry out as many arrests as possible,” the prefect declared at a press conference, adding that “significant” reinforcements had arrived and that others would arrive “in the coming days.”
A squadron of gendarmes, around a hundred soldiers, was sent as reinforcements.
These tensions are part of a protest movement against the high cost of living that began in early September. In Martinique, according to an INSEE study in 2022, food prices were 40% higher than in mainland France.
Since the start of the movement, “44 vehicles” have been set on fire and “35 private commercial premises attacked”, and the authorities have made “15 arrests”, detailed Mr. Bouvier.
According to the prefect, “eleven police officers were injured by gunfire” and “three rioters” were also injured, one of them by gunfire.
“The cause is noble, but the method, what we are experiencing here, discredits the movement,” Rosette Jean-Louis, president of the citizens’ council of the working-class Sainte-Thérèse district, one of the most affected by the violence, denounced on franceinfo on Wednesday.
This district “is not affected by the curfew. I did not want to penalize twice the citizens who live there, who already suffer violence, who sometimes have to travel, for professional reasons, at night”, said the prefect on Wednesday.
Violence had already broken out in Sainte-Thérèse on the night of September 2 to 3, during which police officers were targeted with live ammunition.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, two people opened fire on the facade of the Fort-de-France police station, without causing any injuries.
“This strategy of chaos cannot lead to any positive outcome,” the prefecture warned.
The Grand Port Maritime de Martinique, through which 98% of goods entering or leaving this overseas territory pass, is also targeted by the protest movement.
– “Injunctions” –
“We have been issuing injunctions since July, July 1 to be precise, to large retailers asking them to align their prices with mainland France,” Rodrigue Petitot, leader of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), told AFPTV.
“We are French, we have the same identity cards, the same fines, the same taxes if not more taxes, we do not understand why on the subject of food specifically we could not have the same prices”, criticized Mr. Petitot, nicknamed “the R” on the island.
Invited on Thursday, September 12, to a round table at the prefecture with all the players in the mass distribution sector and institutions, the representatives of the RPPRAC left the negotiations after five minutes when the prefect refused to broadcast the discussions live on social networks.
The State, distributors and local authorities are aiming for a “20% average reduction in the price” of 2,500 basic necessities.
To combat the high cost of living, the Territorial Community of Martinique has declared itself in favour of eliminating the rates of sea tax, the tax specific to overseas departments applying to imported goods, on several hundred products.
