Martinique Governor Jean-Christophe Bouvier announced that he has signed a “curfew decree” that will go into effect from 9pm to 5am in the neighbourhoods most affected by the violence. The decree will be in effect until at least September 23 and concerns “certain areas of the municipalities of Fort-de-France and Lamentin”, the governor’s office said in a press release.
Urban violence
Urban violence has rocked some neighbourhoods of Fort-de-France, the capital of the island of about 350,000 in the French West Indies, for several nights. A McDonald’s in the Dillon district was set on fire overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, putting its workers out of work and setting barricades ablaze.
Authorities said a Carrefour hypermarket in the same neighbourhood was “occupied by around fifty people who barricaded themselves in the parking lot and tried to set them on fire”. A man who escaped on a scooter fell and was slightly injured when police dispersed him. He was arrested.
“I have asked the internal security forces to fill the roads and intersections with their presence and make as many arrests as possible,” the governor said at a press conference, adding that “significant” reinforcements had arrived and others would arrive “in the coming days”. A gendarmerie squadron of about a hundred soldiers was sent as reinforcements.
Against the high cost of living
The tensions are part of a protest movement against the high cost of living that began in early September. According to INSEE research in 2022, food prices in Martinique were 40% higher than in France.
Jean-Christophe Bouvier stated that since the start of the movement, “44 vehicles” have been set on fire, “35 private commercial premises have been attacked” and authorities have “arrested 15 people”. According to the governor, “11 police officers were injured by gunfire” and “three rebels” were also injured, one of whom was shot.
“The cause is noble, but the method we are experiencing here discredits the movement,” said Franceinfo Rosette Jean-Louis, president of the citizens’ council of the popular Sainte-Thérèse district, one of the most affected by the pandemic, on Wednesday. “The cause is noble, but the method we are experiencing here discredits the movement,” she said. This neighborhood “is not affected by the curfew. I did not want to punish twice the citizens who live there, who are already subjected to violence, who sometimes have to travel at night for professional reasons,” the governor said on Wednesday.
Violence had already erupted in Sainte-Thérèse on the night of September 2-3, when police officers were targeted by live ammunition. On the night of Friday into Saturday, two men opened fire on the facade of the Fort-de-France police station, but there were no injuries. “This strategy of chaos cannot lead to any positive result,” the prefecture warned. Martinique, a major seaport through which 98% of the goods entering and leaving this overseas territory pass, is also a target of the protest movement.
“Align prices with mainland France”
Rodrigue Petitot, leader of the Rally for Protection, told AFPTV of the Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources: “Since July, precisely from July 1, we have been issuing injunctions against large retailers, asking them to align their prices with mainland France (RPPRAC). “We are French, we have the same IDs, the same penalties, the same taxes if not more, we do not understand why we cannot have the same prices, especially on food,” he criticised.
Invited to the round table in the prefecture on Thursday, September 12, with mass distribution and the participation of all players in the institutions, RPPRAC representatives left the negotiations after five minutes in the face of the governor’s refusal to broadcast the discussions live on social networks.
