2024-10-08 00:08:26
The leader of the movement against the high cost of living in Martinique and eleven police officers were injured on Monday 7 October in Lamentin, Martinique, during clashes between police and activists on one of the island’s main roads, the prefecture announced. The Demonstration for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources, at the origin of the protest movement on purchasing power, and the Prefecture provide different versions of the facts.
“After the call” customary, says the prefecture in a press release broadcast on his Facebook page, the police intervened “publication” the Mahault roundabout, in Lamentin, occupied by around fifty people, seven heavy vehicles, two vehicles “out of order” and construction equipment. The police officers suffered “violent attacks” during this intervention, the statement continues, sweeping away stones and bottles.
“Faced with such behavior, the internal security forces used force, dispersed the crowd and arrested five people”the prefecture reported.
Prices 40% more expensive in Martinique
Rodrigue Petitot, president of the Grouping for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), was injured in the clash.
“We confirm that our president Rodrigue Petitot, known as “the R”, was chased and injured in the hand and leg”the RPPRAC reacted in a press release, denouncing the “police repression” From “Peaceful Martinicans”. The collective denounced the detention of two activists by the police.
A movement against the high cost of living, a recurring theme in the French Antilles, was launched at the beginning of September by RPPRAC, which calls for an alignment with France of food prices, which are 40% more expensive in Martinique.
On the sidelines of this movement, the island was shaken by urban violence which led the prefecture to establish a night curfew in some neighborhoods of Fort-de-France and in the nearby municipality of Lamentin.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the authorities have organized four round tables, without satisfactory results for the protesters. A fifth, which was due to be held on Monday, has been postponed indefinitely.
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