A bloodbath was narrowly avoided in Martinique in the early hours of Friday, November 11. Around 3 a.m., about twenty hooded and armed men burst into the Domaine des Oasis, an establishment located in Rivière-Salée, and, in the middle of a concert bringing together more than 700 night owls, opened fire in direction of a man, injuring several people in the audience. This same commando had already fired shots, a few moments earlier, near another theater in this same town in the south of the department, where a crowd of 1,300 people was celebrating.
“A group of bikers showed up at two successive establishments, and, visibly looking for someone, they fired”, summarizes Jean-Christophe Bouvier, the prefect of Martinique. No victim is to be deplored: the first elements of the investigation report six wounded by gunshot. A small miracle given the circumstances of this spectacular attack. “We could have been witnesses of a mass killing”, is moved by Mr. Bouvier, who is nevertheless delighted that the vital prognosis is not engaged for any of the injured. The investigation is already mobilizing “about fifty gendarmes”according to General William Vaquette, commander of the gendarmerie of Martinique.
This night of violence comes as bloody miscellaneous events have been increasing for several months in this Caribbean island: since the beginning of the year, twenty-five homicides have been recorded there, including twenty by firearm. That is as much as the sad record set over twelve months in 2019 in this department of 360,000 inhabitants. Still according to the prefect, the island is primarily plagued by “a degraded security situation which is linked to drug trafficking and arms trafficking”.
“The priority is to disarm”
This observation was made during Gérald Darmanin’s trip to the department in early October. At the end of a whirlwind visit of around thirty hours, the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories had made all-out promises: fifteen investigators for the anti-narcotics office, three new gendarmerie brigades , drones, an envelope of 500,000 euros available to municipalities for video surveillance…
Last reinforcement announced by the State: a project manager from the reserve of the Ministry of the Interior has been appointed by Place Beauvau. This official, expected in December, will be responsible for“support” the prefect of Martinique for five months “in the rise of the systems, and in particular the establishment of a territorial security contract which will involve all the parties”says Jean-Christophe Bouvier.
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