Gangs from Brazil, territorial autonomy and “radiation”… In Guyana, Emmanuel Macron wants to forget his last visit

Seven years after a visit that remains in the memories of residents, the head of state is expected for less than 48 hours in the second poorest territory in France, after Mayotte.

A week more than 8,000 km from Paris for Emmanuel Macron. The Head of State begins a two-day visit to Guyana on Monday March 25, a French department plagued by numerous difficulties. The Head of State is expected in Cayenne, after a first visit in October 2017, which remains in the annals, where he said he was not “Santa Claus because Guyanese are not children”, in response to a question about the creation of a hospital.

This little sentence, released six months after a general strike which paralyzed Guyana, is anchored in the collective memory of the Guyanese who voted 60% for Marine Le Pen against Emmanuel Macron in the last presidential election. “A territory of paradoxes“, remembers the Elysée. The fact remains that Guyana is a territory less in crisis than Mayotte, but very poor, prey to all the difficulties: gangs, drug trafficking, illegal gold panning.

“The situation will be catastrophic within 5 years”

We thus find the presence of the Comando Vermelho, Brazilian criminal organization mainly dedicated to arms and drug trafficking, but also gangs with acronyms synonymous with terror: PCC, APS, FTA… All come mainly from Amapa, a state bordering Guyana, and considered the most dangerous in Brazil. These gangs developed in Brazilian prisons, grouped together with their usual codes – tattoos, acts of allegiance – and a well-established hierarchy with order givers, henchmen, lookouts, and arrived in Guyana, there is almost 7 years old. These organizations also enforce the law in Remire-Monjoly prison near Cayenne, with leaders running their organizations from their cells, after several recent raids. But be careful, warns an expert on the matter: “These gangs are conquering territory, if we do not stem the phenomenon, the situation will be catastrophic within 5 years”.

A complicated law enforcement struggle in this department as large as Portugal, almost exclusively covered by primary forest. This presidential trip also comes one year to the day after the death, on March 25, 2023, of a GIGN gendarme, Arnaud Blanc, in an operation against illegal gold panning, and 60 years after the creation of the Guiana space center, announced by General de Gaulle on March 21, 1964 in Cayenne.

Thus, after an excursion to Camopi, in the southeast, Emmanuel Macron is expected Tuesday in Kourou, where the Ariane 6 rocket is assembled. His message: “make Guyana shine“, which the head of state, still a young candidate, had then described as “island“. Seven years later, it’s as if he had something to make up for, before a three-day state visit to Brazil.