Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne celebrates New Year’s Eve in Guyana with soldiers engaged against illegal gold panning

The Prime Minister celebrated the new year at the forward base of the 9th Marine Infantry Regiment. Far from the rumors of reshuffle and the turmoil caused by immigration law.

New Year’s Eve in Guyana for Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The head of government visited this department of 300 for the first time 000 inhabitants, accompanied by Prisca Thevenot, Secretary of State for Youth. In Cayenne, she paid tribute to some 2 200 soldiers and around a thousand gendarmes stationed in Guyana, who lost two of their own this year in operations against illegal gold panning.

Elisabeth Borne then spoke with Mayor Sandra Trochimara, who wanted to talk to her about opening up the department, as big as Portugal but where there are only two national roads. Then in Maripasoula, in the Amazon rainforest, the Prime Minister was welcomed with traditional dances before speaking with Mayor Serge Anelli. She then joined the advanced base of the 9th Marine Infantry Regiment (RIMa), where Matignon’s head chef Romain Besseron had made the trip to serve a menu of foie gras, Landes poultry supreme and chocolate mousse.

New military resources expected

But before that, a presentation of Operation Harpie to combat illegal gold panning served as an aperitif. Attorney General Joël Sollier requested that this public policy be “reevaluated”recalling that the phenomenon had been “maintained” without being “eradicated”. Elisabeth Borne greeted the“constant commitment” of the soldiers engaged and recalled that the military programming law provided for the imminent arrival “new materials”, including drones and helicopters. She received the Etoile Forêt d’or medal from the 9th RIMa, which rewards soldiers able to “live in a jungle over time”.

On Monday, Elisabeth Borne must start the year on a canoe, to visit a river control point on the Petit Inini river, then the Amerindian village Taluen. She will also visit Dorlin, where Arnaud Blanc, major of the GIGN, was killed at the end of March while participating with nine comrades in a mission against clandestine gold panning. Before flying back to Paris, the Prime Minister will discuss the fight against drug trafficking at Cayenne airport. Guyana is known to be a supply hub for drugs, particularly cocaine.