(Pointe-à-Pitre) Roads and access to the CHU blocked, but also buildings and vehicles set on fire, and schools closed: the State responded on Friday to the deterioration of the situation in Guadeloupe, which originated in the anti-health passport mobilization , by establishing a curfew between 6 p.m. and 5 a.m. with immediate effect.
The prefect of Guadeloupe Alexandre Rochatte announced this measure until November 23 “given the ongoing social movements in the department and acts of vandalism”, announced his services.
In a statement, the highest representative of the State on the island said he took into account “fires of public property, roadblocks, throwing stones at the police, mortar fire”, and also prohibits the sale of gasoline in jerry cans.
Earlier in the day, the government had decided to send “in the next few days” 200 police and gendarmes to strengthen the police, while violence and blockades are increasing.
Friday evening, new fires broke out on barricades in Colin and Montebello, in Petit-Bourg (commune of Basse-Terre) according to Routes de Guadeloupe, after a new day of tensions. Dams have been cleared by the police and some have been reconstituted all over the archipelago. If, in the Pointoise zone, the day was “quieter” than the night, according to a police source, clashes again took place in the gendarmerie zone in order to clear the main roads.
“We reduced a lot of roadblocks during the day. At the beginning. We were about forty, nearly fifty on the whole of mainland Guadeloupe, mainly on major axes such as the RN2, the RN1 in Basse-Terre, and the RN4, the RN5 and the Grands Fonds (winding roads in lands) in Grande-Terre ”, indicates the command of the gendarmerie according to which“ four or five gendarmes have been wounded ”since Thursday evening. “Slight injuries but which are still unacceptable,” commented this source.
Besieged gendarmes
The public prosecutor of Pointe-à-Pitre, Patrick Desjardins, has also announced the opening of two investigations for “damage by fire in an organized gang and theft with damage in an organized gang”, concerning “attacks on stores”, including five looted jewelry stores in Pointe-à-Pitre.
Four buildings in the city, which has many wooden houses, went up in smoke during the night, following the looting, said firefighters and a police source.
The mobilization launched five days ago by a collective of union and citizen organizations against the health passport and the vaccination obligation of caregivers against COVID-19 is now coupled with violence committed by rioters.
After a particularly violent night from Thursday to Friday, schools remained closed on Friday and, due to numerous roadblocks, activity is slowing down. In front of the CHU, the only vehicles authorized to enter are the ambulances.
The dialysis centers of Guadeloupe have also warned of “a danger of death” for nearly 800 patients whose roadblocks could prevent access to care.
The gendarmeries of Lamentin and Morne-à-L’Eau in particular were “besieged” by people sometimes “hooded”, gendarmes injured “by throwing stones” and vehicles set on fire, according to police sources and the prosecution.
“Now there is a mix of people on the barricades. Many young people, angry about the situation in Guadeloupe. The vaccine obligation is the straw that broke the camel’s back, ”said Maïté M’Toumo, secretary general of the UGTG, asking“ to open negotiations with the government ”.
“Complex situation”
At the CHU, “roadblocks greatly penalize staff who come from all walks of life. We have to wait until everyone is present to start and wait for the next generation to be present to continue, ”explains Anne-Gaëlle Pascale, healthcare manager in the operating room of the CHU.
“There is filtering at the entrance, especially for interns, some of whom are prevented from passing. One of them was even attacked by a hooded person, ”Cédric Zolezzi, deputy director of the hospital, said, deploring the lack of“ dialogue ”.
The situation is all the more complex since since the beginning of November, “we have been on a restricted staff” with the introduction of the compulsory vaccination of caregivers, recalls Anne-Gaëlle Pascale. Thus, in surgery, 50% of the staff usually involved in planning are absent.
According to the management of the CHU, a little more than 87% of the employees of the hospital center have a health passport, but some staff are suspended for invalid passports, to which is added “a wave of sick leaves”, “on union instruction », Accuses Cédric Zolezzi.
On the education side, the rector of the academic region, Christine Goff-Ziegler, condemned Thursday “all acts of vandalism and obstacles to movement” or “to access to establishments”, of which the students “are the first victims “.