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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Stores looted, cars burned on island of Martinique |
| 2009-02-27 |
| French police officers patrolled Martinique's capital late Wednesday after vandals burned cars and looted stores overnight as protests over high prices, low pay and alleged neglect by officials in Paris spread to a second Caribbean island. Nearly 30 people were detained following the outburst in Fort-de-France, the French island's chief city, according to police headquarters. Dozens of protesters gathered at city hall Tuesday night to demand results from slow-moving negotiations there over demands for pay increases. Around midnight, some began hurling rocks and bottles at police guarding the building, and officers responded by firing tear gas. Protesters burned at least five cars, several garbage bins and a small grocery store. Several stores also were looted, but no one was injured, according to a police statement. On Wednesday evening, a phalanx of French police officers were helping patrol the capital to enforce order. Martinique has not seen the same degree of violence as that on the nearby French island of Guadeloupe, where weeks of strikes degenerated into rioting last week in which one labor activist was shot dead. Business on both islands has been largely frozen. In Guadeloupe's biggest city of Pointe-a-Pitre, strikers assembled Wednesday night outside a seaside building where bargaining talks are taking place cheered apparent improvements in negotiations aimed at ending the more than month-long general strike. Government representatives have offered to add a euro80 ($102) monthly raise to islanders making euro900 ($1,130) a month in order to end the unrest in the French Caribbean island, according to Nicolas Desforges, Guadeloupe's top Paris-appointed official. "This is a big contribution by the French government to get out of this crisis," Desforges told reporters. Added with the pledged contributions of island business owners, strikers now have a euro180 ($230) raise offer on the table - just euro20 ($25) less than the euro200 ($250) monthly increase they have been seeking. But Guadeloupe protest leader Elie Domota said Wednesday evening that it was too early to say whether the new offer would be acceptable. "This is a proposal on the table we are going to review," he told reporters. Government negotiators in Point-a-Pitre had left the bargaining table Monday night, saying they were not prepared to agree to a euro200 ($250) monthly raise for those making euro900 ($1,130) a month. French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week announced a euro580 million ($730 million) financial package to help development in the Caribbean regions of his country. But strikers complained that proposals were vague and did not directly address their demand for higher pay. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 what interest would Hugo Chavez have in a couple of minor French colonies? Hugo's got this thing about neo-colonialism. He also fancies himself as the second coming of Boliviar. He's been putting pressure on the Dutch islands. It makes sense that Chavez and his ilk would take advantage of a situation. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-02-27 16:31 |
| #8 alleged neglect by officials in Paris IIRC, France sends about 17 billions euros in subsidies yearly to its oversea departments & territories, and I've read yesterday that the envelope was increased by about 950 millions last year. Add to that 4 billions subsidies by the EU. Those locations produce very little past fruit industry, and tourism (and this one even is not very developed, since the locals do not seem to be very keen on it)... and while the population is poorer than in mainland (GNP per inhabitant is 60% of France), there is also an absurdely high percentage of people living on welfare, or hired by the gvt (with salaries for civil servants being 40-50% higher than in France, heck, in guadeloupe, all the leftist unionist leaders are civil servants, paid by the very same colonialist State they're supposedly fighting against) : 40% of the workforce is emplouyed by the State! (As opposed to "only" 24% in France) And there's a cascade of subsidies, with non civil servants getting subsidies as well, due to the pressure of the local unions, the same ones protesting aggainst the high cost of life... So, yeah, they're being exploited, alright. When you've got an island like guadeloup, sitting in the middle of an huge fishing international boundary, nothing sez success like having to import 60% of its fish consumption. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2009-02-27 14:08 |
| #7 Pappy, what interest would Hugo Chavez have in a couple of minor French colonies? Who does he conceive to be his enemy, besides the U.S.? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-02-27 13:54 |
| #6 Venezuelan. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-02-27 12:22 |
| #5 #4 Similar events on Guadaloupe last week seem to have spread. I suspect some outside organizers are behind it. Chinese? Internet |
| Posted by: DoDo 2009-02-27 10:50 |
| #4 Similar events on Guadaloupe last week seem to have spread. I suspect some outside organizers are behind it. Chinese? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-02-27 10:17 |
| #3 I take it, this means HGTV's 'International House Hunters go to Martinique' has been canceled? :) |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-02-27 08:13 |
| #2 Considering that they have decimated the tourist industry for this year, what do the striking workers think they will be doing to earn the increased wages? Suspect most of them will be unemployed for the foreseeable future. The law of unintended consequences strikes again. |
| Posted by: rwv 2009-02-27 06:38 |
| #1 So... The French government sets wages? Isn't this what BHO is shooting for? It works so well. /s |
| Posted by: tipover 2009-02-27 00:39 |