This island of the Antilles, which lists 25 homicides committed since the beginning of the year, faces an “extreme trivialization of the circulation of weapons”. The government has announced more resources in the fight against this galloping insecurity.
by Jean-Michel Hauteville (Fort-de-France (Martinique), correspondence)
A blood bath was narrowly avoided, in Martinique, at the little hours of Friday, November 11. Around 3 am, around twenty hooded and armed men burst into the Oases field, 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, a few moments before, near another performance hall of the same town in the south of the department, where a crowd of 1,300 people was partying.
“A group of bikers presented itself in two successive establishments, and, obviously in search of 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 shot injured. A small miracle given the circumstances of this spectacular attack. “We could have witnessed a mass killing,” said Mr. Bouvier, who nevertheless delights that the vital prognosis is not engaged for any of the wounded. The investigation is already mobilizing “around fifty gendarmes”, according to General William Vaquette, commander of the Martinique gendarmerie.
This night of violence occurs when bloody news has been multiplying for several months on this island of the Antilles: since the beginning of the year, twenty-five homicides have been identified, including twenty by firearm. Either 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 above all in the grip of “a degraded security situation which is linked to drug trafficking and arms trafficking”.
“Priority is to disarm “
This observation had been made during the trip of Gérald Darmanin in the department in early October. At the end of a flash visit of around thirty hours, the Minister of the Interior and Overseas had made all-out promises: fifteen investigators for the anti-structuring 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 resulting from the reserve of the Ministry of the Interior was appointed by Place Beauvau. This official, expected for December, will be responsible for “supporting” the prefect of Martinique for five months “in the rise of devices, and in particular the establishment of a territorial security contract which will imply all parties “, Specifies Jean-Christophe Bouvier.
You have 45.13% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.