There is an emergency. Between armed assaults “even on sports fields”, “chronic” intra -family violence or death of minors by firearm, Guadeloupe faces an unlivable and even “alarming” situation. Four deputies from the overseas department appeal to the government in a letter consulted on Sunday by AFP.
“It is no longer possible to wait. The territory arrives at a point of no return, despite our alerts “, write in their letter dated Friday the elected Christian Baptiste (Socialist related), Élie Califer (socialist) as well as Max Mathiasin and Olivier Serva of the independent Liot group (liberties, independents, overseas and territories).
They challenge the government “so that it takes the full measure of the crisis and initiates the responses up to the challenges”. Among them, they cite “the deployment of significant reinforcements in materials” and “staff of police, gendarmes and magistrates, specifically dedicated to Guadeloupe”.
28 homicides since the start of the year
In Guadeloupe as in Martinique, the authorities are alarmed by the massive traffic of arms, against a background of drug trafficking. Since the beginning of the year, Guadeloupe has already recorded 28 homicides, including 17 per firearm, and 111 attempted murder. The territory occupies in proportion to the 2nd national rank for homicides, behind Guyana.
In mid-June, the first president and the attorney general of the Basse-Terre Court of Appeal had alerted to the spectacular rise in violence. They affect more and more young people, with armed minors from adolescence, in a climate of social tension and trivialization of weapons, they were alarmed, calling for a “republican start”.
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In their mail, the four elected officials believe that the region has become “a rebound area of drug trafficking between South America and Europe, concentrating all customs and security vulnerabilities”. In this context, “young nationals of foreign states, are exploited as interchangeable workforce in the service of illicit trafficking”.
