The tension does not weaken in Guadeloupe. Clashes took place between demonstrators and the police at the end of the morning on Monday after the dismantling of the picket line at the University Hospital Center (CHU) and the arrest of a protester, we learned from a source policewoman.
At the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, the picket line in place for several months was dismantled by the police who used tear gas canisters, according to local media. A protester was arrested for “willful violence against the police”, according to a police source, and 80 people were still in front of the CHU at the end of the morning, according to the same source.
Face to face tense between opponents of the #VaccinationObligation and police a few meters from the University Hospital of Guadeloupe. A protester arrested by the police, clothes stained with blood. #PasseVaccinal #Outremer #Lecornu #Macron #Vaccine #Guadeloupe #Gendarmerie pic.twitter.com/jEqKdbCAPm
– Cécile Loïal (@CecileLoial) January 10, 2022
Dams on both sides of the island
In addition, “three dams” were erected early Monday morning at the Rivière des Pères roundabout in the town of Basse-Terre, said a police source. “A police vehicle was burned” and the police wiped “stones”, according to the same source.
A video circulating on social networks shows a motorcyclist falling heavily in front of the flaming dam of Rivière des Pères. Firefighters
as well as the prefecture confirmed that the motorcyclist was “transported in serious condition to the Basse Terre Hospital Center”. Peaks 10 to 20 cm long were thrown on the road and used oil was also spilled on the axes concerned, according to the same police source. The cleaning of the axes was in progress at the end of the morning.
Guadeloupe was shaken in November by a violent movement of social protest, against the backdrop of the crisis around the vaccine obligation. The fight against the vaccine obligation now only concerns certain demonstrators “determined to go to the end”, according to the leaders of the various organizations, and who maintain sporadic meetings and actions.
Climate of “terror” at the CHU
A week ago, the director of the CHU of Guadeloupe Gérard Cotellon and his two assistants had to be exfiltrated by the police from their offices besieged by militants against the vaccine obligation.
On Saturday, several hundred people took part in a citizens’ rally to say “stop” to the violence against hospital staff on the island. Caregivers came to testify to a climate of “terror” at the CHU and deplored the general climate of disinformation around the health crisis.