Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin ordered Wednesday evening the establishment of a two-month curfew for minors under the age of 18 in Point-à-Pitre in order to combat an outbreak of delinquency. The measure “will apply from the start of next week” in order to fight against “delinquency which (…) is increasingly young, and more and more armed”, declared Gérald Darmanin during a press conference in Pointe-à-Pitre, where he is traveling.
A measure effective from 8 p.m.
This measure will be effective in the evenings, from 8 p.m. “We cannot allow children of 12, 13, 14 years old, with weapons, to circulate at 10 p.m. in the street, attack police officers, attack tourists, attack passers-by,” he added.
The mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre Harry Durimel (EELV), who had described the city as a “cut-throat” in “total bankruptcy” at the end of March, welcomed the announcement by the Minister of the Interior. “Here’s something concrete,” he responded. “Before it was 12% of minors in the commission of crimes and now it is 38% of criminal acts,” detailed Mr. Durimel, elected since 2020. “If children are with their parents at night, they will not go not burn 70 trash cans like they did in Pointe-à-Pitre last week,” he estimated.
The mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre had threatened to resign
On March 24, in a context of urban violence and a series of acts of armed violence, sometimes fatal, he threatened to resign. “I have the feeling that the cry that I uttered a few weeks ago has been heard,” he told AFP, referring to the possibility of “making Pointe-à-Pitre a small territory of 2.6 km2, a republican security laboratory”.
The Minister of the Interior made the announcement of the curfew after a meeting with the Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories Marie Guévenoux, the Prefect and the Mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre.
“Clearance” operations
A series of measures to strengthen the fight against delinquency will accompany the curfew. Gérald Darmanin thus announced for next month “net operations to fight against drugs, against drug dealing points and the circulation of weapons, which is undoubtedly the main problem facing Guadeloupe today”. A “new security contract in Guadeloupe” will also be put in place, like what was done in Martinique and “which works well, which has reduced delinquency”, according to him.
The minister also spoke of “international cooperation” with the neighboring islands of Saint Lucia and Dominica to “fight against irregular immigration, the circulation of arms, and drug trafficking”. He also announced the presence of more “video protection cameras”, connected “to police supervision centers”.
According to the prefecture of Guadeloupe, the archipelago has “six times more homicides, nine times more attempted homicides – half of which are by firearms – and 20 times more armed robberies than the national average”. In recent months, Pointe-à-Pitre – 14,500 inhabitants in 2020 – has largely fueled the chronicle of news items. In March, a shopkeeper was killed there during a robbery. Tourists on a cruise were stabbed by a woman with psychiatric disorders.