A figure in the movement against the high cost of living in Martinique, Rodrigue Petitot, leader of the demonstration for the protection of Afro-Caribbean peoples and resources (RPPRAC), was arrested on Tuesday, November 12 in Fort-de-France, the prosecutor’s office reported. . Mr. Petitot, known as “the R,” was taken into police custody at the central police station in the island’s capital following a complaint of trespassing and acts of intimidation against people exercising a public function, according to the same source. .
On Monday afternoon, Rodrigue Petitot entered the prefectural residence with three other people in the exclusive Didier neighborhood of Fort-de-France. The objective of this intrusion was to obtain an interview with the Overseas Minister, François-Noël Buffet, who is visiting Martinique. It was the prefect of the island, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, who physically opposed the entry of the president of the RPPRAC into the residence. The attitude of the collective leaders was “unacceptable, unimaginable, intolerable”Mr. Bouvier estimated.
“We are waiting for the R to be launched. I fear, this afternoon, another night of disturbances that will be the responsibility of the prefect and the minister.”RPPRAC secretary Aude Goussard reacted on Tuesday night on local radio RCI.
Demonstration for his release.
Following the announcement of Rodrigue Petitot’s arrest, a hundred people gathered in front of the Fort-de-France police station to demand his release, according to a journalist from Agence France-Presse on Tuesday night.
According to the Martinique Transport Authority, a burning roadblock was erected on Avenue Maurice-Bishop, in the Sainte-Thérèse district, where Rodrigue Petitot claimed to live. The authority has suspended public transport in the center of the island.
Arriving Monday afternoon in Martinique for a four-day visit, Buffet said that “willing to meet everyone”including the leaders of the RPPRAC, who returned to the apartment on Monday after a ten-day stay in Paris to organize demonstrations.
Since September, Martinique has been affected by a movement against the high cost of living that degenerated into urban riots and violence, mainly at night, during which, according to prefecture figures, more than 230 vehicles were deliberately burned and dozens of commercial premises . They were burned, vandalized or looted.
