French Guiana Protests Resume After Easter “Truce”

The movement behind more than three weeks of social unrest in French Guiana said on Monday it would press its action until the government signs a draft accord on an emergency package and reopens talks on further funds.

Activists are protesting against what they say is decades of underinvestment in the French territory in South America, paralyzed by a general strike called by 37 unions on March 25, France24 reported.

Locals have been pressing demands for a “Marshall Plan” of French aid, along the lines of the huge US economic support given to help western Europe to recover after World War II.

The seven-page accord “to suspend the movement in its present form”, drawn up by the “Collective to Get Guiana Moving” spearheading the protests, was sent to the government on Sunday.

“To have a swift signature, we have an obligation to harden the movement,” Valerie Vanoukia, representative of very small companies in Guiana, said on behalf of the collective after a general meeting calling on the population to remobilize.

The draft accord calls for an emergency plan of more than €1 billion ($1.07 billion) put forward by the government and proposes reopening dialogue on an additional €2 billion the protestors have demanded so far.