Hundreds Stranded After Angry Protesters Force Martinique Airport Closure
Last edited Sat Oct 12, 2024, 02:18 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: AP and Euronews
Hundreds of passengers have been stranded in the French Caribbean island of Martinique after its airport was briefly forced to close because protesters overran the tarmac.
The overnight shutdown delayed flights and officials at the airport urged stranded passengers to contact their airlines for information after the facility resumed operations by mid-morning.
French authorities had regained control of the airport, which demonstrators targeted in the latest protest against the rising cost of living. Reinforcements were being sent to Martinique.
Martinique has been gripped by bouts of protests over the high cost of living that have turned violent, with at least one person killed as demonstrators set fire to a police station, cars and road barricades and clashed with police officers.
Read more: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/10/12/hundreds-stranded-after-anti-inequality-protesters-force-martinique-airport-closure
Protesters set fire to a road sign outside the Fort-de-France airport on Martinique, 11 Oct 2024. (Screenshot from AP video 4525195)
French riot police apprehend a protester in Paris, France, 23 Mar 2023. These anti-riot police have been deployed to Martinique. The CRS have a terrible reputation for brutality and were once banned from the island. (Reuters Photo)
Martinique suffers from high unemployment, rising costs of imported food, and an ecological disaster. Five decades of pesticide use to protect the vital banana crop have sickened people and ruined the soil. Chlordecone is a carcinogenic pesticide and used on Martinique until 2003. Until all the soil is decontaminated, residents have been warned to refrain from eating self-produced fruits or vegetables.
See previous Coriolanus post on 23 Sep for more info.
= new reply since forum marked as read
