RAEL’S COMMENT:
How can all South American states accept that a part of their territory is still occupied by France in the last French colony on this continent? It’s time for the people living there to become fully independent!
Discontent over living standards in French Guiana has led to a large-scale blockade on Monday.
The territory has regained control of its space station (more on that later) but anger there is not going away.
Despite being in South America, French Guiana remains part of France and has been paralysed by protests against a lack of investment from the mainland.
Demonstrators, led by a masked group known as the 500 Brothers, have been fighting for $2.5bn (£2bn) in aid.
France has made an offer of £1m, which has been rejected.
French Guiana has been experiencing widespread protests for the past two weeks, following a general strike on 27 March and an occupation of the Guiana Space Station, which delayed a rocket launch.
The 500 Brothers, a collective of black-clad, masked people who say they are campaigning against crime and delinquency, called for a total shutdown on Monday, including road blocks after a police officer was injured in protests last week.
Where is French Guiana?
French Guiana sits in the north-east corner of South America, north of Brazil, and alongside Guyana and Suriname.
While Guyana and Suriname gained independence from their colonisers (the UK and the Netherlands respectively), French Guiana never has. It is classed as an overseas territory; its currency is the euro and its official language is French, although many also speak Creole.
It is bigger than Belgium, but has a population of about 250,000 people (compared with Belgium’s 11 million).
Its tough environment – including scorching heat and sharks – was made famous in the 1969 book Papillon, which later became a film staring Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen.
Watch the Netflix movie “Je m’appelle Agneta”