Protestors walks along Rue Kennedy in Marigot during Friday’s protest march. (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT—Motorists were left stranded in their cars when access to Marigot was blocked by trucks in Bellevue and also at the top of Morne Valois for most of the day Friday, as part of the protest organised earlier in the morning.
The protest march which drew around 200 persons was billed as a peaceful march although there were no indications roads would be blocked. Truckers however were in support of the protest. A delegation from the main citizen movements and collectives; Soualiga United, Soualiga Grass Roots Movement and Union du Peuple Travailleurs Saint-Martinois (UPTSM), hoped to meet with President Gibbs and Préfet Serge Gouteyron to discuss their list of grievances.
The march paused at Hôtel de la Collectivité where there were tense exchanges with President Gibbs and Secretary-General of union UNI.T 978, Albert Blake. Gibbs was heckled by the crowd chanting “get her out “referring to the Director General of Services (DGS) Christiane Ayache. The DGS is number one on the union’s list of grievances. The union is demanding she be removed from her post or transferred.
Cars are seen parked up behind this truck as far as the eye can see after access to Marigot via Bellevue was blocked by trucks. (Robert Luckock photo)
Video showed Blake putting Gibbs on the spot, asking him point blank if he will remove her. Before Gibbs could answer fully, the microphone was snatched away from him.
Bellevue was a scene of chaos at around 12:30pm with at least six trucks, two of which were long flat-bed trucks, blocked the road and at the roundabout. Cars that had nowhere else to go except into Marigot had no choice but to park up and wait or turn around and get to the French side via French Quarter.
Chaotic scenes in Bellevue after several trucks blocked the road on Friday (Robert Luckock photo)
There was a long delay in Bellevue to let an ambulance through that needed to get to the French hospital with a patient as none of the trucks were willing to move. Eventually a truck that was not in the protest was able to drag a car out of a parking space which enabled the ambulance to pass behind a flat-bed truck along the side of Bébé‘N Kids. The same route was used a bit later when another ambulance needed to get to the Dutch side.
Gendarmes were able to negotiate with protestors later to remove the trucks blocking the road on Morne Valois.
Préfet Serge Gouteyron at first declined to meet protest organisers without prior notice but later agreed to meet them at 4:00pm. As of 5:30pm the road into Bellevue is still blocked by trucks and the meeting still in progress.
Update: The meeting was briefly suspended after 20 minutes when no agreement could be reached on the delegation’s demand for President Gibbs to attend the meeting as well. However, the préfet later consented to have a meeting with the delegation and President Gibbs on Monday, September 6, at 9:00am.
The delegation of collectives then decided at 7:45pm to remove the trucks and re-open the roads to traffic.
