Protests Over Rising Costs Of Living Turn Violent In French Caribbean

Fort-de-France (France): Burned cars and bullet casings sit on the motorway and are among the fallout from cost-of-living protests that erupted in Fort-de-France, the capital of the French Caribbean island of Martinique, where demonstrators clashed with riot police. One of the leaders of movement, Rodrigue Petitot, says that since July he has been sending petitions to supermarkets "to bring their prices into line with those in mainland France".

Petitot, leader of the RPPRAC (Rally for the protection of Afro-Caribbean peoples and resources) said, "We have been issuing injunctions since July, on July 1 to be precise, asking supermarkets to bring their prices into line with those in mainland France, for the simple reason that if we're French, we have the same identity cards, the same fines, the same taxes, if not more, so we don't understand why we can't have the same prices for food."