Route du rhum: anti-vaccination activists invade the boat arrivals area

They wanted to take the opportunity to get their message across. Activists opposed to the mandatory vaccination of Guadeloupe’s guardians invaded this Thursday the courtyard of the ACTe Memorial in Pointe-à-Pitre, where the arrival of the Route du rhum takes place. At the sound of the drum between two concerts, a group of demonstrators with lit lanterns stood up. He repeatedly stated his intention to crash the party.

“We have come to show that our lives are important and should be ahead of the boat race,” Mayte Hubert M’Tumo, general secretary of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers vaccination.

In a speech broadcast live on social media, she recalled the situation with hospital staff suspended for several months due to the lack of vaccination against Covid-19 and expressed “doubts” about the effectiveness of vaccines so far installed, in particular against severe forms of the disease. . .

Lack of funds in Guadeloupe condemned

Activists have also drawn a parallel between the investments made to build the Route du Rhum and Guadeloupe’s lack of financial resources to deal with the island’s structural problems, such as water, transportation, schools, or even unemployment.

“Every time people cross the Route du rhum, they continue to kill our ancestors, trample on our memory and despise the battles our ancestors fought for our freedom, and despise us every time,” said the UGTG secretary general. , evoking the memory of the slave trade’s travels to scourge the race.