The new frontier of ‘hard prison’: France ‘exports’ jihadists and drug traffickers to Guyana

A ‘fashion’ emerging in several countries. Darmanin announces a super-jail in the Amazon jungle to isolate the most dangerous prisoners. Wrath of local authorities, who speak of neo-colonialism

The export of criminals, traffickers and religious extremists to peripheral territories is becoming a trend for several states. Not least France, which has announced the construction of a new maximum-security prison in French Guiana, intended to house highly dangerous inmates such as drug traffickers and radicalised Islamists.

The project, illustrated by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin during a visit to the overseas department, has an estimated value of 400 million euros and envisages the opening of the facility by 2028 in an isolated area of the Amazon jungle, near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. A choice that reopens the wound of the ‘Devil’s Island’, a symbol of colonial brutality, active until 1938.

The prison, capable of holding up to 500 inmates, will be equipped with a very strict prison regime and a section reserved for the heads of criminal organisations. ‘The distance from mainland France will make it possible to break the ties between the inmates and their networks,’ said Darmanin, specifying that the location is strategic to counter drug trafficking through Brazil and Suriname.

But the decision sparked fierce protests in Guyana. Local authorities, from the Territorial Collectivity to the mayor of Saint-Laurent, Sophie Charles, to Senator Marie-Laure Phinera-Horth, denounce the total lack of dialogue and openly speak of a ‘painful reminiscence of the colonial past’. Jean-Luc Mélenchon expressed solidarity with the local opponents, while from Rouen, the socialist mayor Mayer-Rossignol expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the operation.

The government, meanwhile, strengthened the regulatory framework against gangs and mafia crimes, with a specialised prosecutor’s office, additional powers for investigators and new protections for collaborators of justice. The super-jail initiative comes in this context of tightening repressive measures, after serious attacks against the French prison system, described as ‘terrorist episodes’ by Darmanin himself.

The minister returned the accusations of colonialism to the sender and defended the choice by speaking of an ‘insult to the Republic’. But beyond the official declarations, the fact remains that once again an overseas periphery is chosen to distance the problem, reiterating a paradigm that many consider outdated, but which continues to re-propose itself in new forms.

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