(Adnkronos) – France will build a new maximum security prison in French Guiana to house drug traffickers and radicalized Islamists. The announcement, met with controversy, came from Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin during a visit to the overseas territory. The 400 million euro project involves opening by 2028 in an isolated area of the Amazon jungle, near Saint-Laurent-du Maroni. In Guyana, whose infamous “Devil’s Island” represented one of the darkest pages in French penitentiary history until 1938, the local community is already protesting the announcement, speaking of a “painful reminiscence” of the colonial past.
The structure, designed to accommodate up to 500 inmates, will have an “extremely strict prison regime” and a section dedicated to the most dangerous criminals. The objective, Darmanin explained in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche, is to hit drug trafficking “at all levels of the chain” and permanently remove the heads of criminal networks operating in mainland France.
The geographical position, the minister underlined, “will make it possible to interrupt contacts between prisoners and their networks”, thanks to the distance from the motherland. The prison will be built at a strategic crossroads for drug transit, particularly from Brazil and Suriname. The choice of Guyana also has a symbolic value, given that Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni was also the entry point to Devil’s Island, which also housed Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
The initiative comes after a series of attacks linked to organized crime against the French prison system, defined by Darmanin as “terrorist episodes”. At the same time, the government has enacted new laws to combat gangs, creating a specialized prosecutor’s office, strengthened powers for investigators and a new protected status for justice collaborators.
The announcement sparked strong reactions in Guyana. The Territorial Collectivity of Guyana denounced the lack of consultation and firmly rejected the idea of “welcoming criminals and terrorists from metropolitan France”. Socialist Senator Marie-Laure Phinera-Horth and the mayor of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, Sophie Charles, also spoke of a “painful reminiscence” of the colonial past. Lfi leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon expressed his solidarity with local opponents, while the socialist mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, although not against in principle, expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the project. Darmanin, on the other hand, rejected the criticism, speaking of an “insult to the Republic”.
