French Guiana
First settled by the French in 1604, French Guiana was the site of notorious penal settlements until 1951. It is now an Overseas Department of France represented by one member of the Senate and one member of the National Assembly in France. With an economy bolstered by large subsidies from Paris, the ethnically-diverse population enjoys one of the higher standards of living on the South American continent. The French social security system is in force. French Guiana’s inhabitants represent perhaps the most ethnically diverse group of people anywhere in South America, from Creole-speaking Haitians to Portuguese-speaking Brazilians to Buddhist Hmong refugees from Laos.
France has invested billions of dollars in French Guiana’s Kourou space center. Guarded by 800 troops of the French Foreign Legion, the center generates nearly $1 billion a year for the 13-nation European Space Agency, the site's owner. Kourou is becoming more and more important to the Arianespace consortium, which launches over half the world's commercial satellites; its ideal location only 5 degrees north of the Equator, where the Earth's rotation is fastest, allows satellites to be placed into orbit with 15% less fuel than those launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
There are currently no known threats to expatriate visitors or residents in French Guiana, Nevertheless, an ongoing campaign by the pro-independence, left-wing Union of Guiana Workers (UTG) has sparked periods of unrest in recent years.
In October 1996 protests by high-school students over school conditions sparked a larger crisis, which reflected the wider social tensions between French Guiana and France. The protest action in the capital Cayenne degenerated into two nights of rioting and looting, with costly violence to government and commercial property. The arrest and subsequent conviction of several rioters provoked further violence, and instigated a one-day general strike. Security forces were criticized for their heavy-handed treatment of the crisis.
UTG supporters clashed again with police in March 2000 after a visiting French minister refused to meet with them to discuss French policy toward the territory. Witnesses said youths mingled with the demonstrators and went on the rampage, injuring two police officers, looting shops and burning cars in Cayenne.
Despite the occasional pro-independence violence, full independence from France remains unlikely in the immediate future. The pro-independence groups remain small and have only a small support base while France remains opposed to any change in the overseas department's status.
