Jacques Bino

Who was Jacques Bino?

Jacques Bino was a Guadeloupean tax agent, activist and trade union official and representative. Bino was the first person killed during violence associated with the 2009 French Caribbean general strikes.

Bino was active participant in the first month of the general strikes in Guadeloupe. However, Bino was shot and killed shortly after midnight on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, as he drove home from a protest. Bino approached a group of armed youths who were manning a makeshift barricade in the city of Pointe-à-Pitre. The crowd opened fire on Bino's car. Bino's car was hit three times by 12-gauge Brenneke-style shotgun slugs. One of the shotgun blasts came through the front windshield of the car, striking Bino in the chest and killing him.

There were no police in the area when Bino was killed. Jean-Michel Pretre, a local Guadeloupean prosecutor, has speculated that the youths, who were operating independently from the official strikes, may have mistaken Bino for a plainclothes police officer when they opened fire. Point-à-Pitre Mayor Jacques Bangou noted following Bino's death that, "For the past 48 hours the streets have been in the hands of groups of young people, completely out of control."