PARIS (Reuters) - France offered one billion euros ($1.06 billion) in aid for French Guiana on Saturday after protests swept the French territory in South America in recent days, an official from the Ministry for France’s overseas territories said on Saturday.

The plan entails sending extra police forces, creating a tribunal and a jail.

“The plan was presented this morning to partners and they must now give their response,” the official told Reuters.

Interior Minister Matthias Fekl and Ericka Bareigts, minister for France’s overseas territories, were dispatched to French Guiana by Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve earlier this week to find a solution to local demands.

French Guiana has been swept by social unrest in recent days, with protests and a general strike, less than a month before France holds presidential elections.

The movement began with demands for greater security against crime - French Guiana is the French department with the highest murder rate - but also reflects a deeper malaise in the territory which suffers from high unemployment.

Labor protests in the overseas French department bordering Brazil and Suriname have also caused the indefinite postponement of the planned launch of an Ariane 5 rocket carrying communications satellites for Brazil and South Korea. </s> Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Brazil’s capital Thursday following calls for a second nationwide demonstration in as many weeks over the government’s plan to slash education spending.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s government has provoked outrage among students and teachers over its proposal to freeze 30 percent of discretionary spending for public universities in the second half of this year.

A suspension of post-graduate scholarships for students in science and the humanities has also fueled anger.

Tens of thousands protested across Brazil on May 15, but Thursday’s turnout could be lower after the government said it would free up 1.59 billion reais in funding (about $400 million) for the sector.

Protests began in Brasilia ahead of demonstrations in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other cities later in the day. “I’m here for those who are poor and deserve the right to quality public education,” social services student Kaio Duarte told AFP in the capital. </s> Haitian Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant resigned on Saturday during a session in the lower house of Parliament in which he was to have faced a no-confidence vote.

The session was held after violent protests erupted last weekend over fuel-price hikes, which the government later scrapped.

Once the prime minister's resignation was announced, the speaker of the lower house, Gary Bodeau, posted a message on Twitter asking President Jovenel Moise "to choose a prime minister by general consent, bearing in mind the hopes of all sectors of national life."

Saturday morning, before the session got underway, Bodeau had already expressed in a statement to EFE his wish that Lafontant would resign "for the good of the country."

Because of the parliamentary session, which has sparked great expectations, and following the disturbances last weekend, the authorities deployed a strong police presence around the Haitian capital, especially outside Parliament, the target of another protest called by the opposition.

The prime minister's performance has been questioned for some time, and a few days before the violence broke out he was called by legislators to discuss where he was taking his government. He never showed up for that session.

Following the riots, sectors of the opposition, the local business class and even the ruling party demanded Lafontant's resignation.

Last July 6, the government announced an increase of between 37 and 50 percent on the price of fuel in this impoverished country, where over half the population lives on less than $2.00 a day.

The price hike of fuel including kerosene, widely used to light the homes of Haitians with little purchasing power, sparked violent protests in the streets, in which several people were killed.

The situation forced the government to drop the price increase the very next day. It had been the result of an accord signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which this week proposed the gradual elimination of the subsidies on these products, since such aid basically benefits the wealthy.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has condemned the violence unleashed over the past few days in Haiti and called on all parties to remain calm and practice restraint. </s> Following four weeks of "Yellow Vest" protests which have erupted into violence at times, French President Emmanuel Macron indicated Monday that his government can no longer ignore the demands of hundreds of thousands of citizens—announcing a minimum wage increase and a cancellation of a tax on retirees, but still refusing to relent on one of his most widely-criticized tax reforms.

In a pre-recorded televised address, Macron told the country that the minimum wage would be raised by €100, or $113, per month. As part of the "concrete measures" he said must happen to alleviate the suffering of low- and middle-income French households, a planned tax on pensions under €2,000 will be canceled and overtime pay will be tax-free.

The announcement follows weeks of protests which first began in rural areas but have spread across the country, with Parisian officials calling for a lockdown over the weekend after more than 100,000 protesters poured into the city's streets. More than 1,200 demonstrators were arrested on Saturday.

On social media, some observers applauded the extreme measures taken by the demonstrators and pointed out that Macron would have been able to ignore the demands of the Yellow Vests if they hadn't forced him to relent.

The exact focus of the protests has shifted since they began in mid-November, but central to the message of the Yellow Vests is anger over what they see as Macron's government "for the rich."

The government was forced to suspend a fuel tax last week, addressing the original reason for the demonstrations. Commuters from rural areas had grown angry that they would be far more affected by Macron's climate policy than corporate polluters and wealthy people in Paris and other cities. By the time Macron announced that the tax would be delayed, healthcare workers and students had joined the demonstrations to decry working conditions and education reforms.

Macron's address Monday appeared as an urgent attempt to regain control and trust in a country where more than two-thirds of French voters now approve of the Yellow Vests.

"I may have given you the impression that this was not my concern, that I had other priorities," Macron told the nation. "I take my share of responsibility."

But Macron refused to budge on his massive cut to the government's "wealth tax," which he introduced last year, cutting the taxes of the richest French households by 70 percent.

Previously, organizers denounced Macron's concession regarding the fuel tax as offering the French only "crumbs," and the Yellow Vests suggested Monday that while they've noted their progress, with the "wealth tax" cuts still in place, they hope for further movement from the president.

Thierry Paul Valette, an organizer of the demonstrations, told France 24 that the minimum wage hike represents the "start of dialogue certainly."

"Meanwhile," he said, "we continue the mobilizations."
After two weeks of social unrest in French Guiana, the French government promises €1 billion for education, healthcare, security, and justice.