The Occupation of
Santa Maria island in the first week of August 2016 was a protest occupation against the construction of the Casino Project on Ilheu de Santa Maria.
The Government of Cape Verde, without consulting the people, leased this small island for about 100 years. Santa Maria Island is the middle of our capital was long time one natural space for entreitenement of the people and today it is in construction of a Megacasino by a Chinese millionaire.
The Korrenti Movement of Activist, Finka Pé and Pilorinhu occupied the island for a week as a form of protest for what they considered illegitimate Political decision.
The casino in the vision of the activists in the future would be a space for the sale of drugs; corruption and money laundering. For them this space should be transformed into a Historical University to welcome international volunteers and help the development of our country;
The people remained asleep in the hope of finding promised jobs during and after the construction of the project by the Government.
Today, after 7 years the space that was scheduled to end in 2020 is still less than halfway complete and no one is able to give us concrete information on what was considered the largest foreign investment ever made in this old Portuguese colony.
