Since March 27, a general strike and widespread protests have paralyzed French Guiana, the isolated, but strategically located French overseas department in South America. The stoppage has effectively ground the local economy to a halt and provoked tense negotiations with Paris. Most problematic for France, rocket launches at the spaceport in Kourou -- a critical hub for Europe's space ambitions -- have been indefinitely suspended since protest activity surged in mid-March. The events unfolding in France’s largest territorial holding in the Western Hemisphere have renewed Paris' attention on the department’s geostrategic value, while underscoring the long-term challenge of fulfilling France's republican social contract in the impoverished, far-flung entity....