Andean carrier makes the French hold a strike (5)
I believe the answer is:
llama
'andean carrier' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'the french hold a strike' is the wordplay.
'the french' becomes 'la' ('the' in French).
'hold' indicates putting letters inside.
'a strike' becomes 'lam' (to 'lam' means to hit hard).
'la' going around 'lam' is 'LLAMA'.
'makes' is the link.
(Other definitions for llama that I've seen before include "Andean 'camel'" , "S American animal related to the camel" , "South American pack animal" , "S.American animal" , "A native of South America" .)