In Argentina it is very difficult to approve unpopular reforms due to the tradition of street fighting among the population. In the northern province of Jujuy, on the border with Bolivia, protests against the modification of the provincial Constitution have been in crescendo until it explodes this Tuesday. The Jujuy Legislature had planned to swear the new Magna Carta in the afternoon of this holiday, but the conservative governor Gerardo Morales brought it forward in the morning to avoid incidents that prevented it. The reaction was furious. A crowd gathered around the legislative building in rejection of the reform of the text and some protesters tore down fences, threw stones and Molotov cocktails. Morales ordered to suppress the violent with tear gas and rubber bullets and a pitched battle broke out live on national television.
At least 40 people were injured, including a protester hospitalized in serious condition due to the explosion of a gas capsule in the head. In addition, a total of 17 people were detained for their involvement in the riots. Jujuy is today a province on fire and there are no signs that the protests will cease in the coming days. The unions called a general strike for tomorrow throughout the province.
The repression was harshly criticized by Peronist and left-wing leaders in Argentina and also by international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In a statement, the IACHR expressed concern about “the actions carried out to dissolve the protests in the province of Jujuy, one of the provinces with the largest self-recognized indigenous population” and requested respect for the right to free expression and the inter-American standards of the use of force.
Jujuy monopolizes the informative interest of Argentina in the middle of the electoral campaign. Morales, a member of the conservative Juntos por el Cambio coalition with presidential aspirations, remains firm in defending the constitutional reform and accuses the Peronist government of Alberto Fernández of being behind “the extreme violence that is taking place in Jujuy.” The vice president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, believes that the responsibility lies with Morales and has demanded that he “stop with the repressive madness that his own actions have unleashed.”
Morales backed down with two highly controversial articles that had put indigenous communities that live scattered in the highlands on a war footing, often without legal status or property records on lands they have inhabited for centuries. These are article 36, on the right to private property, and article 50, focused on the rights and guarantees of indigenous communities. The changes, which incorporated eviction “mechanisms and fast lanes” in cases of occupations without consent, left communities at a disadvantage vis-à-vis mining companies interested in lithium and other natural resources.
On the other hand, the cut to the forms of protest remains standing. The new Magna Carta prohibits blocking streets and highways, the mechanism most used in the province in recent weeks of mobilizations against the reform and in favor of better salaries for teachers. “The violent are not going to twist our arm,” warned Morales, a supporter of applying a heavy hand against protesters who prohibit free movement.
The discussion in Jujuy puts on the table some peculiarities of Argentina. One is that fighting between national forces often disappears at the provincial level. Morales would not have been able to approve Jujuy’s constitutional reform in less than a month without the support he has had from the majority of Jujuy’s Peronist legislators. The other is the widespread belief that it reflects two competing country models. Kirchnerism considers that what Jujuy is experiencing is a preview of the reduction in rights that is coming if Together for Change wins the presidential elections in October. For the opposition alliance founded by former President Mauricio Macri, it is a step on the road to impose “the firmness of law and order”, in the words of the presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich.
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