The repression of protests in the province of Jujuy, in northern Argentina, has left several injured and detained who were demonstrating against the partial reform of the provincial Constitution, approved on Friday at dawn. According to the Télam news agency, 25 people remain in custody this Sunday after clashes with the Police. Different leaders and social organizations have repudiated what happened and the Confederation of Education Workers (CTERA), which brings together the main teacher unions in Argentina, announced a national strike this Sunday due to the incidents.
On Friday, the Jujuy Constituent Convention approved a reform of the provincial Constitution. The debate on the reform had been taking place in a context of permanent mobilizations by various organizations, particularly the educational sector. Finally, the reform, promoted by the governor of the province, Gerardo Morales, of the Radical Civic Union, was approved at dawn.
The demonstrations were organized in different towns in the province and at different times there were incidents with the Police, as denounced on social networks and in local media by different social leaders, activists and organizations. “They repressed us with rubber bullets, with tear gas, they dragged me out for more than half a block (…) It’s brutal,” legislator Natalia Morales, who was in the town of Purmamarca, said in a video posted on her Twitter account. In other recordings, police are seen advancing as protesters disperse amid gunfire and shouting.
The Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), a human rights organization, shared a message on its networks in which it assured that during the night the police “repressed in various parts of the province.” Later, in another message, he added that “the police fired rubber bullets at indigenous communities and detained dozens of people.” The Defender of the Rights of Children and Adolescents, Marisa Graham, also reported that they received “complaints of repression in the presence of children and adolescents in the conflict.”
❌ The Jujuy government intends to replace the right to protest with a “right to social peace”. Today it became clear what he means by social peace: repression. pic.twitter.com/pTrvlf28nH
— CELS (@CELS_Argentina) June 18, 2023
The Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), for its part, demanded the release of two journalists detained while covering the protests and noted that “it is not the first time that alleged abuses of journalistic work by police officers in that province have been reported. ”. Among the detainees, there are also teachers, members of local communities and “even people who did not participate in the demonstration,” according to the Télam agency, which has reported that the Nation’s Secretary of Human Rights, Horacio Pietragalla, will travel to Jujuy after the incidents.
“The release of the detainees has become a major issue, but we are not going to stop our claim against the reform that was approved without consultation with the communities,” one of the protesters told the news agency. “So far no decision has been made on the governor’s announcement to talk,” the protesters said about the roadblocks that have been taking place for weeks in the province. And they added: “We do not know what the true fine print of the reform is around natural resources, private property, water, education and health.”
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