Police in Argentina’s Jujuy Province Raid Home of Indigenous Activist Milagro Sala

By Global News Service

On June 29, police in the Jujuy province of Argentina raided the home of Indigenous and social leader Milagro Sala, who has been imprisoned since January 2016. Human rights and social activists allege that the charges that led to the raid are politically motivated.

In recent days, the Morales government has accused Sala of being linked to mobilizations that began on June 5. This is despite the fact that she is under house arrest and has no way of communicating with anyone outside without the authorities’ prior knowledge.

The warrant to search the property of Sala, the leader of the Tupac Amaru Neighborhood Organization, was issued by Federal Judge Rodolfo Fernández, as part of an investigation into alleged public disturbances in recent days during the protests rejecting the reforms to the provincial Constitution. The reforms, promoted by conservative Governor Gerardo Morales of the state’s right-wing Radical Civic Union party, have been widely opposed in the province. The warrant was requested by Prosecutor Diego Funes after a defendant, whose identity has been kept confidential, alleged that Sala had played a role in instigating the events.

Alejandro Coco Garfagnini, a leader of the Tupac Amaru, told Página 12 that the officers seized money, personal computers, and mobile phones, among other valuables, and turned the whole house upside down. Garfagnini also reported that the police personnel carried out the raid violently, even in the room where Sala’s terminally ill husband, journalist Raúl Noro was resting after returning from a hospital in mid-2023.

Credit Line: from the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service