Demonstrators help a comrade who was injured in clashes between police and opponents of provincial constitutional reform in San Salvador de Jujuy on Tuesday.Juan Burgos (AP)
In Argentina, it is very difficult to pass 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 amending the provincial constitution were in full swing until they exploded this Tuesday. The Jujuy legislature had planned to promulgate the new Magna Carta on the afternoon of that holiday, but conservative governor Gerardo Morales brought it forward in the morning to avoid incidents that prevented it. The reaction was angry. A crowd gathered around the Parliament building to oppose the reform of the text, and some protesters tore down fences, threw stones and Molotov cocktails. Morales ordered the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the violence, and open battle ensued live on national television.
At least 40 people were injured, including a protester who was hospitalized in serious condition after a gas capsule exploded in his head. In addition, a total of 17 people were arrested for their involvement in the riots. Jujuy is now a province on fire and there is no sign that the protests will stop in the coming days. Unions called a general strike tomorrow across the province.
The repression has been harshly criticized by Peronist and left-wing leaders in Argentina, as well as by international organizations such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In a statement, the IACHR expressed concern over “the actions taken to disperse the protests in Jujuy Province, one of the provinces with the largest self-recognized indigenous population” and called for respect for freedom of expression and Inter-American standards on the use of force.
In the middle of the election campaign, Jujuy is monopolizing Argentina’s interest in information. Morales, a member of the conservative Juntos por el Cambio coalition with presidential aspirations, remains a staunch defender of constitutional reform, accusing Alberto Fernández’s Peronist government of being behind “the extreme violence that’s taking place in Jujuy.” Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sees Morales as responsible and demands that he “stop the repressive madness that his own actions have unleashed”.
Morales backed down with two highly controversial articles in which he had placed tribal communities scattered throughout the highlands in a state of war, often with no legal status or title to lands they had occupied for centuries. These are Article 36, on the right to private property, and Article 50, which focuses on the rights and guarantees of indigenous communities. The changes, which included eviction mechanisms and fast lanes for non-consent occupations, disadvantaged communities to mining companies interested in lithium and other natural resources.
Riot police protest against constitutional reform in San Salvador de Jujuy.Juan Burgos (AP)
The reduction in the forms of protest, on the other hand, remains in place. The new Magna Carta bans the blocking of roads and highways, the mechanism most widely used in the province in recent weeks in mobilizations against the reform and for better salaries for teachers. “The violent will not twist our arm,” warned Morales, a supporter of a crackdown on protesters who ban free movement.
The discussion in Jujuy brings some specifics of Argentina to the table. One is that battles between national forces often disappear at the provincial level. Morales would not have been able to pass Jujuy’s constitutional reform in less than a month without the support he has received from the majority of Jujuy’s Peronist lawmakers. The other reason is the widespread assumption that these are two competing country models. Kirchnerismus believes what Jujuy is witnessing is a foretaste of the loss of rights to come if Together for Change wins October’s presidential election. For the opposition coalition founded by former President Mauricio Macri, it is a step towards enforcing “the solidity of law and order,” as presidential candidate Patricia Bullrich put it.
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