Milagro Sala was arrested on 16 January 2016 on the orders of Governor Gerardo Morales. On that day, a web of legal cases was unleashed to sustain her illegal imprisonment, for an indefinite period of time. The persecution was extended to other members of the Tupac Amaru organisation, and Jujuy became the local lawfare laboratory.

Their defenders, before local and federal courts, have not ceased to argue the illegality of the cases and the injustice and arbitrariness of the arrests. The recent complaint against the TOCF of Jujuy for poor performance, which despite the statute of limitations, convicted Milagro Sala, Graciela López and Gustavo Salvatierra, in the so-called “case of the eggs”, was accompanied by more than 10,000 signatures.

On 5 October, CELS and ANDHES once again denounced the Argentine State before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for the harassment and persecution suffered by Milagro Sala and her colleagues. “In the more than two thousand days of Milagro Sala’s detention, there have been several episodes of repression and criminalisation that have targeted not only the Tupac but also other social movements, political parties and trade unions. The policy of the government of Jujuy seeks to demobilise and limit the right to protest”, stated the human rights organisations.

Meanwhile, members of the International Network for the Freedom of Milagro Sala demanded that the judiciary of Jujuy speed up the procedures to free Graciela López, Patricia Cabana, Mirta Guerrero, Adriana Condori and María Condori, who have served two thirds of their sentences. The Network expressed that “the continuity of their detention, having exceeded the statutory time deprived of their freedom, becomes a manifest arbitrariness and a cruelty towards those who inevitably need to restart their lives, and try to overcome the adversities suffered in all these years”. The claim has been accompanied by the signatures of the Mesa de Organismos de Derechos Humanos, including Madres de Plaza de Mayo Linea Fundadora, Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos, Familiares de Desaparecidos y detenidos por razones politicas, Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos and others.

The Committees all over the country keep alive the claim that gave them their origin and reason for being and they are permanently demonstrating for Milagro and her comrades, political prisoners who pay with their freedom for having made the dreams of the humblest come true.

Our struggle will not cease until we reach the goal we set ourselves. Six years of judicial hunt and systematic harassment are about to be completed. We demand urgent answers from those who should give them, let no one be distracted.

Freedom for Milagro Sala, Mirta Guerrero, Graciela López, Patricia Cabana, María Condori, Adriana Condori, Iván Altamirano, Miguel Ángel Sibila and Javier Nieva.

COMMITTEE FOR THE FREEDOM OF MILAGRO SALA