16 January 2026 marked the tenth anniversary of the arbitrary detention of Milagro Sala, civil rights activist, trade unionist and social leader of the Tupac Amaru neighbourhood organisation in the Argentine province of Jujuy, who has campaigned for the rights of the indigenous population, some of whom live in extreme poverty.
The case is one of the most serious politically motivated imprisonments worldwide and has also attracted international attention. From Pope Francis to the then Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, many, including the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Amnesty International and numerous committees for the freedom of Milagro Sala, have campaigned for an end to her imprisonment. Sala has been subjected to fabricated charges and trials, endured media smear campaigns and has been under arrest for ten years. All this because she successfully established schools, hospitals, sports facilities and food services for the poorest people in the province of Jujuy.
According to the news portal El Destape, on the 10th anniversary of her arrest, 16 January, a caravan travelled from Buenos Aires to La Plata to the government and parliamentary buildings of the province of Buenos Aires to denounce the use of the judiciary as an instrument of political discipline and to demand justice and Milagro’s release. “Thank you, Milagro, for not giving up and fighting for dignity”, could be heard on the streets of La Plata. It is the “chronicle of an imprisonment that sought to punish not only a politician, but an entire people”, according to the report by El Destape.
On 16 January, the association “Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” also demanded the release of Milagro Sala and justice for the “Desaparecidos”, the disappeared people whose families are still waiting for clarification and justice, at a protest rally in the capital Buenos Aires. “What they are doing to this woman is scandalous and shameful”, said Carmen Arias, president of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo association, according to an article in Página12.
Milagro Sala’s imprisonment is part of a series of legal proceedings aimed at suppressing social resistance to the spread of the extractive model, particularly in Jujuy, a province important for lithium mining, as Telesur reports. Milagro Sala has fought for the dignity and self-determination of the indigenous population. She is now in poor health and receiving medical treatment. But her work, her strength and her love for ordinary people, the poorest of the poor, live on, supported by many thousands of people around the world.
The day of Milagro Salas’ rehabilitation will come, and with it, a dark chapter in Argentina’s history will come to an end.
The video shows excerpts from the photo documentary ‘La tupac’ (Jujuy, 2010) by Argentine photographer Sebastián Miquel, which was created several years before Milagro Sala’s arbitrary arrest on 16 January 2016. It shows Milagro and the people she supported, who, thanks to her help, had gained a newfound indigenous self-confidence that was not wanted politically.
