Activist Milagro Sala returned home Saturday after the provincial court of Jujuy in Argentina ordered her transfer from prison in line with previous rulings from the Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Activist and Indigenous leader Milagro Sala, now in detention, has announced she will run in the 2019 regional elections for governor of Jujuy province, northern Argentina.
“I have the intention of competing against Gerardo Morales in the elections,” said Sala during a radio interview on Thursday.
Sala said she wants to improve the living conditions of the people of Jujuy, where she says there’s “no democracy or freedom, only hunger.”
The activist was unanimously acquitted of attempted murder on Thursday in the ‘Shooting of Azopardo’ case, from October 27, 2007. Sala celebrated the verdict and thanked the judges for not succumbing to government pressure.
Morales, Jujuy’s incumbent governor, described the court’s decision to acquit the activist as “shameful.”
“The ruling acquitting two criminals such as Milagro Sala and Beto Cardozo is shameful,” Morales wrote on Twitter.
“If there’s something that the people of Jujuy know about is the violence they committed and how much they stole. The struggle against impunity continues.”
Sala is one of the founders and leaders of the Tupac Amaru Neighborhoods’ Organization, providing housing and other services to informal workers and working-class sectors since 1999.
She is also being investigated for alleged illicit association, fraud and extortion, crimes she was charged with days after being detained in early 2016 for allegedly instigating violence during a protest against Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales, which she didn’t attend.
The case is known as the “Pibes Villeros” and Sala claims it’s political persecution “to discipline the leaders and the opposition,” as she told teleSUR in October.
Tupac Amaru Neighborhoods’ Organization claims the persecution against Sala is “politically motivated.”
The activist has expressed multiple times her intentions to participate in the regional elections in Jujuy. In 2017, while she was under house arrest, Sala said she would like to run against Morales “as equals, not from prison while he is ruling over everything here in Jujuy.”
Sala served as an Argentine legislator between 2013 and 2015 and was later elected to Mercosur’s Parliament (Parlasur), prior to her arrest in 2016 for allegedly instigating violence against the state.
Activist Milagro Sala returned home Saturday after the provincial court of Jujuy in Argentina ordered her transfer from prison in line with previous rulings from the Supreme Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The decision was issued after Sala’s lawyers requested her release from prison and after she was acquitted of dubious homicide charges. The activist and former legislator was accused of hiring a hitman in a case known as the “Shooting of Azopardo,” which took place on Oct. 27, 2007.
She is still under investigation for alleged illicit association, fraud, and extortion. Charges against her were levied days after being detained in early 2016 for allegedly instigating violence during a protest against Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales, which she didn’t attend.
Sala is considered by her supporters as president Mauricio Macri’s first political prisoner and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have argued her detention was “arbitrary.“
She will continue to be under preventive detention.
Sala will remain home, this time without the restrictions imposed by judge Pablo Pullen who had her under surveillance from state security forces and forced her to live in a home in El Carmen, far from the city’s downtown area. This time she will only have an electronic bracelet as a control measure.
Governor Morales called the ruling “shameful” via Twitter and insisted Sala was a “criminal.” “If there is something we all know is the violence they used when they stole from the people,” Morales said in a reference unrelated to the alleged murder case.
On Thursday, Milagro Sala announced he will run against Morales in the 2019 regional elections. Sala said she wants to improve the living conditions of the people of Jujuy, where she says there’s “no democracy or freedom, only hunger.”
Sala is one of the founders and leaders of the Tupac Amaru Neighborhoods’ Organization, which provided housing and other services to informal workers and working-class sectors since 1999.
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