Argentina: Jujuy and the Coming Struggles

By Carlos Aznárez – Jun 21, 2023

When all avenues of dialogue are closed and they appeal to impose authoritarian positions with repression. When they persecute, imprison, and deny any type of legal defense. When from extreme right-wing political sectors, which hide behind failed democracies. When voices are heard approving the application of a brutal “order” that does not hesitate to shoot out the eyes of young people of this people — as in Chile and Peru. When all this happens in broad daylight with the consent of the Judiciary and the complicit and cowardly silence of the Executive Power (and the look aside of a eunuch president), let us have no doubt that the door to a dictatorship is opening. And of course, after all this happens, there is no need to be surprised or to look at the sky wondering: “Why is this happening to us?”

What has been happening in northern Argentina in recent years, and which has now exploded in all its magnitude, is precisely that the snake’s egg has broken its shell. Fascism does not ask for permission to enter and settle, and not only in Jujuy, where the case of Gerardo Morales is archetypal of what can be defined as a dictatorial government, but also in Salta where Governor Saenz has also been putting on the surface feudal policies, open mistreatment of those who earn starvation wages and are repressed for protesting. An endless list could be made of governors, mayors, and various politicians who are openly oriented to the right (whether opposition or ruling party) and carry out policies of surrender and submission to capitalist corporations.

Argentina: Repression Against Indigenous People in Jujuy (+Human Rights in Venezuela)

However, amid this right-wing hullabaloo that once again brings Macristas and Peronistas of the PJ (Primero Justicia) together without distinction of factions, what is currently happening in Jujuy opens channels of hope, since the people have awakened in such a way that they have united in action, overcoming the differences in which certain leaders always fall into. It is impressive and worthy of admiration to see how the different Indigenous communities of the Puna have become a factor of pressure and dignity, generating a unique Fuenteovejuna through the 22 roadblocks throughout the province. Entire families are spending day and night outdoors in extreme winter temperatures, putting their bodies on the line and peacefully defying the dictator who cannot go out into the street except with police custody and his own thugs.

Once again, as in Bolivia and Peru recently, it is the native peoples who set the example of the path to follow, bringing to the surface a history of more than five centuries of resistance, using traditional methods and forms of confrontation with the powerful, appealing to the firmness of their ancestral convictions. With the Wiphalas fluttering on the roads, with the music and fraternal joy of the encounters between brothers and sisters who carry so many wounds in their souls but do not give up, they fight for what belongs to them.

That uproar of rebellion is the one that was spreading to the rest of the population and which generated the Jujeñazo that confronts the cowardly approval of a constitutional reform that simply seeks to institutionalize dictatorial arming. It is uplifting and transmits generational freshness to see how thousands of young people planted resistance in front of the Legislature and then extended it to almost the entire city of San Salvador. Thus, expressing that the real problems of those from below are solved in the streets and fighting as they can, but fighting.

Transnational Lithium Occupation in Argentina

It is of no use that those in power call them “infiltrators,” “lefties,” or “Bolivians sent by Evo Morales.” We all know that when hunger tightens its grip and institutional violence tries to crush any kind of claim, the right to rebellion is more than necessary and does not need anyone’s permission. This has been the case throughout the history of the struggles of this people.

In these extreme scenarios, the siren songs of the traditional politicians of progressivism are worthless, as they live cushioning the struggles since it has been demonstrated that the only thing that interests them is to discuss positions and ensure a life full of perks. The few of the caste that dared to come to Jujuy did it to pose in photos “with those who struggle,” looking for a way to serve their electoral campaign and little else. Only the left, in the broadest sense of the definition, was, as always, the one that had the courage to be in the right place. And of course, it is who put the bruised bodies, the detainees, the pain that unequal confrontations usually cause.

With these demonstrations of firmness in the face of a dictatorship that is now preparing to put a pack of gendarmes on the roads to violently clear the roadblocks, there is no other option — if we really want to help the people of Jujuy to overthrow the tyrant — than to extend the struggle throughout the country, to nationalize the protest. The “Jujuy laboratory” will be applied nationally if it is not stopped at its roots. And in this sense, it is not a question of “depositing the anger in the ballot boxes” as Cristina Kirchner was able to say when she lost the election to Macri, but of generating as unitedly as possible thousands of responses in the streets. To say a gigantic “enough is enough” to those who by action or omission seek to lead us towards fascism. Let us not let the example of the people of Jujuy be extinguished.

(Resumen Latinoamericano)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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