Argentina's Milagro Sala Says Rights Violated by Extreme Security Measures

Milagro Sala has criticized the extreme security measures taken by the Argentine government of Mauricio Macri since her transfer from prison to house arrest.

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"Even those who committed genocide don't have so much security, they do not have military police at the door of the house, they do not have as many cameras as I have," the Indigenous leader stated.

The Tupac Amaru activist stated that in the El Carmen neighborhood where she is being held, there are 11 cameras and two guards at every corner.

"I have to present myself every day at 9 a.m. so the military police can see that I'm here. Why did they put the electronic ankle (bracelet) on?" she asked.

She also criticized the highly militarized manner by which she was transferred from the Criminal Unit of Women in Alto Comedero where she’d spent 594 days to her home after months of constant battles contesting the unjust pretrial detention.

“What they are doing is a violation of my rights," Sala, who is also an elected representative of the Parliament of South America of the trade bloc Mercosur, told Telam.

"I do not know how to hate, no one taught me to have hatred, to have a grudge. What I do have is pain because of the injustice I'm going through," the leader said, adding, "There is so much hatred from them towards us, as the worst offenders, as murderers, as drug traffickers. We are not that, we are working people, militants."

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The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has already denounced Sala's house arrest as only a “change from one prison to another prison.” It condemned Sala's living conditions, arguing she is being subjected to "annihilation by the State."

In an interview with Radio Rebelde, the head of the IACHR Francisco Eguiguren said that the commission ordered that Sala be given house arrest because "we saw a person who was being subjected to annihilation."

Eguiguren said that the decision made by the Justice Department of the north Argentine province of Jujuy did not comply with the international body's resolution. He added the government's move was another way to harass the Indigenous leader.