Milagro Sala: To Violate My Rights Is to Violate Against Democracy

Argentine activist Milagro Sala has criticized the decision of the government of President Mauricio Macri to transfer her back to prison from her current house arrest.

RELATED:
Lawyers Denounce Breach of House Arrest for Milagro Sala

"Nothing about this government or this justice surprises me because they (the government) has been violating rights,"

"I’m surrounded by wired fences, I have 26 police officers who are watching over me and around my house, I have 24 cameras, an electric bracelet, and I have to go out to the balcony three times a day so they can see me," Sala told teleSUR..

The Indigenous leader will be sent back to the Alto Comedero Women’s Prison in 10 days, according to local media reports.

"This is not a house arrest, this is a jail. This was a change from one prison to another," Sala said. "To violate my rights is to violate against democracy.”

Sala was arrested on Jan. 16, 2016 after a month-long sit-in to protest the neoliberal policies of Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales, an ally of right-wing President Macri.

Political authorities of Jujuy accused Sala of embezzlement and alleged that she used “authoritarian and violent methods” to run community initiatives and protests.

Sala has denied any wrongdoing.

"They’re using the same methods that were applied in the 1970s, to suppress the same causes, crush activists, intervene phones," Sala said.

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

As head of Argentina's Tupac Amaru neighborhood association, part of the Association of State Workers of Jujuy, Sala won a seat in 2015 in the regional parliament of the Mercosur trade group of South American nations, Parlasur.

Last year, the United Nations demanded that the government release Sala, while the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention described her incarceration as "annihilation by the state.”

Sala said she will continue to demand the appearance of Santiago Maldonado because she feels the pain of his family.

"I am a mother, I am a grandmother, I am a sister, I am flesh and blood,"

Sala said the young people like Maldonado should keep on fighting for justice in the region.

"To the young people, who are going to defend Latin America, who today have the force, and they are the rebellious of the Latin America, for something fair, for something better, for a new world," Sala said. "We are old, they are the ones that have to replace us."

She was recently recognized by the Venezuelan government for her activism and defense of human rights.

"I thank (President) Maduro, I thank Venezuela, I look at it and this is what gives me strength," Sala said.

"Milagro Sala, political prisoner of Jujuy, Argentina and Latin America," Sala said.