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News > Latin America

Milagro Sala Trial: ‘I Apologize for Being Black and an Indian'

  • Sala is the founder of the 70,000-strong Tupac Amaru social organization.

    Sala is the founder of the 70,000-strong Tupac Amaru social organization. | Photo: Twitter

Published 16 December 2016
Opinion

After almost a year of arbitrary imprisonment condemned by the U.N., Tupac Amaru founder Milagro Sala's trial on eight-year-old charges begins.

As proceedings began Thursday in the Northern Jujuy province of Argentina against Indigenous leader and elected Parlasur member Milagro Sala, the Tupac Amaru social organization founder declared sarcastically before the court, “I apologize to Governor Morales for being Black and an Indian.”

RELATED:
UN Demands Argentina Release Indigenous Leader Milagro Sala

A major leader of the 70,000-strong social organization, Sala is on trial for organizing protests against Jujuy state Governor Gerardo Morales in 2009. The opening of the trial comes after almost a year of mounting international condemnation of Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s detention of the elected parliamentarian.

After first being arrested in January of this year during a peaceful protest against Jujuy Governor Morales, the initial charges of fomenting violence were dropped and later replaced by entirely new accusations of embezzling state funds. In May of this year, a state court ordered that charges based on a 2009 protest be dropped, given that Sala did not even attend the protest, but a second court ordered a new set of more severe charges of “threats and aggravated damage” be brought based on the same protest.

On Thursday, Sala rejected the charges of organizing the 2009 protests, saying that the only reason for the prosecution is that she is a Peronist and political ally of the former Kirchner government. "Morales' scolding is because I'm a Peronist and because I started to work with Nestor (Kirchner) and Cristina (Fernandez de Kirchner),” she told the court. "My only goal was to dignify my comrades, to defend the flags of dignity. Morales is irritated that ‘the dark ones’ can organize.”

On Dec. 21, Sala and several other members will face another trial based on the January 2016 protest against Morales. There is no scheduled date for any trial based on the accusations of embezzlement for which she is officially being jailed. A trial would be impossible given that formal charges have not yet been filed.

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