Jujuy: Indigenous peoples resist constitutional reform
In this article, Indigenous women describe how the days of resistance to Governor Gerardo Morales' constitutional reform are taking place.
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The Indigenous peoples who inhabit the province of Jujuy are immersed in a struggle. The objective: to achieve the repeal of a constitutional reform they consider a violation of their rights. On Saturday, June 18, there was a violent crackdown at the Purmamarca roadblock, leaving 27 people arrested and several injured.
The protests have been taking place since the Constitutional Convention began its sessions on May 22. They escalated on the night of June 15, when the provincial government and part of the Justicialist Front approved the reform .
On June 14 and 15, indigenous communities began a march to the provincial capital, San Salvador. They called it the third Malón de la Paz (Malón of Peace) because it shares the same demands as the historic Malón de la Paz of 1946. At that time, they walked more than 2,400 kilometers to reach Buenos Aires to demand the titling of their territories.
They added current slogans to this Third Malón: rejection of lithium exploration and exploitation in the Salinas Grandes basin and rejection of the "unconstitutional" reform.
In defense of water
"They are eliminating many rights from the previous Constitution," said Verónica Chávez, president of the Tres Pozos Community of the Kolla People. She is the spokesperson for the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc. They oppose lithium mining because they believe it could leave them without drinking water, which is scarce in this part of the Puna.
These communities began their march from the salt flats on June 14. In Purmamarca , they met with others from the Cochinoca department and La Quiaca , in the Yavi department, in the far north of Jujuy. Together, they marched toward San Salvador.
On the other side of the map, in the Yungas region of Ledesma department, members of the Cherenta Community of the Ava Guaraní People marched. “We are against the unconstitutional reform that Gerardo Morales and Minister Natalia Sarapura implemented behind closed doors against indigenous peoples. There was no prior, free, and informed consultation, as it should be. That's why we brothers and sisters are marching against this and in support of the teachers of Jujuy,” Mburuvicha Gabriela Situé told Presentes . She added that 60% of the population in Jujuy is indigenous. That's why their demands overlap; they are also part of the teachers' demands for salary increases.
Since the first Malón de la Paz
The Abra Pampa column was bid farewell by Nicanor López, one of the elders who participated in the first Malón de la Paz in 1946. He wished them "a happy march." "With our hands crossed, we do nothing. We have to have a good heart, a good mind, to be able to work." "Because we are from here in the Puna, they want to dismantle us . They want to see us with nothing . So we have to fight . This fight began in the first (Malón de la Paz) and we will continue fighting," he asserted.
In Maimará, a town in the Tilcara department, in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, another elderly woman, approaching her 85th birthday, waited for the marchers coming from Cochinoca and La Quiaca. A retired teacher and Indigenous herself, Erminda Mamaní also warns of the regression implied by the new Jujuy Constitution: "It has points that we cannot accept as citizens under any circumstances," she asserted.
Indefinite outages
The third Malón de la Paz protest was scheduled to conclude on June 16th, participating in the general provincial mobilization called by teachers and workers from other sectors of Jujuy, who are demanding salary increases and oppose the reforms promoted by Governor Gerardo Morales. However, on the night of the 15th, as they were still approaching San Salvador, they learned that the amendment had already been approved. In quick meetings, they adapted the plan of action to the contingency.
And on June 16, a crackdown on protesters in Abra Pampa, in the far north of the province, further inflamed the situation. Spokesperson Verónica Chávez reported that the National Assembly of the Peoples of the Puna had decided to indefinitely block national highways leading to Chile and Bolivia. "The measure will only be lifted with the reinstatement of the provincial Constitution and the irrevocable resignation of the provincial governor," she stated. In response, residents of the high mountains and lower elevations of the Yavi and Cochinoca departments, and other departments of the Puna, gathered in La Quiaca and Purmamarca, where National Routes 9 and 51 pass, leading to the passes into Bolivia and Chile, respectively.
“They take away our rights”
The indigenous peoples who inhabit the territory now called Jujuy oppose the constitutional reform primarily because there was no prior, free, and informed consultation, as required by Argentine law.
Among the reformed points, the provincial government's bill modified Article 36 of the Constitution, "the right to private property." The text incorporated into the new Constitution is aimed at indigenous peoples, the vast majority of whom do not have property titles, despite having ancestral occupation of their territory. In many cases, they face pressure from individuals who never occupied the land but have property titles.
The reform provides for the incorporation of "fast and expeditious mechanisms and procedures to protect private property and restore any alteration in the possession, use, and enjoyment of property in favor of its owner." Furthermore, unauthorized occupation will be considered a "serious violation of property rights," and "the conditions for eviction and for ensuring that the owner(s) of the affected property rights are immediately able to exercise their rights will be determined, even when the perpetrators of the unauthorized occupation claim to represent or exercise the rights of the people."
Ancestral lands in private hands
“Now, with this Constitution, we have no rights to anything; all resources remain with the government,” asserted Verónica Chávez. “It harms us as Indigenous peoples because they are taking away our rights,” added Gabriela Situé. She pointed out, precisely, that “many communities don't have documents for our territories. They would take away the ancestral land our ancestors left us, and that's where our ancestral remedies are, too, because we are guardians of that, of the environment.”
The Cherenta community, located in the rural area of Libertador General San Martín, does not own its land. "We don't have any papers because most of the land belongs to the Ledesma company," Gabriela recalled. The sugar mill was established on the territory of the Guaraní Nation.
Erminda Mamaní, a member of the Cochinoca People who taught as a teacher in the rural areas of Abra Pampa, Humahuaca, and Tumbaya, also emphasized that the new Constitution "would give authorities the right to do whatever they want with untitled lands," which is the case with most of the community's territory. Therefore, she said she supports this struggle "for reasons of justice."
"If the Puno residents don't have land, where will they live? And if the lithium mining companies come and leave us without water, where will they be expelled? That's what they're thinking. Right now, people are realizing, they're becoming aware of what could happen with this government reform," he reflected.
A strategic meeting
Verónica Chávez's image has been seen around the world these past few days. She was seen accompanied by American film director James Cameron, from whom she secured a commitment to support communities that oppose lithium exploration and exploitation.
The meeting with Cameron was the culmination of a misstep by Jujuy Governor Gerardo Morales, who invited the filmmaker to visit the Cauchari Solar Park located in the Susques department. Cameron himself later said he felt he had been ambushed and highlighted the paradox that, as a result, he had focused attention on lithium exploitation . Cameron declared himself in favor of the communities that oppose the installation of mining companies in their territory and pledged his support.
Verónica Chávez recalled that the communities of Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc have been resisting lithium mining for a long time. “We made reports, we filed lawsuits with the Supreme Court, everything, but they still continue to violate our rights,” and now with the provincial reform, “they're taking away all our rights; we can't protest, we can't do anything.”
In early March of this year, these communities suffered what they call "a betrayal." Lipán Commissioner Angélica Castillo, some members of that community, and President Alberto Fernández signed a document approving lithium exploitation in their territory, which the governor later used to claim that he had indeed carried out the prior consultation.
So the communities rethought their strategy. "We say we're not going to stop, we have to make this struggle visible. We said that in a meeting." As a spokesperson, Verónica Chávez was working on this when she learned of James Cameron's visit. "And I asked Mamita Salinas, my father, and my mother, who are no longer with me, to meet with this man, because I saw that he would help me further visualize the struggle," she said. With that conviction, she arranged the meeting with the filmmaker.
Two women, in front
Verónica Chávez and Gabriela are almost the same age, 49 and 48. They are both mothers, and they both share the defense of their communities and their knowledge. "I am in the field of indigenous health," said Gabriela in her conversation with Presentes. "During the pandemic, we have sought our herbs from the mountains to be able to heal our brothers and sisters."
Verónica explained that in Tres Pozos, they are dedicated to crafts, livestock, agriculture, salt extraction, and tourism. “Our grandparents, our grandmothers, who lived in this beautiful land of Salinas Grandes, Laguna de Guayatayoc, preserved it for years and years and years, and now we are here.” “Here, we have an economy that our grandparents lived and we are living too, and we want to leave the land as healthy as our grandparents left it, as we found it, for our future generations, with clean water, and that is the struggle we have been waging for thirteen years.”
Although lithium isn't available in their territory, Gabriela highlighted the actions of "the brothers of the Puna" defending water and land as one of the reasons for the march. "What Gerardo Morales is doing is taking what we have to give it to the big landowners. We know this well, because we're not stupid. Our grandparents taught us to defend our land, water, life, forest, and nature."
"It's so sad" what's happening to them today, Gabriela lamented about the situation in her province. "It's a right-wing government we have today in Jujuy," she added, recalling that this is why they held an assembly on June 1st with representatives of all the province's Indigenous peoples: Kolla, Chicha, Okloya, Guaraní, Omaguaca, Tilián, and Quechua. The Plurinational Constituent Convention was formed there, with the goal of ensuring that their worldview would be respected in the reform of the provincial constitution, but they were not heard.
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