An investigation led by Amnesty International concluded that Jujuy’s provincial police carried out arbitrary detentions and illegal use of force on June 20 when repressing protests against a controversial constitutional reform.

“It is inadmissible that, using the legitimate exercise of their human rights to complain to the authorities about the lack of prior consultation on an instrument as central as the provincial Constitution, Indigenous communities have been victims of violence, abuse, and arbitrary detention,” said Mariela Belski, executive director of Amnesty International Argentina.

In May, a Provincial Constitutional Assembly led by Governor Gerardo Morales set out to modify several articles regarding private property, evictions and Native land rights despite there being no Indigenous political representation in the assembly.

Although some of those modifications were scaled back, a partial constitutional reform was approved and protests across the province intensified. A series of brutal police crackdowns left at least 170 people injured and more than 70 arrested. Different national and international human rights organizations and government officials— including President Alberto Fernández — heavily criticized the reform and the repression.

Mariana Fontoura Marques, a South American researcher at Amnesty International, told the Herald that one of the effects of the repression and the criminalization of protests was “restricting the exercise of the right to protest.”

“While many people continue to demonstrate to this day, many others told us that they had stopped taking to the streets to demand their rights for fear of persecution and reprisals,”  Fontoura Marques told the Herald.

The findings

From September 25-29, an Amnesty International delegation visited the city of San Salvador de Jujuy and the provincial municipalities of Tumbaya, Cochinoca, Humahuaca and Susques. According to a press release, the organization interviewed at least 107 victims and witnesses as well as government officials. They also requested meetings with the Secretary of Human Rights and the Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of Jujuy, which have not yet been held.

According to the preliminary findings, the Jujuy police carried out unnecessary and excessive use of force, including shooting rubber bullets at protests, sometimes directly at the heads of the demonstrators. Two protestors suffered permanent eye injuries, including a teenager who was shot with rubber bullets in the face and torso, the report found.

Many of the testimonies gathered by the organization report the presence of unidentified officers in private vehicles, or who refused to identify themselves when questioned by the demonstrators. Witnesses reported that some assaulted demonstrators with physical blows and throwing stones.

Some of the victims even reported that hospitals refused to treat them. A 17-year-old teenager was taken to a detention center even after having made it clear to the authorities that he was a minor. A woman who was arbitrarily detained in Purmamarca reported being forced to strip naked in front of a group of male police officers.

Out of over 70 detainees only “two or three” are being investigated for acts of violence, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The others were released without charges.

Amnesty also met Jujuy’s Attorney General and Security Minister, who told them that “there are ongoing investigations for alleged abuses by police officers,” according to Fontoura Marques.

“But they are very few compared to the criminal investigations and misdemeanor proceedings for alleged crimes committed by protesters,” she told the Herald.

Fontoura Marques also said that witnesses said they don’t make legal complaints “for fear of being subsequently criminalized and persecuted.”

Going forward, in its final report, Amnesty will present detailed recommendations to the province’s authorities.

“However, based on the evidence gathered, Amnesty is already demanding that the authorities in Jujuy guarantee the right to peaceful protest, that they investigate promptly, thoroughly, independently and impartially the human rights violations committed in the context of the protests,” Fontoura Marques added. “And that they respect the right of Indigenous communities to free, prior and informed consultation, as protected by both international human rights law and the Argentine constitution.”