"Argentina: Repression against indigenous people in Jujuy", 24 June 2023

...Police repression of mass protests regarding provincial constitution reforms—threatening the right to protest and land workers’ rights—have led to at least 68 people being arrested and 170 injured this Tuesday, June 20. The events in the lithium-rich province of Jujuy, Argentina, have mobilized spokespersons of the international community and human rights defenders around the world...

With only one month of alleged discussions—behind closed doors—the constitutional reform, modifying 193 of the 212 points of the 1986 Regional Constitution, was approved this Tuesday, with 40 out of 48 possible votes and in the midst of the resignation of leftist assembly members. The controversy and popular uprising against the provincial constitutional text is centered on at least two major issues:

• Criminalization of protests, conditioning the right to permits issued by regional bodies and prohibiting freedom of demonstrations.
• Modification of the right to land ownership, incorporating fast-track registration and forced eviction.

Both issues have alarmed and affect the 300+ indigenous communities that inhabit the area of Jujuy, the nerve center of mining and lithium exploitation in Argentina, and part of the U.S. SOUTHCOM-targeted region known as the Lithium Triangles, shared between Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Several legal experts and human rights organizations warn that the reform is incompatible with the rights enshrined for indigenous peoples in international treaties and in the constitution of the Argentinian Republic...