This Wednesday, January 14, Judge Fernanda Revori decided to continue the preventive detention of Naum Vargas and Damian Diáz — detained on December 19 in an armed case — and rejected the request for freedom presented by the defenses. The hearing was held at the Rawson Judicial Office and once again revealed the functioning of a Justice that advances against those who fight.
At the hearing, Revori took up prosecutor Gómez’s arguments and maintained, without providing new elements, that there would be alleged “flight risks” and that the accused “do not submit to the law.” A cynical reasoning, repeated ad nauseam, to justify arrests without conviction and to support highly questioned causes against social activists. The message from Justice is clear: punish those who organized and confronted megamining in 2021, because the Torres government and that of Javier Milei (with the US and the IMF behind) need it.
Repression, armed causes and state policy
The case is part of the judicial persecution after the popular rebellion of December 2021—the Chubutazo—when a massive uprising managed to stop the mining zoning approved behind the people’s backs. Since then, various activists and neighbors have been persecuted, raided and prosecuted, in processes riddled with irregularities. In this same file, other neighbors were charged without evidence and one of them took his own life before the trial progressed, a fact that exposes the seriousness of state harassment.
These are not isolated events or judicial errors. This is an armed case, with no proven crime, used as a tool to politically discipline. Preventive detention functions here as anticipated punishment and as a warning for the entire population that defends water and territory.
This repressive advance occurs in a national context marked by adjustment—which on February 10 will be addressed by Labor Reform and the modification of the Glacier Law— along with the “necessary” criminalization of social protest. The government of Javier Milei, with Patricia Bullrich at the head of the Ministry of Security, promotes a policy that reinforces repression, espionage and the judicialization of the protest. In Chubut, this orientation is articulated with that of the provincial government of Torres and with a provincial Judicial Branch that acts as guarantor of extractivist interests.
The persecution also includes violent evictions of indigenous communities, armed cases against teachers and workers, and the criminalization of the Mapuche people, even blaming them without evidence for the forest fires that affect Patagonia every summer. A repressive scheme that seeks to clear the way to deepen the looting of natural common goods.
Immediate freedom: the demand multiplies
Faced with this, the demand for immediate freedom has not stopped growing since December when they were imprisoned. Environmental assemblies, social and political organizations multiply actions in different cities of the province and pronouncements in the country. The campaign for the release of Naum and Damian has two central slogans, “Fighting is not a crime”, “Defending water is a right”which resonate from Puerto Madryn to Comodoro Rivadavia, and from Trelew to Esquel.
From the PTS in the Left Unity Front, together with the socio-environmental assemblies, we continue to demand immediate freedom and the closure of all cases against those who participated in the popular rebellion. They were not isolated events or individual actions: it was an entire people that rose up and achieved a historic victory. And in the face of new attacks, the response will once again be in the streets.
Background: the rebellion that stopped the mining companies
In December 2021the Legislature of Chubut approved mining zoning behind the backs of the people, promoted by the then governor Arcioni and the national government of the Fernández family. Seven days of popular rebellion, with massive demonstrations, a strike in the port sector and strategic route cuts, achieved the repeal of the law and stopped the advance of the megaminers. That popular victory unleashed the judicial persecution that this new news has today against those who fought.
Naum Vargas y Diaz They are political prisoners of extractivismvictims of an armed case in a judicial process that seeks to discipline those who participated in Chubutazo 2021. They are not imprisoned for any crime, but for having been part of a people that said NO to the mining companies and YES to water. Class Justice, quick to condemn working people and protective of mining interests, continues to use these trials to spread fear. We have to confront its objective, which is that no one else dares to confront the surrender and looting of our common goods.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
