• Struggle For Dignity and Rights in Jujuy Continues
• China Was the Subtext in Modi’s Visit to Washington
• Peru’s Former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez Arrested on Rebellion and Conspiracy Charges
• Is the EU Bribing and Blackmailing Tunisia to Crack Down on Migrants?

Struggle For Dignity and Rights in Jujuy Continues

Mobilizations continue across Jujuy in rejection of the reforms to the local constitution, promoted by conservative Governor Gerardo Morales. On Thursday, June 22, tens of thousands of people mobilized across the country as part of a national strike to express solidarity with the people of Jujuy and against the actions of Morales.

The reform passed last week modified 66 of the 212 articles. The people of Jujuy have strongly rejected the new constitution, deeming it “unconstitutional” and “regressive.” They have noted that the new constitution does not recognize the rights of the Indigenous peoples, enshrined in the national constitution, and promotes the provincial-level management of natural resources such as land and water. They have denounced that it paves the way for the displacement of Indigenous communities that are inhabiting territories of extractivist interests, denying them their collective rights to ancestral lands and territories.

In Jujuy, Indigenous communities, teachers’ unions, and social organizations continue to organize marches and blockades of major roads and highways across the province. They are demanding the withdrawal of the reforms to the provincial constitution, which were approved on June 15 without the necessary prior consultation.

In the capital of Buenos Aires, around a hundred people demonstrated in front of the Casa de Jujuy, the office of the province in the capital, condemning the brutal police repression unleashed against the protesters in Jujuy by Morales. Mobilizations in support of the people of Jujuy were also held in the provinces of Córdoba, San Luis, Santa Fe, and others.

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China Was the Subtext in Modi’s Visit to Washington

The three-day state visit of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi to the U.S. was marked by the Biden administration’s attempts to pull India closer regarding the so-called containment of China.

Modi is the third world leader who has been invited for a state visit during Joe Biden’s term in office thus far, after French President Emmanuel Macron and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. 

Analysts claim that this particular treatment is related to the Biden administration’s increasingly China-centric foreign policy and its attempts to “contain” the country’s rise, given outstanding tensions between India and China. Yoon Suk Yeol was explicitly asked to undertake anti-China measures during his visit. 

Modi was received by Biden at the White House on June 22. In the joint statement, issued on Thursday, both countries claimed they are “among the closest partners in the world” and they have a “comprehensive global and strategic partnership.”

The statement outlines commitments to the “rule-based international order,” reforms in the UN, to the global fight against terrorism, for a secure and stable Afghanistan, and for democracy and human rights.

The visit was not without controversy. At least 75 U.S. legislators from the Democratic Party officially wrote to President Biden to raise the question of human rights and freedom of press with Modi. Several members of Congress also boycotted Modi’s address to the Congress and urged others to do the same over Modi government’s record on the treatment of religious minorities and other human rights.

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Peru’s Former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez Arrested on Rebellion and Conspiracy Charges

On Tuesday, June 20, the Peruvian National Police arrested former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez for the alleged crimes of rebellion and conspiracy against the state. Chávez was arrested at her home in the city of Tacna after the Supreme Court ordered 18 months of pre-trial detention for her. The charges against Chávez stem from the attempt by ousted former President Pedro Castillo to dissolve the Congress and rule by decree in December 2022 in the face of a coordinated right-wing attack.

Judge César San Martín, the head of the National Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, issued the arrest warrant for Chávez after accepting the request made by the Prosecutor’s Office for her preventive detention for her alleged participation in Castillo’s announcement regarding the dissolution of Congress.

Chávez has repeatedly denied participating in or having knowledge of Castillo’s decision, as have other former ministers who are under investigation. On Wednesday, June 21, Chávez’s legal team announced that it will appeal the measure to the Constitutional Court to revert the preventive detention.

Following the ruling, Chávez spoke in a livestream on her TikTok account, saying that she was not alone “but accompanied by millions of people.”

On Thursday, June 22, Chávez condemned her arrest as an attempt to silence those critical of the Dina Boluarte de facto government. “Today it is Betssy Chávez, tomorrow it may be you. What we must not allow is the use of the ‘justice system’ to silence those of us who are uncomfortable with the regime in power, the one that works in collusion with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Judicial Power[,] and the servient press,” she wrote in a tweet.

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Is the EU Bribing and Blackmailing Tunisia to Crack Down on Migrants?

The Workers’ Party of Tunisia and several human rights groups have strongly objected to a deal proposed by European countries on the movement of migrants. They have called it a violation of sovereignty and the human rights of refugees.

On June 11, top EU officials visited Tunisia and issued a joint statementafter meeting President Kais Saied, saying that both parties have agreed to work jointly to end “irregular migration.”

Critics of the deal claim that the EU is using Tunisia’s precarious economic condition to force it to control the movement of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea in exchange for financial support, just like they did with Turkey and Libya.

The Workers’ Party claimed in a statement on June 15 that any such deal will make Tunisia a “policeman” patrolling its borders so that people trying to escape their deteriorating economic conditions can be stopped from going to Europe and punished.

Reports indicate that the EU is pushing Tunisia to establish a harsh border policy in exchange for its support for the country’s stalled bid to obtain a $1.9 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Tunisia’s loan has been stalled for months due to Saied’s reluctance to implement the reforms demanded by the IMF. Saied is reportedly worriedthat his government—already facing large-scale popular resistance since his political coup in July 2021—will face another popular upsurge if the IMF’s demands to cut subsidies for essential commodities such as flour and fuel, cuts to social services, and privatization are implemented.