June 21st, INTI RAYMI, or the festival of the sun, is celebrated in the Quebrada and Puna regions of Jujuy. It is an ancient, religious, Andean festival, in honour of INTI “the father sun”, in which during that night offerings are made so that the new cycle begins in the best possible way.
By Alba Fernández*
I share all this because today our brothers and sisters from Jujuy should have celebrated this very important holiday for their culture, but all the joy was extinguished by the actions of the governor of that province, Gerardo Morales, who brutally repressed the native people, social, trade union and political organisations in the province of Jujuy who were questioning the changes to the provincial constitution and other parallel demands.
Gerardo Morales began his first term in office by appointing political leaders to the judiciary and sending Milagro Sala to prison, who had not been tried, let alone convicted, and now he is trying to finish his second and last term in office by approving a constitution that expands the executive branch, shatters the right to protest, establishes criminal offences that must be processed through summary proceedings, and tramples on the rights of indigenous peoples.
In response, the people of Jujuy took to the streets: teachers with starvation wages, native communities tired of the constant abuses perpetrated against their community, and harshly repressed by a police force loyal to a violently excessive political power.
On the 21st of June of previous years, humanists from various provinces shared with Milagro and the Tupac organisation this important date that has so much meaning for human beings, with this solstice that begins the winter, this passage from darkness to light, this healing and hopeful ceremony directed towards the future.
It is for all these reasons that in the face of the repression and the void and desolation of the people of Jujuy there is only one possible new action: to sustain the protest and begin to build and sow a new future for each of the people of Jujuy, together with the social forces, the native peoples and the political, trade union and social activists who are inspired by the idea of a more humane world for all.
We, humanists,x believe that this is the moment to rekindle the sun that each one of us has within ourselves and to illuminate the shared struggle with our brothers and sisters from Jujuy to change the state of things in this province, inaugurating a new, happier and more united stage for all of us.
*Humanist Councillor