MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine President visits hospitalized convicted social leader

Fernández urged the Courts to review Sala's cases

Argentine President Alberto Fernández Wednesday traveled to the province of Jujuy to pay a visit to social leader Milagro Sala, who has been hospitalized after suffering a deep vein thrombosis while under arrest.

“I have always raised the impropriety of her detention and the irregularity of the process,” Fernández said on social media about his sudden change of plans. “Milagro has been persecuted, she has been deprived of her freedom for 7 years and both her health and that of her husband have deteriorated a lot,” he added.

“In a state governed by the rule of law, justice should work differently. I ask the judges of Jujuy and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to please put aside the theories and doctrines that were spread in the years of the government before ours,” the President also pointed out.

Fernández also stressed that “any trial must be carried out respecting the Argentine laws, without political pressure, without persecutory intentions and that only the rules of due process prevail.”

“None of this should have happened, human rights are fundamental in any rule of law,” he insisted. “I hope you recover soon Milagro, there are many of us who wish to see you well.”

During a press conference after meeting Sala, the head of state described the Jujuy social leader as a “politically persecuted” person. “I hope that the courts of Jujuy take my criticism in the best way. Please, I urge them to review what they are doing, it is not a good model for the country. The same for the Supreme Court, which solves with urgency the things that concern their interests, please give the same urgency” to the Milagro Sala case.

The leader of the Tupac Amaru movement has been sentenced to two years in jail for threatening police officers, in addition to other convictions that are still pending appeals, including a 13-year sentence for the mishandling of funds originally meant for the construction of houses for the neediest, and a 4-year prison sentence for serious injuries against another local social leader back in 2006.

Other investigations in which she is the leading suspect are still to go to their trial phase.

On the other hand, victims of Milagro Sala have sent Fernández a letter objecting to his support for her: “Your visit, Mr. President, made in the context of unfounded accusations against the authorities of our province, is not a humanitarian gesture, but a crude attempt to pressure the judiciary, meddling in matters that exceed your powers.”

Fernández has visited Sala before in jail. He has also met with former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva while the latter was incarcerated in a corruption case in which he was later acquitted.