red-eye to Santiago

[President Bush]

Insurrection in Jujuy where we are. In the midst of union and indigenous activism the governor of the province, Morales, made protest such as blocking the highways illegal. Guess what, now Route 9, the only paved road connecting towns in northern Jujuy, is being blocked up and down.

https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/ ... g-protests

https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2023/ ... ce-june-17

Colorful blockade to the north of us both yesterday and again today, we had wanted to hike to a remote cave with Inca petroglyphs up that way, no such luck. Indigenous protestors determined to fuck with tourism here as a way to get the governor to back down. Interesting shit to see. We look like other Argentine tourists, some of the protestors have no qualms talking a bit.

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Today they seem more determined, burning tires down by Tilcara. Everything shut down, a real mess. Hung out there for a while today, lots of extremely irritated Argentine tourists want to be able to head down the road, no such luck with motivated lefty indigenous. Had this been the US there would have been violence, probably gunfire.

No cops in sight, this is a civil society, here in rural Jujuy at least.

We have a place lined up further south in Salta province coming up in a couple days, Going to try to sneak through couple hours before dawn tomorrow.

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just saw this:

https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argenti ... sion.phtml

[Admin]

There's a load of shit going on all across the lower part of South America lately.

Probably nothing new, but as you say, at least the cops tend not to go in guns blazing.

I hope it all works itself out peacefully.

[President Bush]

There's a load of shit going on all across the lower part of South America lately.

Probably nothing new, but as you say, at least the cops tend not to go in guns blazing.

I hope it all works itself out peacefully.

Itś getting hotter I fear.

https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argenti ... ujuy.phtml

Jujuy city, where the shit happened today, was actually our destination when we left Juella about 5:00 AM. Through the first roadblock in Tilcara with no issue. Twenty-some kilometers further down the road in Purmamarca where rubber bullets were flying a few days ago was as far as we got.

Sun came up, itś a beautiful valley, very rural, we were towards the front of very long line of vehicles at the corte (piles of wood, tires, and signs). When the word came through what was happening in Jujuy city everbody started running and shouting represión (repression), the indigenous were gathering rocks and tearing down road signs for shields, people with cars mainly jumped in and manuvered around each other to get the hell out of there.

I drove us maybe half a kilometer up the road, stopped, and got out the binoculars. Lots of young Argentines did the same though I was the only one with binocs, we were all checking it out. Never saw cops moving in, turns out they were all too busy down in the city.

Who the fuck knows what will happen tomorrow. We are due to re-up the car reservation at the Jujuy airport tomorrow (if we can get there), airport was shut down today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ33-jA1GT4

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[stanky]

exciting stuff, Prez.
thanks for the ring-side seats.

[grayman]

exciting stuff, Prez.
thanks for the ring-side seats.

Indeed.

Thank you!

[President Bush]

Stuck in traffic I got interviewed by not one but two camera crews just north of what was to be our last corte - the word means both ¨cut¨, like cut of meat, and ¨court¨, still not sure which is being referenced. Just outside the little San Salvador de Jujuy airport.

They were in the median looking for people who would roll down their window I guess. The governor, Morales, undid a couple ¨reforms" that had made building cortes and occupying buildings illegal. I think thatś why suddenly at eight this morning the fellows just started letting everybody through in Purmamarca.

Though other changes from the so-called ¨reform¨ in the province constitution were not dealt with, changes to private property rights quite possibly having something to do with legal deeds being sometimes indefinite on indigenous land, especially on indigenous land holding lithium deposits.

Nice article here on that:

https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive- ... argentina/

Anyhow, maybe we looked inviting to the news guys, in a white car covered in red dust, and probably funky-looking. We didn´t shower at 3:30 this morning, too cold in the room, plus we´re old.

Same kind of questions both times: were we tourists, where are we from, how long have we been in Argentina?

Let them know that we´d been in Jujuy about a month and that we had been atascados (stuck ones) behind the corte up in Purmamarca the past couple days. They both asked if we had been afraid and I told them no, that we had sympathy. One of the guys asked if the police would have done things differently in the US, probably a diss at how it had been dealt with here.

Just told him the truth well as I could, there would have been even more violence and some of the population would have shown up with guns and started shooting. That immediately ended the interview.

[Admin]

...especially on indigenous land holding lithium deposits..

Those uppity indigenous cunts need to learn that their rights are irrelevant in the face of rich cunts needing shit on their land.

[grayman]

...especially on indigenous land holding lithium deposits..

Those uppity indigenous cunts need to learn that their rights are irrelevant in the face of rich cunts needing shit on their land.

Reminds me of...

[Admin]

That's brilliant!

[President Bush]

On my bucket list: visiting South America.

Chile and Argentina topping the list.

Prez, if you find a good place down there for expats please let me know.

We are in a new place, next province south of Jujuy named Salta. Town of Cafayate might be one, sparks. Not a big place, though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cafayate

Argentine tourists come here to drink local wine and see red rock formations. Like pretty much everywhere else we´ve seen in Argentina not gentrified at all. Seems original, looks like 1950s European style. I fucking love it.

No McDonalds, no KFC, Pizza Hut, none of that shit anywhere in what we´ve seen of Argentina so far. Though great salads are hard to find in the restaurants. Llama is often on the menu.

You can see the FL bottom left in the first photo...

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