Buenos Aires, August 5 (RHC)-- Argentineans are protesting on social media and demanding the Argentinean government release Milagro Sala, an imprisoned Indigenous activist and lawmaker. Followers of Sala used the hashtag #200Días (200 Days) to raise attention to the number of days the activist has spent in jail.

Sala was arrested on January 16 on charges of public disturbance and stands accused of illicit association and fraud based on alleged mismanagement of public funds. She was arrested after staging a sit-in outside the local government office of Jujuy to reject the reorganization of subsidies to cooperatives, which were proposed by Governor Gerardo Morales, an ally of President Mauricio Macri’s political party, Cambiemos.

According to Sala’s attorney, Elizabeth Gomez, the legislator has been arrested four times over the past 10 years but has never been charged. Political and human rights activists say the detention is politically motivated and an example of the criminalization of protest.

Milagro Sala is jailed in the Alto Comedero prison in northern Argentina and human rights groups have named her the "first political prisoner" of the Macri administration. According to the Tupac Amaru association she leads, the iconic activists also stands accused of cover-up, attempted murder and kidnapping a baby.

Sala is an elected official in the parliament of Mercosur, a regional integration body including Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.