Since 24 February 2025, environmental human rights defenders Federico Soria and Mauricio Cornejo,  members of the Assembly of Self-convened Neighbours of Uspallata, a citizen movement organised to face the installation of the San Jorge Mining Project and its negative impact on the ecosystem and population of Uspallata, have been persecuted and criminalised due to their work in defending bodies of water in the region. The defenders are accused of being part of a group dedicated to ideological coercion through fear and terror, based on an article in the Criminal Code of Argentina, incorporated during the military dictatorship (1976-1983), which has never been applied in the Mendoza province before. These acts of persecution are occurring alongside the implementation of the San Jorge Mining Project in the area.

The accusations have come within the context of a conflict on 24 January this year, during a spontaneous citizen protest that occurred at the inauguration act of a Chamber of Mining Suppliers of Uspallata, between community members of Uspallata and businessmen in the Chamber. The incident ended with three protestors committing violent acts, who were then identified in flagrante and detained, and are currently in pre-trial release. While some members of the Assembly of Self-convened Neighbours of Uspallata spontaneously joined the protest, the citizens involved in the organisation of the act and in the violent incident are not members of the Assembly nor are they environmental activists.

A month later, the Prosecutor's Office of the province of Mendoza ordered the preventive detention of Federico and Mauricio. The defenders were unjustly linked to the trial involving the citizens arrested during the protest on 24 January, without any links to the violence that took place. The two defenders are the only ones facing pre-trial detention orders, despite not having committed any violent acts, being included in the process for being members of the environmental collective. Mauricio was detained in the Judicial Office, where he remained until 18 March and was subsequently placed under house arrest. During those 23 days in detention, he was denied access to medical treatment for a motorbike accident he suffered days before his arrest.