Don’t Cry For Me Nicaragua, Stand Up For Me

Central America’s agricultural powerhouse, Nicaragua, has long been marked by civil conflict. Tensions between Nicaragua’s Campesinos and Indigenous population deepen as guerilla mobilization ensues. The most recent outbreak occurred on January 30th, when a group of 80 armed assailants raided the Mayangna commune and murdered six of its Indigenous people while kidnapping ten. Situated in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve (Latin America’s second-largest rainforest), the Mayangna commune remains susceptible to violent attacks from non-indigenous settlers on the hunt for gold, timber, and fertile land.

Although the pressures presented by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (in 2001) have prompted Nicaragua to protect the land rights of Indigenous communities, illegal loggers continue to encroach on this autonomy. As such, many wonder what possible considerations ought to be revisited when the rule of law is violated so frequently.

Marta Hurtado, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights provides a deafening answer: federal liability. “We are very [much] concerned about repeated attacks against indigenous peoples in Nicaragua, the lack of protection of their rights and the impunity for crimes committed against them. Under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, indigenous peoples have a right to their lands, territories, and resources and may not be forcibly evicted.

The State has an obligation to ensure the protection of indigenous peoples and their lands, including from third parties,” she convenes. Other experts like Michelle Carrere have expressed the urgency for such action. In a report published for Mongabay in 2017 she construes that “[by] law, these lands cannot be sold, bought, or exchanged. But illegal transactions are carried continuously and without difficulty in the capitals of each municipality, where there are many notaries and law offices that carry out the procedures.” This concern has manifested repeatedly, with even the highest-ranking Mayangna leader stating that “[they’re] exterminating us little by little and the state is doing nothing.”

In effect, this consideration echoes progress and healing for a community ridden by violence. Potential and ongoing conflict must be eliminated through the reparation of systemic organs. In securing accountability and the prosecution of assailants when needed, political institutions strengthen and amplify their power. This political harmonization encourages effective law enforcement, which is readily what Nicaragua needs.

Perhaps the greatest question lies in how the Nicaraguan government can peacefully introduce federal liability when a harsh status quo threatens the very foundations it stands upon. Historically, the Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN), which emerged between 1961-1979, instigated the Nicaraguan revolution by opposing the Somoza dictatorship; which ruthlessly ruled the state. Strikingly, the wounds left from the Nicaraguan revolution reveal an extremely complicated and delicate relationship between the state, guerilla forces, and the Indigenous community. One dominated by ideology. While the FSLN advocated for the support of the Indigenous community toward their revolutionary cause, they perceived Native Nicaraguans as peasants, possessing minimal agency as persons.

Within the social movement, the very same Indigenous population they sympathized with were excluded by being discredited as a community. With guerilla forces annexing Indigenous land and livestock when desired, and landless farmers cutting trees belonging to Indigenous tribes just to survive, any disruption to the status quo can incidentally catalyze a secondary regime overthrow from the FSLN. To facilitate federal liability in political institutions the state must strip itself away from this ideological fear of further exacerbation in power balance and open itself up to intensive dialogue with its Indigenous population. It must voice and act upon its prosecution of land invasion, recognize the conditional realities of these Nicaraguans, and be prepared to push forward a conversation even if it is rejected.

And so, Nicaragua’s Indigenous people call out pleadingly, “Don’t cry for me Nicaragua, stand up for me.”

Silvia Saavedra
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