Apr 29, 2018 - Nicaragua is in Political Turmoil
President Ortega and his wife – who he made Vice President…what kind of yard-fowl political buffoonery is that? Then we get angry when Europeans refer to us as ‘Banana Republics’…. For the ideological Left has proven itself to be just as hostile to true Indigenous rights as the Ideological Right….’Left wing, Right wing – same anti-indigenous rights bird’….and that’s the damned truth!
“Daniel did a great thing to free us from Samoza, but today he is like a Chef who made a soup by putting in the wrong ingredients – and expected it to still taste good” (Nicaraguan government official who asked to remain anonymous).
In the opinion of someone in his own government:
“The FIRST mistake President Daniel Ortega made was to rewrite the constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua – to allow himself to run for an unprecedented third term in office…this made him look like another power hungry third world dictator…..but in his defence, it is possible he is just convinced that no-one else can see his vision for Nicaragua come to fruition better than him (lets be fair after all – because that is a genuine possibility)….however – the 2nd mistake is worse – because it cannot be justified or rationalised by ANY truly educated person…this was making his own wife the Vice-President….because that is absolute 100% proof of NEPOTISM !”
Without a doubt, the government of Nicaragua, like all governments, has done GOOD things for some people, and BAD things for other people, but no-one I have spoken to IN Nicaragua – thinks the Sandinistas will win the next election in 2020, furthermore they believe it will be DECADES before they win any national election in a free & fair plebiscite, most Nicaraguans right now are fed up with the regime that has overstayed its time, and the only honorable thing for President Ortega to do at this point is to resign and let fresh FREE AND FAIR elections be held.
We ALL know that new political leadership in Nicaragua is the best solution, no more old leaders with their old ideas, but change via the use of the same kinds of dirty tactics that power hungry politicians use to stay in power – does not give you any more legitimacy than the very people you are condemning…always better to take the moral high horse and usher in change based on honesty.
MORE NEUTRAL NEWS HERE ABOUT THE UNFOLDING POLITICAL CRISIS IN NICARAGUA:
AND HERE:
https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/269288-claves-crisis-nicaragua-reforma-seguro-social
INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ALSO EXPRESSES CONCERN:
HOWEVER YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE BIGGER PRE-EXISTING AND ALSO DRAMATICALLY UNFOLDING INDIGENOUS NICARAGUAN STORY AS IT COULD THROW NICARAGUA BACK INTO CIVIL WAR!
Another more important (to me) story is being overshadowed by the unfolding political drama in Managua, and it is the CONTINUING DEADLY LAND GRABBING BY RICH AGRO-BUSINESS NON-INDIGENOUS NICARAGUANS….for years they have been illegally encroaching on Miskito Tribal lands in North East Nicaragua WHILE THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING TO STOP THEM, AND SEEMS TO PROTECT THEM INSTEAD (an area called the Çaribbean North’)…these wealthy farmers have been kidnapping and murdering indigenous leaders for YEARS, and because by law non-indigenous persons CANNOT own indigenous lands, they have began a kind of ethnic co-option by marrying poor native girls just to get them pregnant with the children of non-indigenous men, so that the children then have legal rights to get indigenous lands in the East.
THE MIKITO TRIBAL NATION HAS HAD TO CREATE ITS OWN PARAMILITARY FORCES TO DEFEND ITSELF ONCE AGAIN FROM AVARICIOUS OUTSIDERS WHO BEGAN MURDERING THEM, AND IT IS THEIR RIGHT UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW TO DO THIS.
TO QUOTE MISKITO TRIBAL LEADER BROOKLYN RIVERA:
“La Moskitia, located on the Caribbean cost of the Central American country of Nicaragua, is the traditional territory of the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, and Rama indigenous people, and also of afro-descendent communities (Garífuna and Creole). Together they, along with the mestizo national majority population, live in peace and harmony with nature and the elements of the region.
During the second term of the Sandinista government, which took place in 2007, and almost parallel to the process of demarcation and titling of indigenous peoples and afro-descendant’s territories, the emergence of groups of pillagers of natural resources began. They began by first extracting and stockpiling precious timber, especially mahogany and cedar of indigenous territories. Subsequently, these groups involved wealthy settlers (invaders and traffickers of indigenous lands) from the rest of the country for logging to extract all precious woods from indigenous areas of the region. Over time, the presence and activity of the settlers became overwhelming. These settlers came from all areas of the national territory, invading ancestral lands, pillaging community property, and preying on the habitats of indigenous peoples throughout La Moskitia.
With the clearing of the forests, the groups of invading settlers funded by ranchers and national landowners, have become dedicated to the usurpation of large expanses of indigenous lands by planting grasses, fencing pastures, and introducing large amounts of cattle. Meanwhile, the landowners are accumulating large expanses of indigenous land for the purpose of driving megaprojects and investments in the future. Parallel to the increased livestock activity, other groups of settlers sponsored by the mining company, HEMCO, with an office in the region, has become dedicated to the extraction activity of alluvial gold from rivers and other indigenous areas. Clearly, these extractive activities are executed and have a direct detriment to the rights, and the very existence of, indigenous peoples.
However, although in Nicaragua communal ownership is recognized in the Constitution – along with other types of properties at the same level, respect, and opportunity, of the others – in practice, this recognition does not cover the legal certainty in the country in terms of assets of indigenous peoples and afro-descendants. Indeed, the invasion and usurpation of ancestral lands, plunder of communal property, and environmental depredation of the settlers occur in plain sight and passivity of the government and its institutions. In this manner, there is a clear government complicity with the illegal activity of the settlers and their sponsors to our indigenous communities.
It is evident that the groups of settlers have taken action counting on certain political and material support from government institutions and of their parties in the region, whom provide recognition and infrastructure support for their activities and settlements. Similarly, it has been known that officials and activists of the regional governments, along with ruling party members in the region, are involved in the illegal sale of indigenous lands. In addition, groups of settlers have weapons of war and mobilize and carry out armed attacks against communities with impunity, and even with prior knowledge of the national forces of order and defense located in the region. Therefore, for indigenous communities, armed settler groups led by former military are, and act as, paramilitary forces against them.
It follows, that the invasion and occupation of the settlers carry a complete policy of internal colonialism by means of an aggressive process of border advancement of population and agricultural. At the same time, there is also evidence of a colonization of the territories of the indigenous and afro-descendants, involving a policy of fading out cultures and communities themselves. By imposing a so-called ‘cohabitation of communities’ with the groups of settlers, the Government and their parties promote the legitimacy and legal recognition of these invaders, and eventually the ethnocide of indigenous peoples.
Faced with this stark reality of aggression and threat to the very existence and historical memory of our indigenous peoples, the struggle remains the same today as it has always been for the survival and dignity of indigenous peoples through the defense of their ancestral territories, whose existence pre-dates Nicaragua as a Republic. This is the resistance to the advancing government plan of colonization, which serves as a launch pad for the invading settlers, sponsored by the wealthy, with their megaprojects, under its extractive model of the communal property and the usurpation of ancestral lands. The challenge is our survival as a people and we cannot fail in the struggle. So be it.”
by Damon Corrie