Photographs by Carlos Herrera. MANAGUA The town bell rang out at 3 a.m. on Friday, February 28, in Santa Clara, a Miskito community in the northern Caribbean region of Nicaragua. As people woke up, they knew a bell at that hour could only mean one thing: they were under attack. Settlers, known as “colonos,” who infringe
BRIEFING - THE OBSERVATORY, NICARAGUAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS (Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos - CENIDH), The Centre for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples (Centro de Asistencia Legal a Pueblos Indígenas - CALPI) and the Centre for Justice and Human Rights of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast (Centro por la Justicia y Derechos Humanos de la Costa Atlántica de Nicaragua - CEJUDHCAN)
Abstract:
As of January 2020, the land conflict and the pattern of systematic and widespread violence against those defending the rights of the Mayangna and Miskitu indigenous peoples has escalated at an alarming rate. This is due to the impunity of the perpetrators and executors of illegal land trafficking and the usurpation of natural resources and land in general, facilitated and permitted by state authorities in what appears to be a policy of covert internal colonisation by the State.