Nicaragua: Demand for Release of 8 Indigenous Park Rangers
Fundacion del Rio launches an ongoing campaign titled “Voices of the Forest: Justice and Freedom for the Indigenous Mayagna Park Rangers”.
HAVANA TIMES – The Nicaraguan environmental organization Fundacion del Rio (The River Foundation) launched a campaign for the “immediate release” of eight indigenous Mayagna park rangers in Nicaragua, who were criminalized and convicted by the Ortega regime for fabricated accusations of organized crime, among others.
In commemoration of World Ranger Day on July 31, Fundacion del Rio initiated the ongoing campaign titled “Voices of the Forest: Justice and Freedom for the Indigenous Mayagna Park Rangers.” They are demanding justice and the release of eight park rangers from the Mayagna Sauni As territory in the North Caribbean Region.
Invasion of Settlers and Indigenous Political Prisoners in Nicaragua
In January 2023, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Nicaragua accused a group of 24 people —identified by Fundación del Río as community park rangers— of invading indigenous territories and attacking their inhabitants in the northern Caribbean. The prosecutor accused them for the crimes of organized crime, usurpation of public or communal domain, and illegal exploitation of natural resources.
The president of Fundacion del Río, the denationalized Nicaraguan Amaru Ruiz, said that eight of those park rangers were sentenced to 25 years or life imprisonment by the Nicaraguan Justice, which he claimed responds to Ortega.
“The arrests and trials were marked by irregularities and fabricated accusations, demonstrating a clear manipulation of the judicial process and the criminalization by the Ortega regime of land defenders,” said Ruiz, who is also a defender of environmental rights and the rights of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of his country.
Ruiz noted that this criminalization is “a way to promote impunity due to the systematic attacks suffered by indigenous peoples in violation of their human rights” in Nicaragua.
The convicted park rangers were responsible for monitoring and reporting the invasion of “settlers” into indigenous territories, as well as the illegal sale and leasing of lands, corruption of authorities, and mining concessions that threaten their territories, according to Fundacion del Rio, which was outlawed by the Nicaraguan authorities and is now headquartered in San José, Costa Rica.
Mining Concessions to Chinese in Indigenous Territory
In the last two years, the Ortega government has granted 10 open-pit mining concessions to Chinese companies in the North Caribbean Region, where the Mayagnas reside.
Of these ten, four have been granted since this past April, totaling 47,820 hectares, of which 38,701 hectares have been ceded to the Chinese company Nicaragua Xinxin Linze Mining Group S.A., represented by businessman Edward Xiang Liu.
The Center for Justice and International Law (Cejil) has warned that the indigenous populations of Nicaragua are at risk of being exterminated due to the constant invasion of their territories.
A report by the Center for Justice and Human Rights of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua (Cejudhcan) noted that from 2010 until January 2021, approximately a thousand Miskito indigenous people were forcibly displaced to other communities, some bordering Honduras, as well as 46 cases of kidnapping, 4 disappearances, 49 injured people, 8 wounded in armed attacks, and 2 girls assaulted.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have condemned these crimes and have demanded justice from the State of Nicaragua.
The indigenous and African-descendant peoples in Nicaragua live in 304 communities established in 23 territories, mostly in the poorest and most isolated areas of the country, according to official data.
Originally published by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.