The history of Native Nicaragua
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The history in general of Native
Central America
Political action after 1997
affecting Native Americans in Nicaragua
- Land Grab In Nicaragua (The Battle for
Miskitia, Pt. 1)
- By Bill Weinberg, Toward Freedom,
June 1998. In the 1980s, the Indians of the
rainforest and coastal plains (Miskitia), took up arms
against Managua to secure their autonomy. Today, they
find control of their lands threatened again, as the
constitution is eroded by bureaucracy, corruption, and
austerity.
- The Battle for Miskitia Part Two:
Nicaragua's new autonomy struggle centers on biodiversity
- By Bill Weinberg, Toward Freedom,
August 1998. Since Miskitia was granted autonomy in 1987,
the Sandinista government attempted to
nationalize
Indian lands; now President Arnoldo Aleman of the Liberal
Constitutionalist Party (PLC) wants to privatize
them. Intensely politicized by their past, the Indians
are again defending their territorial rights.
- Nicaragua is Sued before the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights
- Press Release, Indigenous Mayagna Community of Awas Tingni,
North Atlantic Autonomous Region, Nicaragua, 13 July
1998. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of
the Organization of American States has filed a complaint
against the government of Nicaragua, charging it with
violating the traditional land rights of the Mayagna
indigenous community of Awas Tingni.
- Indians' heritage gets a legal stamp:
Nicaragua's Mayagna Indians gain legal title to their
ancestral lands and set a precedent for region
- By Catherine Elton, The Christian
Science Monitor, 4 December 2001. The swath of
jungle on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast, where the Mayagna
Indians of Awas Tingni live, is under attack by timber
companies with government licenses to cut trees or to
drive out homesteaders.
- Indigenous People of Telpaneca Rebel
- Nicaragua Network Hotline,
24 June 2002. More than 10,000 peasant farmers and workers,
who belong to the indigenous people of the northern
municipality of Telpaneca, declared themselves prepared
to take direct action to reclaim territory ceded to the
liquidators of Interbank.
- New Miskito nation announced!
- Nicaragua Network Hotline,
29 July 2002. To exercise its right to self determination,
the indigenous Council of Elders announced in Bilwi that
it is creating an independent nation, to be called the
Communitarian Nation of Moskitia, which will come into
existence in February of 2003.