The Prilaka Community Foundation issued a “red alert” through a statement regarding what they called “a new attempt at illegal and violent occupation” by armed settlers in the Sangnilaya community, located in the Twi Yahbra territory, in Puerto Cabezas, North Caribbean.
The letter states that a commission of 48 community members, upon entering “tacotales” or lands they use for cultivation, confirmed the presence of armed settlers, who on seven occasions fired at them “with the aim of intimidating and frightening them” so that they will return to the community.
It is also explained that, despite the presence of the armed settlers, the community members decided to continue until they spoke with the invaders, demanding that they leave those lands, warning that they will return in a few weeks to plant first, that they are not afraid of their shots because They are their ancestral lands and they have no intention of provoking any confrontation.
The settlers argued to the community members that they were demanding their departure, that they were “caretakers” and that they would speak with the “owner of those lands,” which have an area of 3,500 blocks.
The organization recalled that the Sangnilaya community members “had not entered their cultivation areas” since September 2020, when armed settlers burned five ranches, kidnapped two people for eight hours and besieged community members who were harvesting rice in that season.
Laws guarantee possession of land
The community members of Sangnilaya highlighted that Law 28, “Statute of Autonomy of the Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua”, maintains in its article 36, paragraph 1, that “communal lands are inaccessible; They cannot be donated, sold, seized or taxed, and they are imprescriptible ”.
They also highlighted that, according to Law 28, as inhabitants they have “the right to work plots in communal property and to the usufruct of the goods generated by the work carried out.”
They mentioned that according to Law 445, “Law of the Communal Property Regime of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of the Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and the Bocay, Coco, Indio and Maíz Rivers”, only authorizes the “communal authorities traditional “to” grant authorizations for the use of communal lands of natural resources in favor of third parties, as long as they are expressly ordered to do so by the Communal Assembly. “
They denounce the abandonment of the State in the face of settler attacks
In this context, they reaffirmed their claim for the invasion of their lands and the urgency of state attention to their demands. The community members blame the Nicaraguan State, especially the Regional Government and the National Police, for “any regrettable event that occurs”, as they assure that they have “failed to fulfill their promises of sanitation, disarmament and eviction of the armed gangs.”
They also point out that they have not “proceeded to investigate the complaints that community members have made of illegal leases and sales endorsed by community authorities and the territorial authority.”
The inhabitants of Sangnilaya denounce that their rights continue to be violated and the “precarious living conditions, mainly food insecurity, as a consequence of the advance of the invasions continue to deepen”.
They also indicate that on January 6 they saw a truck full of “mestizos with the intention of passing to the other side of the river, to inaugurate a supposed evangelical chapel” on the lands of the Sangnilaya community, in the sector known as Klisan, which have been occupied with violence without the consent of the community since 2017.
The Miskitos of Sangnilaya invited the State of Nicaragua “to protect the community, to listen and duly respond to their cry for sanitation, in accordance with the rights of indigenous peoples enshrined in our Political Constitution.”
They highlighted that this rapprochement they had with the settlers is a “peaceful and courageous bet for the present and the future of their communal property rights, their forests, their culture, their livelihoods, their communities, and their families ”.
The Sangnilaya community, part of the SIPBAA community block, has resisted colonist invasions since 2009. On three occasions; in the years 2009, 2011, 2014, they have expelled from their lands settlers who tried to occupy them.
Since October 2016, as they have denounced, the territorial authority endorsed the entry of 50 families illegally, without the consent of the assemblies of the SIPBAA communities and since then they have focused on “demanding that the settlers evict the lands they have busy, in denouncing illegal sales and leases to the authorities and in trying to change their corrupt authorities ”.
