A settler was murdered on Monday afternoon, April 10, in the forests of the Sangnilaya community, Twi Yahbra territory, Puerto Cabezas municipality, the organization reported. Prilaka Community Foundationthrough its official page on the Facebook platform.
The information details that the victim, identified by the nickname of «cuajipal», and who had illegally seized community land, was attacked by a gang of settlers while bathing with his wife in the Dahpat River, a branch of the Lakus River.
“Cuajipal was taken to the Sangnilaya community in a very serious condition, where he died at around 4:30 in the afternoon,” added Prilaka. Another source revealed on condition of anonymity to Article 66, that the murdered settler was a leader of an armed band in the area, “and that he had been for several years imposing terror and occupying land by force.”
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The organization indicated that after this fact, the innumerable complaints about the presence of armed bands in indigenous communities have been confirmed.
He asserted that at least five armed groups operate in the forests of the communities; “One that was led by Cuajipal (RIP), another led by Barbón, another led by El Coto, another led by Delvin and another led by Mechudo. The names of these people are not known in the communities”, he explained.
Another of the situations that the Prilaka Community Foundation pointed out is the high physical and collective insecurity of the community members in their work areas, “which puts the cultivation preparation activities for the first crop of this year 2023 at risk.”
Faced with these crimes against indigenous people and now among the settlers themselves, the organization demanded “the urgent need” to move forward with the process of clearing up the territory, prosecuting all the armed bands and the traffickers of land from the communities, “whether they be settlers or indigenous, as well as creating conditions so that there are no more invasions”.
Rejection of the policy of cohabitation with settlers
On the other hand, the SIPBAA communities rejected the policy of cohabitation with settlers who, according to complaints, have used force and illegal practices to appropriate their lands.
Among the reasons given by the communities for not cohabiting with settlers is that the culture of the communities and the culture of the settlers are different.
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«For the communities the land is collective, for the settlers the land is private. For the settlers, the forests must be converted into pastures, for the communities, the forests must be conserved because they have environmental, social, and spiritual functions, and they serve to generate income when there is wood with a diameter of cut.”
They also stated that the settler puts up a fence and prohibits entry to the pastures, which for the communities is arbitrary because they affirm that they need the right to free movement in their standing forests to harvest medicinal plants, hunt, fish, collect honey, among other important activities.
«Putting two very different cultures to coexist is not only promoting the cultural colonization of the communities, but also legalizing and legitimizing extensive violations of the rights of the communities and of Mother Earth. Peaceful coexistence is the contemporary way of promoting cultural colonization that wiped out the indigenous peoples of the Pacific, central, and northern parts of the country,” they stressed.
The indigenous communities, according to Prilaka, have been defending their lands by peaceful methods for 13 years, however, they affirm that the Government of Nicaragua is required to assume the defense of the rule of law of which they are part, “leaving behind impunity and advancing with the sanitation of indigenous territories, so that there is no more violence, so that those who are in conflict do not take justice into their own hands.”
Finally, they highlighted that they have been visiting the offices of CONADETI, the Regional Government and the Police at the service of the Daniel Ortega regime for 13 years, “and it has been 13 years of waiting for politicians to fulfill their promises to clean up and solve the problem of ownership of the SIPBAA communities”.
