The rebellion of its own political operators is growing within the ranks of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN). The latest to rise up against Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo was Steadman Bassoon Müllerpresidential advisor for policies towards indigenous peoples.
The representative of the Nicaraguan regime denounced the complicity of the Police and the Army with the settler invaders accused of murders, forced disappearances, rape, robbery, harassment and expulsion of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the North and South Caribbean of the country.
In an unusual statement to local media in Bilwi, Fagot said that indigenous lands are “devastated” and some territories desertified” due to the increased arrival of settlers who, taking advantage of the support of national authorities, are destroying forests and the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve to cut down wood and expand their control in the area.
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The regime’s file accused the police and military of “condoning” the depredation of protected areas and, in addition, of knowing that these settlers are “armed to the teeth and with heavy weapons of war” which they use to intimidate or kill in order to appropriate indigenous territories.
The indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Nicaragua have been denouncing violence, the defenselessness of their communities, the invasion of settlers, extractivism, marginalization, poverty and the lack of action by the State for years. This time, a government official admits it at the height of the Sandinista arrests of their people for considering them “traitors.”
Fagot, years ago, claimed that the natives could confront the settlers on equal terms. However, with the change in his line of discourse he acknowledged that the invaders became uncontrollable “when they began to arm themselves to the teeth, we couldn’t anymore, there were too many heavy weapons.”
He also lamented the helplessness of the community members. “They live like pariahs,” said the president’s delegate.
«Nowadays, if you want to go a little further to bring firewood, you have to ask permission. They don’t have firewood, where is it? It’s in the possession of the settlers, they have to ask permission otherwise it won’t come in, they are armed to the teeth, how can you explain that they are armed to the teeth? The police and the army must know. If they don’t know, that’s too bad, because they don’t have cells, structures that inform them. But, for me, they know. It doesn’t mean that there is collusion, but at least there is consent, otherwise how can you explain that all these groups of settlers are armed to the teeth?» he explained.
He anticipates his dismissal
On August 17, 2024, in the midst of the consolidation of state institutions, Fagot was confirmed as Ortega’s advisor. Less than a month later, he made this accusation that he is aware could cost him his job or jail, according to the records of other Sandinistas.
“I don’t know if I’m going to lead the Ministry that I’m in charge of (he simulates quotation marks with his fingers), with all these complaints that I’m making, more than complaints, clarifications, because everyone already knows that there is deforestation, that there is buying and selling of land,” the former deputy stressed.
After years of serving the dictatorship, he hides behind the fact that he exposes this situation because he cannot remain silent.
«If it is not stopped urgently, quickly, violently, I hope not… I grew old watching blood being shed, what will happen to the indigenous people? They would have nothing to live on. Children, the elderly, Mayangnas, will not come to live in Puerto Cabezas, because it is not their habitat. This is an SOS so that the native peoples can continue living on the land. The Mayangnas and Miskitos will tend to disappear, we see this in Brazil, where they penetrate with fury and the ethnic groups do not resist 15 years. They have to go everywhere, because they have no water, no supermarket to buy meat, no food. The forest is their supermarket», he reproached.
The invaders from the Pacific and the State have found a mine on the Caribbean Coast, a place where, in collusion with the Army and the Police, it seems to be scorched earth to be handed over to the hands of feudal lords, but feudal lords who appropriate lands with bullets, violence, threats, harassment and expulsion. The United Nations Organization (UN), has even warned of a possible ethnocide in the area.
The Center for Legal Assistance to Indigenous Peoples estimates that in the last decade some 70 Miskito and Mayangna indigenous people from the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua have been killed by invading settlers.
