By John McPhaul
On October 19, 2022, the Constitutional Chamber of the Costa Rican Supreme Court rejected a request of unconstitutionality brought against Article 3 of the country's Indigenous Law that prohibits non-Indigenous people from acquiring or selling land inside any of the country’s 24 Indigenous Territories.
KOEF Grant Partner Spotlight
El Frente Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas reunió en febrero de 2021 en Costa Rica a su Coordinación nacional para analizar la realidad actual de sus comunidades y fortalecer la agenda propia de los pueblos que lo componen. Con apoyo del fondo Guardianes de la Tierra, en el territorio Indígena Térraba, se dieron cita 20 representantes de los pueblos Chorotega, Maleku, Bribri, Cabécar, Boruca, Bröran y Ngöbe.
By John McPhaul and Nati Garcia (Maya Mam/ CS Staff)
A Costa Rican online newspaper recently published leaked information of a report by investigators into the March 18, 2019 murder of Costa Rican Bribri Indigenous leader Sergio Rojas, showing that the authorities had identified four suspects in the murder as long ago as September 19, 2019.
Costa Rican Authorities Fail to Respond to Ongoing Violence
Jerhy Rivera Rivera (Brörán), un líder Indígena costarricense, fue asesinado en la noche del 24 de febrero de 2020, en la comunidad de Mano de Tigre, San Antonio, en el territorio Indígena de Térraba, Puntarenas. Esta fue la segunda muerte de un defensor Indígena en Costa Rica en menos de un año. Su muerte ocurrió dos semanas después de que el líder Bribri Mainor Ortiz Delgado sobrevivió a un disparo en el muslo derecho en la comunidad de Río Azul de Térraba.
El 9 de febrero de 2020, un intruso le disparó a Mainor Ortiz Delgado, un miembro del clan Indígena Bribri Tubolwak, en su granja el Río Azul de Salitre en el suroeste de Costa Rica.
With reporting by John McPhaul
Photo: Mainor Ortiz Delgado's home, damaged by in December 2018 by the family of the shooter. Courtesy of Forest Peoples Programme By John McPhaul
Mainor Ortiz Delgado, a member of the Indigenous Bribri Tubolwak clan, was shot in the leg by a trespasser on February 9, 2020, on his farm in Rio Azul de Salitre in southwestern Costa Rica. This act of is part of an ongoing wave of violence spurring from the Costa Rican government’s failure to implement Indigenous land rights and bring sanctions on non-Indigenous settlers on Indigenous land.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
