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By Laura Hobson Herlihy 

Indigenous Peoples’ rights advocate Brooklyn Rivera (Miskitu), the guiding force of the Nicaraguan Miskitu Peoples for more than 40 years, was arbitrarily and illegally detained at his home in Bilwi-Puerto Cabezas early on September 29, 2023, just five days after his 71st birthday. Ortega’s Sandinista police forces, sent from Managua, illegally seized his property. 

By Laura Hobson Herlihy and Brett Spencer


The year 2020 has not begun favorably for the Indigenous Peoples on the Nicaraguan Caribbean coast. Amidst the impending coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, settler colonists (called colonos) violently attack Indigenous people and invade their rainforest lands. Ten Miskitu and Mayangna leaders and land defenders have been killed since early January.
 

En medio de un denso hermetismo se logra apenas saber de manera extraoficial que un grupo armado de aproximadamente 80 personas al que identifican como “el grupo armado Kukalón” irrumpió la tranquilidad de la comunidad Alal, Indígena Mayangna, en Bonanza, a 400 kilómetros al noreste de la ciudad capital, Managua.
 

According to early reports, an armed group of approximately 80 people who identify as “the Kukalón Armed Group” recently disturbed the peace of an Indigenous Mayangna village of Alal, Bonanza, 400 kilometers northeast of Managua, Nicaragua. On January 28, 2020, the group massacred 6 Indigenous Mayangnas, another 10 are reported missing, and several houses were burned. Five of the victims have been identified: Tránsito Mesa, Víctor Díaz, Juan Emilio Devis, Carlos Martín, and Miguel Dixon.
 

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