Cultural Survival mourns and condemns the death in Nicaraguan State custody of Brooklyn Rivera (Miskitu), a longtime Indigenous defender who spent more than 40 years defending Indigenous rights, territories, and autonomy in Nicaragua.
Rivera was arrested in September 2023, while serving as an elected deputy, and forcibly disappeared for nearly three years. According to press reports, on May 31, 2026, the government announced that Rivera had died from a bacterial infection after his health deteriorated following being sick with COVID-19. Rivera did not die from illness, as Reed Brody, a member of the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, expressed: “He died as a result of his enforced disappearance for more than two years, without contact with his family, without access to independent medical care, and without any accountability. The State had an obligation to protect his life and physical integrity. It failed to do so.”
The UN Group further noted that Rivera's death represents the most visible consequence of a broader pattern of human rights violations against Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples on Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast. In its 2024 report, the UN Group documented 124 cases of arbitrary detention of Indigenous and human rights defenders, and forest rangers between 2018 and 2024, as well as at least 46 killings of Indigenous people during the same period.
Nicaragua is not an isolated case. The violence against Indigenous defenders is well documented in Latin America, which is the most dangerous region in the world for defenders of the right to land and territory. In 2024, 82% of the 146 documented cases of murders of defenders took place in this region. That year, 33% of defenders killed were Indigenous. Between 2012 and 2024, of a total of 2,253 documented murders of defenders, 799 were Indigenous people, a disproportionately higher figure compared to other groups. In more than 95% of cases, the reason for the attacks on Indigenous defenders is the defense of their lands and territories and the right to a healthy environment.
Cultural Survival’s 2025 In Memoriam report honors 46 Indigenous defenders who were murdered in 2025 and documents the crisis of systemic violence against Indigenous defenders to silence them for confronting extractive projects that threaten to destroy life itself. Violence against Indigenous defenders has become an instrument used systematically by States, criminal groups, and companies to deter and punish Indigenous Peoples and communities who defend their rights and territories.fac
Human rights violations do not end with the murder of a defender, just like in Rivera's death. In this case, the Nicaraguan government also limited the participation of Rivera’s family and allies in his funeral and burial. On June 1, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) announced that it had received alarming reports that seven of Rivera's relatives had been detained for demanding the return of his body so that he could be laid to rest according to Miskitu customs. The UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua of the UN Human Rights Council has also reported nine people missing.
The UNWGEID has called on the government of Nicaragua to account for the fate of Rivera’s relatives, ensure their immediate release, and return Rivera's body to his family. Cultural Survival joins this call, as well as demands for an independent investigation and the immediate return of his remains so that he may be laid to rest in his community according to Miskitu tradition.
Cultural Survival has served as a platform for Rivera since 2016 and has reported on his detention and forced disappearance by the State of Nicaragua since 2023. We have called for his release since his arrest.
Rivera was a community defender for most of his life. He endured persecution, detention, exile, and forced disappearance on multiple occasions. He served three terms in Congress and was a founder of YATAMA (Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, or "Children of Mother Earth" in the Miskitu language), the largest Indigenous and Afro-descendant grassroots political movement on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast, founded in 1988.
Rivera dedicated his life to the defense of Indigenous Peoples in Nicaragua, their lands, and their right to self-determination. Cultural Survival honors his legacy and stands in solidarity with his family, the Miskitu Peoples, and all those demanding truth, justice, accountability, and respect for Indigenous rights in Nicaragua.
Under international law, Nicaragua has an obligation to conduct an independent investigation into the death of Rivera in State custody, ensure a transparent autopsy, immediately return his remains to his family, and hold those responsible accountable for his enforced disappearance and other related human rights violations. These obligations are binding under international human rights law.
