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Nicaragua - Although the U.S.-funded Contra War has been finished for over ten years, for the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast region another kind of war is taking place: traditional indigenous lands are being overtaken by outsiders, both settlers from western Nicaragua and foreign logging and mining companies. While this is not a war in the usual sense -- no armies clashing on a battlefield, no bombs falling from above -- the end result for the defeated is quite similar. Land and resources are lost to outsiders; lives and traditions are disrupted; opportunities for survival are diminished.

The current invasion of lands belonging to the Miskito, Sumo, and Rama peoples is taking place mainly along Nicaragua's agricultural frontier, an active deforestation front that extends from the Honduran to the Costa Rican border and is moving ever closer to the Caribbean Sea. This agricultural frontier is nothing new -- throughout the Somoza years of the last century, farmers from western Nicaragua were displaced from their lands by expanding cattle ranches and coffee, sugar, and cotton plantations, (thanks largely to funding by USAID, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank), and were forced to migrate eastward into virgin rainforest. What is significant about the latest surge of the frontier is that the area of remaining forested lands has been reduced to such an extent that conflicts between natives and newly arriving settlers are all but inevitable. According to the Rama Indians of southeastern Nicaragua, for example, approximately half of their land has been lost since 1990. Among the areas where the land invasion and deforestation are most severe are the largest of Nicaragua's (supposedly) protected natural areas, including the BOSAWAS and Indio-Maiz Biological Reserves and the Cerro Silva Forest Reserve. Together these reserves are intended to protect some of the largest remaining expanses of rainforest in Central America, home to animals such as jaguar, puma, scarlet and green macaws, harpy eagles, and howler monkeys, and tropical hardwood trees such as mahogany, royal cedar, and rosewood.

The grim but realistic alarm has been sounded that, if the deforestation continues at its present rate, Nicaragua's remaining rainforests will be all but gone within the next ten to fifteen years.

What is driving this invasion, and why isn't it being stopped?

Many of the settlers along the agricultural frontier are former soldiers who remained landless after the Contra War. Yet the dynamic of the agricultural frontier is not simply a matter of needy peasants looking for a place to live. There is also a clear profit motive at stake as a "land mafia" is getting rich by selling off someone else's lands to newly arrived settlers. In the regions where the frontier is most active, high-powered land speculators with ties in local (and likely national) government are sending teams of men into the forests armed with chainsaws, machetes, and rifles. Once in the forest these men go to work "squaring off the land", clearing and marking grids of boundaries that enclose parcels of land typically measuring 50 acres or more. Meanwhile in places like Chontales and Nueva Guinea, where much of the land has already been deforested and degraded by cattle ranching, word is spread around that off to the east cheap land is available, with good timber, good soil, plenty of rainfall, and abundant fish and game for the taking.

So goes the land invasion in areas such as southeastern Nicaragua's Rio Punta Gorda region. Ambitious settler families arrive by the dozens to clear in a matter of weeks the forests that indigenous peoples have inhabited for centuries. Whereas previously the forests were exploited only very lightly, for subsistence hunting and occasionally felling a large tree from which to carve a canoe, now the forests are seen as an obstacle to intensive farming and ranching, and are destroyed as quickly as possible.

Other factors are also at work. Many indigenous communities never regained stability after the Contra War, especially those that were also affected by disasters such as Hurricane Joan or Hurricane Mitch. This has often left their traditional lands undefended and up for grabs by the land-hungry. Another factor is that despite the complaints of natives, the regional and central governments have done almost nothing to discourage the invasions. There is certainly some truth to government claims that there are few resources available for placing law enforcement officers in remote regions. Nicaragua spends so much money on servicing its external debt that apparently little remains for non-essentials like maintaining law and order.

Yet this excuse wears thin when one sees that the Nicaraguan police and legal system can quickly spring into action when the land rights in question are not those of impoverished natives but wealthy foreigners. With the active participation of the local police and judge, a wealthy Texan named John Vogel has laid claim to indigenous land at Monkey Point on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast (site of the proposed Dry Canal). Farther north in the remote Prinzapolka region a Nicaraguan judge has defended the claim of a U.S. citizen named Edward Merrick to nearly 80,000 acres of indigenous land.

The impacts of land invasion along the agricultural frontier are only compounded by the presence of large foreign mining and logging companies in eastern Nicaragua's forests. A new law allows mining companies to bypass the nation's forestry regulations and cut timber as they see fit - an action that jeopardizes tens of thousands of acres of forest. Foreign logging companies such as the Dominican company, MADENSA, and the Korean/Nicaraguan company, PRADA (formerly SOLCARSA), continue to pillage Nicaragua's rainforest and indigenous lands with minimal government intervention.

        All of the above actions, the invasion and theft of indigenous lands and exploitation of their resources, are in violation of the Nicaraguan constitution and the 1987 Autonomy Law. The Autonomy Law recognizes that the inhabitants of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast are entitled, among other things, "To promote and develop their languages, religions, and cultures", and, "To use and benefit from their waters, forests, and communal lands, in accordance with national development plans." The law further states that, "The rational exploitation of the mining, forestry, and fishing resources as well as other natural resources in the Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast, must benefit their inhabitants in just proportions..." This legislation stands as amongst the most progressive ever passed on behalf of indigenous peoples, and if enforced, would radically change the historical pattern of development on Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast.

        Unfortunately the Autonomy Law with its great potential to spur progressive change has been undermined by the neoliberal Chamorro and Aleman governments. A prerequisite for the Autonomy Law to truly become effective is the official demarcation and titling of the Atlantic Coast's indigenous lands. The issue of indigenous lands demarcation has been met with much resistance, avoidance, and procrastination by the central government. The lack of clearly defined indigenous territories has made it easier for these governments to allow the land invasion (a political safety valve) and resource extraction (a source of foreign capital) to occur. Currently a negotiation process is underway regarding a proposed "Demarcation Law". The negotiation is a struggle between Nicaragua's central government, which does not want to relinquish control over the nation's richest remaining natural resources, and Nicaragua's indigenous peoples, whose cultural integrity and survival are at stake.

Please take a few minutes to defend one of the most important gains of the Sandinista Revolution - indigenous rights. Letters are needed to pressure the Nicaraguan government to respect its own Constitution, the 1987 Atlantic Coast Autonomy Act, and international treaties that recognize indigenous land rights. This is the first in a series of alerts that will address indigenous rights and environmental issues in upcoming months.

Please take the time to write a letter to Nicaraguan President Aleman on behalf of Nicaragua's indigenous peoples and remaining rainforests. A sample letter is provided below that can be copied or modified. The English text of the sample letter follows below. A Spanish version will be available to be copied from our website. URL: http://www.infoshop.org/nicanet

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*Sample Letter*

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President Arnoldo Aleman
Casa de la Presidencia
Avenida Bolivar
Managua, Nicaragua

Or you can send your letter by fax: 011-505-228-7911

Dear President Aleman,

I am writing in reference to the issue of indigenous land rights in Nicaragua. It has come to my attention that the indigenous peoples of Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast are being robbed of their traditional lands while your government is doing little to rectify the situation.

According to widespread reports in the Nicaraguan media and based on the reports of Nicaragua Network investigative delegations that have recently visited Nicaragua's Atlantic Coast, the region's indigenous lands are under siege. Led by shameless land speculators, thousands of settlers from the Pacific side of Nicaragua are invading the traditional lands of the Rama, Sumo, and Miskito Indians. Even in the nation's supposedly protected nature reserves such as the BOSAWAS, Indio-Maiz, and Cerro Silva reserves, this invasion is taking place with minimal intervention from Nicaraguan authorities.

Even more inexcusable than allowing the invasion of indigenous lands by other Nicaraguans is allowing the theft of indigenous lands and natural resources by foreign corporations and wealthy individuals. Companies such as MADENSA, PRADA, and Gulf King, and land-grabbing foreigners such as Edward Merrick and John Vogel must not be allowed to exploit the resources of indigenous land and sea territories with the support of the Nicaraguan government.

The results of this government-condoned invasion are that Nicaragua's rich tropical forests are being destroyed, while the nation's indigenous peoples - already among the poorest of the poor in a highly indebted poor country -- are being driven into worsening poverty and social tension. If your government continues to neglect this situation the inevitable outcome will be further military conflict and bloodshed due to escalating land conflicts.

Please do not allow this to take place. Please make a commitment to defend the rights of Nicaragua's indigenous peoples and to uphold the 1987 Atlantic Coast Autonomy Law, the Nicaraguan Constitution, and international accords such as the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

As someone who cares deeply about Nicaragua, indigenous rights, and environmental protection, I call on you to do the following:

- Take immediate steps to halt the invasion of indigenous lands. Work closely with indigenous community leaders to place law enforcement officers in areas where lands are being invaded. In places where this is not feasible, work with community leaders to train, empower, and equip community police forces. It is hypocritical to defend the land ownership of wealthy foreign individuals and corporations while the rights of the nation's oldest inhabitants go unprotected.

- Work closely with indigenous community leaders to initiate and support an ambitious program for the demarcation and titling of indigenous lands. Assemble teams of surveyors, anthropologists, and legal advisors to facilitate the demarcation and titling process. This program should strive to provide a safe and organized forum for the resolution of land ownership conflicts.

- Suspend existing resource extraction activities and grant no further resource extraction concessions on indigenous lands until the titling process is complete. This policy should extend to all logging and mining concessions as well as seafood harvest permits and any permits for transportation megaprojects such as the proposed Dry Canal.

The invasion of Nicaragua's indigenous lands is a human rights crisis of global significance that requires your immediate attention. For indigenous peoples the right to communal land ownership and resource use is a basic human right. Violation of this right amounts to a crime against humanity.

Sincerely,