Rama Indigenous lawyer Becky McCrea denounced what she described as grave violations against Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on Nicaragua’s Caribbean Coast during the 25th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, held in New York.
While government spokespeople told the United Nations that there had been “progress” in intercultural health care and land titling, Indigenous leaders described a starkly different reality: settler incursions, killings, forced displacement, political persecution and the dismantling of autonomous governance.
McCrea said the Miskitu, Mayangna and Rama peoples are facing systematic violence in their titled territories, amid a climate of impunity and state neglect.
She also demanded proof that Miskitu leader Brooklyn Rivera is alive. Rivera has been forcibly disappeared since September 2023, when he was detained by the Sandinista government.
International organizations and human rights advocates say Caribbean autonomy has been weakened by political operators aligned with the ruling party, while communities continue to report land invasions, extractive abuses and the criminalization of community leaders.
The complaint was presented at United Nations headquarters in New York during the world’s leading international forum on Indigenous rights.
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