By John McPhaul
The Nicaraguan Miskitu Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, 72, was arbitrarily detained on September 29, 2023, and has not been heard from since. Rivera has been a thorn in the side of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega since the 1980s when he led YATAMA guerrillas against the Sandinistas in an effort to protect their Atlantic zone land.
Currently, Ortega has created a dictatorship where a mere 15 percent of Nicaraguans approve of his rule. Arbitrary detentions are common, Non-governmental organizations have been shut down, and dissenting Nicaraguans living in exile have been threatened from afar. A UN panel has called the situation "tantamount to crimes against humanity." Ortega rejected the criticism, calling it motivated by "Imperialistic powers." Meanwhile, Rivera's family hears rumors that he is ill or dead, but no one knows for sure.
Rivera's daughter Tininiska, 34, lives in exile, where she talks about her father. "He has always been defending our territories, the self-determination for the development of our people in the Autonomous regions of Nicaragua." She said it's for that reason she lives in exile. "We denounce what is happening in our territories: the violation of human rights, the arbitrary detentions, deaths, violence toward our women and children and the invasion of our territories by colonists and paramilitaries of the current government, the sacking of our natural resources, the fishing sector and the mining activity in our territories already titled to us as communal property under Law 28 and 445 recognized, as our rights under the political Constitution in Nicaragua."
She continues, "It wasn't in my plans to leave the country but as a consequence of my father's detention I was fired and they didn't give me medical attention in the provisional clinic in Bilwi. They blocked my personal bank accounts and I found myself obliged to leave the country two days before the police came where I was living. After the detention of my father, I fell into sadness, anxiety, and a lot of concern for my father and for his physical and mental health. I had to look for organizations on subjects of human rights seeking support and telling them that my father was arbitrarily disappeared. We now have 14 months without knowing about him and without knowing if he is well or not. We continue to wait for an answer from the government and my father's freedom."
In recent months, Tininiska has traveled twice to Geneva, the last time on December 9, to give testimony to the UN Human Rights Council. She also met with officials from the United States Embassy with officials and also met with representatives of Amnesty International, which put out a report on Nicaragua, including Brooklyn Rivera and his family on December 16. Amnesty International declared Brooklyn Rivera a prisoner of conscience. She said Tininiska's family in Nicaragua has been afraid to go to the authorities to ask about Brooklyn. Tininiska had an opportunity to visit with her family during an August meeting of Indigenous Peoples in Port Arthur, Texas.
Anexa Alfred Cunningham (Miskitu), 45, is a member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She is a Nicaraguan woman who works with the United Nations to compile reports on human rights violations in the northern Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, which she calls home. Cunningham holds a law degree from the Jesuita Universidad Centroamericano and a master's degree in Indigenous Studies from the University of Arizona. Cunningham, who lives in exile in Geneva, Switzerland, collects information on the depravities of the Ortega Murillo dictatorship in the Miskitia.
She was recently turned away in her recent attempt to return to Nicaragua to continue her work. "When I took my flight back to Nicaragua, the airline informed me that the government had not authorized my entry," Alfred told the Voice of America. The first feeling you have is like when a tree is uprooted from the ground. That connection you have with your country, with your land, with the communities."
--John McPhaul is a Costa Rican-American writer.
