Camillo Frank Lopez yaringri@yahoo.es and some women met our bus out
of Rosita. This is a cooperative which
Andalucia helped finance. The local
people had corn, yucca, beans, and meat but needed a place to sell their food,
so they built this place. The growers
are distant, so they also needed a place to stay. They needed an office for the women –
Association of Sustainable Development for Women of Rosarita – ADESMIR –
Associones Desarroyo Sustainables de las Mujeres Indigenous Rosarita.
In 2011
an assembly of 120 women from 15 communities of Tuahka elected seven women to
run this facility – on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays food and crafts are sold
here. There is a little warehouse they
can use between market days. They have a
kitchen, built more recently. They need
financial help for maintenance and energy for lights. They are starting to put on activities here
and charging for admittance. But because
of lack of money, they are still scaling back.
Right now everyone is busy harvesting beans. They women have to bring men and children
with them, because they are here for three days at a time. Apparently the actual selling is done in the
central market and this place is used for storage and sorting or organizing.
We are
in Tuahka, which is different from other indigenous territories, because it
includes three peoples – Tuahka, Miskito, and Panamahka. Camillo is Panamahka – his hair is
straight. The Miskito have curly hair because
they have mixed with African descendents.
Of the
seven women who have offices here, three are Tuahka, two are Panamahka and two
are Miskitos. Because of this, it is
much more difficult to present themselves to other governments. There are three different languages. However, they do have bilingual
education. The Tuahka language is almost
extinct. Spanish and Panamahka are the
ones taught in bilingual education.
There
are 8 – 9000 Panamahka living in one territory around Bonanza. Territory #4 of Tuahka, Matumbak, is close to
Rosita and has Panamahka people as well.
This is not a big mining area – mostly people pan for gold. It is a subsistence living.
At the
rear of the main building are nine offices, “House of the Nation” representing
76 communities. Each territorial
government has an office here.
The
murals on the exterior walls we3re paint3ed by a Tuahkan – there are fruits
from palm trees similar to coconuts, corn, rice, pejiaye, weaving straw,
curtains, platinos, sugar cane, wate3rmelon, cacao, pineapple, cantaloupe, a
white faced capuchin monkey, etc.
Very
few traditional houses exist. Women
still sell the cockerel. The mountain
pig, sacunoche is the national flower, and the jaguar is the national animal.
There
is a little house where rice was thrashed, but it is no longer used because of
the offices that face it.
The elder gave an opening prayer
for the meeting and
Rebecca gave the opening greeting.
We are
multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and apolitical. The territorial governments were set up to
unite forces and create paths for a better quality of life for Tuahka, provide
spaces to participate and integrate.
Vision
– consolidated, transparent, inclusive, equal, founded on rights and
obligations, to act with respect, articulate our strengths in coming to
solutions to problems, contribute to develop economic growth with equality and
ensure participation in municipal and regional levels with social, economic,
environmental, and cultural sustainability, with self-governance and democracy.
Camillo
– thank you, delegation from Nicanet.
Paulette introduced us.
We are
to hear from four people –
1) Abel Dixon from Senecia, a
community leader
2) Iladio Poela, who lives in
Wasakin
3) Deebalukia Zalaya, from a
Mayangna community
4) An elder from Tuahka sector, who
would have brought some craft work
Iladio,
from Wasakin, hopes we can help with projects and development.
The
treasurer of Wasakin, Roberto Johnny (guy in black baseball cap and grey shirt)
talked about land rights and who has the land.
Maybe a conversation with us will help.
Ronalio
Fenley (purple shirt and cap) is hoping we were sent by God to help with these
terrible problems.
A guy
in green shirt – I couldn’t understand his name – Arena Loso – problems have
been left behind by abandoned mines – he is pleased that we came to talk with
the community leaders.
Maldos
Sanuel (black shirt, brown pants, no hat) is Tuahka but lives in Puerto Cabazas
– wants human rights for indigenous people.
Cristina
Correrra (Victoria Samanana?) Secretary of government of Suma Mayangna
represents the territory in demarcation said that as indigenous people we have
multiple problems, but land is at the root of all of them.
Merris
Sinile (blue shirt) treasurer of ?
Rebecca
Desse
Ortega, Secretary of ?
Charles
Women
in yellow
Herardo
Guiterez
Guy in
striped shirt and brown hat – We need help.
Guy in
orange shirt Mr. Orgego Moniz
Camillo
Frank Lopez – First Vocal
Many
had other obligations and could not come today because they thought this
meeting would be tomorrow. What is our
objective?
Charley
– our history is the same as yours, as indigenous people, just different
places. Your conditions and problems are
similar but different than those in the U.S.
For years I have worked with Moskitia on the Atlantic Coast. Today I chair AfGJ with Nicanet as a working
group within it. Nicanet has a very long
history and roots in Nicaragua. Kathy
has 40 – 50 years of experience here. We
are here to gather facts regarding demarcation, not to promote our own agenda. We can give others these facts. If you have a question to deliver or what you
want usto do, tell us – we are not here to interfere with your conflicts and
processes, and not to cause conflicts.
If we can get people together, that may help. I am honored to be here, and thank you.
Other
speaker – the main issue is the saneamiento – the delegation can help by giving
analysis and feedback.
We must
talk about indigenous people and the environment at the same time, like we are
one. The Tuahka are not inside the
BOSAWAS but we need to see that we are a wall to protect the BOSAWAS. In there are more than 200 species of
animals, 200 species of plants, and 200,000 species of insects (?). Thirteen percent of known tropical species
live there.
Principal
problems:
Agricultural frontier is
advancing
None of
the national or regional governments take into account indigenous land
regarding their policies – this adds to the dynamic of people coming in – they
can procure goods cheaply this way. He
showed us a picture from the buffer zone – deforestation in Tuahka territory.
* Big cattle herds are not their
tradition, at least not as large as the campesinos have, but these cattle are
invading the indigenous lands. The
cattle destroy the soil – they have a huge environmental impact. Sometimes this forces indigenous people to
move into the cities.
The
campesinos are planting huge areas with grass and selling the cattle to the
Pacific side of Nicaragua.
The
change in the use of the soil is ruining it.
Sometimes they trade with indigenous peoples – land for cattle, for
instance.
* Illegal logging There are over 2000
loggers taking precious woods, some illegal, but some the state gives them
permission. $10 – 20 Million USD / year
is taken. The Nicaragua Central Bank
estimates $118 million, or 2.5% of the Gross National Product. Annually, 70,000 ha is clearcut, 42,000 ha
are in reserved areas.
* Mixed marriages are the 3rd
threat, indigenous with Mestizos. This
contributes to changing the culture and divides the land further.
Saneamiento
Territory Objectives:
1) Count how many Mestizos have
come in, who are they
2) Devine a plan, a process, and
include both sides in discussion (?)
3) Build capacity and train people
to accomplish the plan
We need
resources to implement the plan now that the Nicaragua government has
accomplished the first four of the five stages.
In the meantime, the agricultural frontier has greatly advanced since
the completion of stage four.
The
colonizers are coming in from all over Nicaragua, into all of our indigenous
territories. And they are not just
moving in, but there have been deaths
Two youth in Wasakin were killed.
Recently there was an encounter with guns in Matumbak. We go
to the government, but in order to stop the violence we must clear all of the
settlers. The government says they
don’t have the budget for that, but we don’t either.
Cristina is part of the CDT (Demarcation
and Titling) in Bilwi, and above her they say they have no budget to move out
the settlers. We have tried as a
Territorial Government to stop the advance of the colonizers. We produce documents showing that more than
500 families have come onto our territory but we know it’s more than 2000 or
3000 people just in Tuahka. We want to
do the saneamiento ourselves but we don’t have the funds. On 22 January we presented our plan. The main focus is mother earth. We always dreamed that an international
organization would help us. She
summarized the five stages and said that the first four are finished for 22
territories in the RAAN and RAAS, 12 are in RAAN, one of which is Tuahka. We have our community title. We must resolve conflicts with the invading
colonizers.
The
Constitution of 1987 stated that those who got land before 1987 could expand
their lands as their population grows.
There was discussion of the Harris-? Treaty and talked about indigenous
communities that don’t have a treaty title who have lived there for
generations, ad should be able to stay and be part of an expanded title. She read from Law 445.
Then
she talked about complimentary lands – We have many families in Tuahka – we may
need to include more spaces into Tuahka because we have used these lands for
generations. When they did the
diagnostic study, they did not include areas traditionally used by our
people. When the government decided to
do the saneamiento, they didn’t exactly specify how.
We need
to prepare our own study and make a map – what is vacant, that people are
moving into, which should be part of OUR land title. I as a leader in my family and community say
the government must do as the Law 445 says and give us our land – that is their
obligation. (She spoke passionately for
a long time, which was not all translated).
The goal is the saneamiento and there are no funds – we are losing our
forest and sacred areas. We could get
money from our natural resources. We
need a massive saneamiento. In the
meantime we continue to lose territory – we need our land and the complimentary
land. We need a study and to submit
it.
Some
communities have advanced towards the saneamiento – so some parts of Matumbak,
Sauni As, etc have studied what colonizers have moved in – there was a University
grant that funded the study. Our leaders
are looking for solutions – National government listens, but RAAN and the
regional governments don’t.
We
moved to the outside area for lunch.
Can you
link us with funding to study how to carry out the saneamiento? We have other needs as well – we indigenous
have always been marginalized by nation states.
Health care – we would like to meet the
needs of our communities. Wasakin has a
health center with a nurse but no medicine.
In Fruta de Pan Community there is a small hospital with nine beds, one
nurse, and no medicine. It serves five
communities of both indigenous and non-indigenous peoples. In Bartaῆa is one health center, but no nurse
and no medicine. Maybe you can contact
others who can help with our health care here.
The
National government of Unity and Reconciliation has plans for pensions for seniors, but we don’t have
that for indigenous here. Our Tuahka
community would like to establish a sister city or organization who could help
us.
Education – In Rosita municipality in 16
indigenous communities is a bilingual intercultural education program. It has been abandoned, but with the support
of NGOs we’ve been able to work.
Unemployment makes it hard for the children to even have a backpack and
other things needed to improve education.
We need to link to an organization to fund indigenous for bilingual
intercultural education.
Guy in purple – Wasakin has more than 47,000
ha and more than 520 families have come in spite of three legal documents: Harrison-Altimont, the Treaty of 1905, and
the 1987 Agricultural Reform Title, and Law 445. Having these documents, how does this happen? Can you take our concerns to another
level? Wasakin has 2500 inhabitants and
are confronting the problems of no nurse, no doctor, and no medicine. But that population needs health care – we
want to explain to an international public.
Education – we have a primary school in
Wasakin but high school we have only on Saturday. We as parents nheed our children to get a
good, formal regular school day, not just a weekend class. We don’t have textbooks. That’s a serious problem. We want to get this information to the
central government or another organization who could help us.
The
Mestizos are in a different situation – they have good classes, in
Spanish. We need you to get this
information out about our case.
Guy in stiped shirt – I am from Kukalaya and we
have land problems, particularly a Brazilian company. We are free and have rights to our land. The prosecutor is coming here to learn. Mapinixa – Daniel Petricio? Lumber Company built a 28 km road, destroying
forest – they have the OK of SERENA – they are moving people out and burning
their crops – this is a place that would be Tuahka complimentary land. It is similar to the Okasa situation that was
resolved in Matagalpa. They are going to
Bilwi tomorrow – they would have gone today, except that we came.
Susan – when was the health ministry
last here? A: We sent to them with this
problem. We have a nurse, but she cannot
work without a salary. We have notice
that health care has advanced in other parts of Nicaragua.
Kathy - What should we do with this information? Visit ministries in Managua? A: Health and education ministries, yes. There is supposedly a guy in the health
ministry in the hospital in the city (did he mean Bilwi?) but he hasn’t been
paid for well over a year. Tell Managua
– we have trained professionals and they need a salary.
Charley – we could do this by email to connect
people as well. A: We can send you formal letters for the ministries. They are all prepared.
Can we
get together with you in Managua? Sunday
morning we are going to Managua. Monday
we hope to visit the ministries. (It
turned out that they didn’t travel to Managua until Monday or later, so we did
not see them).
We are
in touch with the President of the Republic and we have proof on this camera of the invaders. We’re taking it to Managua.
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