Indigenous people in northeast Nicaragua say armed settlers are pushing them off their land

By GABRIELA SELSER
Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Indigenous communities of the Mayangna people in northeast Nicaragua are under growing pressure from armed attackers who use kidnappings and killings to move people off their land. A Mayangna leader, who requested anonymity because he fears reprisals from the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, said they suffer “a continuous colonization” from the land invaders. The attackers, referred to locally as “colonos,” occupy their land for commercial agriculture, including row crops and cattle, in addition to timber operations. The Mayangna, along with the Miskito, occupy Nicaragua’s northeast region along the Caribbean Sea, living primarily in the vast tropical forest of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve.