Las Salinas Update - February 2009

International Solidarity and Accompaniment.

Since mid November last year, two young Europeans have been spending time with members of the community, listening to their stories and experiences of the conflict and offering international accompaniment and solidarity to support their campaign to protect their land. This has taken many forms, including direct accompaniment at meetings with local officials, and helping to build more pressure on local authorities to step up and protect their citizens at their time of need. Most recently, they have been camping with the community on the land and bringing other international visitors to talk to the locals about the situation. In this way, they hope to inform more people from the outside about what is going on by encouraging friendships and relationships between them and the people on the ground there. Below is an account written by Karen Jeffares, an Irish citizen involved in this project, who has just returned from another week at the camp.

I first met members of the community at a demonstration for indigenous rights in Rivas last September. After the demonstration, myself and a friend were invited to Veracruz to share food, talk and dance with people from indigenous communities situated all along the Pacific coast and beyond. The hospitality shown to us by the people there was touching, and their openness and willingness to talk about their lives, traditions and customs made the day all the more memorable. Talk with people from Las Salinas de Nahualapa inevitably turned to the conflict with La Flor de Mayo and the people we spoke to expressed genuine concern for their safety in the wake of the shooting incident at the end of August and the inadequate responses from local authorities in dealing with it. At this point, Philip Christopher had still not returned from the US, and the community was no longer camped out on their land. Nevertheless, they were continuing with their campaign and remained determined to see it through.

In October I heard community representatives speak at the Casa Ben Linder in Managua (a venue that hosts speakers and discussions about a variety of issues affecting people throughout Latin America). They outlined the situation and their campaign to date, and re-iterated their desire to build more international solidarity and international pressure in supporting their case. To this end, they invited internationals at the Casa Ben Linder to accompany them at a court appearance in Rivas at the end of October. Myself, a lawyer from the United States, and a young woman from Barcelona, Spain (Marta Piqueras) journeyed down to attend. The proceedings did not take place as Philip Christopher was still out of the country, but we had the opportunity to speak in person with those he threatened at gunpoint at the end of August. Their account was shocking, as was the lack of response from local authorities whom it seemed, were unable or unwilling to protect these Nicaraguan citizens from the threats and intimidation of La Flor de Mayo and its representatives. That same afternoon we traveled out to Las Salinas and spoke with a community representative, Geovanny Laoisiga, in his home. We discussed the possibility of building up the solidarity campaign online and increasing coverage in general of the dispute. We also expressed our own concerns and interest in giving a balanced report of what is taking place and our desire to speak with the community and not just its representatives when investigating the conflict. He was very enthusiastic about all of this and invited us to return to Las Salinas and spend some time there getting to know the people, the area, and the story from all sides.

Myself and Marta Piqueras returned a few weeks later and began investigating the dispute from scratch. We interviewed members of the indigenous community in Las Salinas, and spoke with both foreigners and locals living and working in the area about their experiences with La Flor de Mayo and their knowledge of the situation. We dug through legal documents and written information about this dispute that has been taking place for nearly five years now. We researched the media coverage of the community’s struggle and began learning more about how things work on the ground here in Nicaragua, and the other issues such as power and money that are having an impact on their campaign.

Having spent this time here and as a result of our investigation, we are entirely convinced that the indigenous community of Las Salinas de Nahualapa are suffering a terrible injustice here at the hands of La Flor de Mayo and its representative, Philip Christopher.

We are determined to support the community in whatever way that we can, recognizing that at times having the accompaniment and support of people from outside the country can often open doors that have previously been closed to local people. The community and its representatives are running an impressively well organized and well directed legal campaign, and our goal is to simply support them and give them a voice in areas where others would simply have them silenced. We hope that to this end, we can be useful, and that we can help to draw attention to the actions of Philip Christopher and his associates who are showing a complete disregard for the people of this country and this communities historical right to land and self-determination.

For me personally, I feel privileged to have had the experience of getting to know the people here. The hospitality and generosity that I have experienced and witnessed, and the relationships that I have had the opportunity to build have been deeply affecting. Their determination and motivation in the face of all that has come to pass has been inspirational, and the dedication shown by all those involved in the camp and the campaign is incredibly impressive. There are whole families camped out down there from kiddies to grandparents (and great-grandparents!), and people will continue to give their free time over to fighting for their rights. There is real people power happening on Playa Sardina that we are happy to support, respect, and show solidarity with. And this begins by spreading the word…

Karen Jeffares.