Caribbean & Central America - March 2012 (ISSN 1741-4458)

The commitment of the recently re-installed government of President Daniel Ortega vis-à-vis property rights is being tested on various fronts: the high profile confiscation of property belonging to a Swiss-Nicaraguan investor to reportedly gift it to Edén Pastora, the controversial former Sandinista leader, has left the private sector and opposition jittery. The latter in particular was quick to invoke the spectre of the Piñata - the massive transfer and titling of confiscated and expropriated property to the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) leadership, which took place at the end of Ortega’s first mandate (1979-1990). These concerns come as the government was recently forced to address another source of tension with regard to property rights, this time involving territorial claims in the impoverished indigenous North Atlantic Autonomous Region (Raan), on the Caribbean Coast.

In mid February, the opposition press gave wide coverage to the seizure of 20 manzanas (33.6 acres) of land worth an estimated US$5m, the site of an ecological hotel resort, Punta Teonoste, belonging to Walter Bühler in order to give it to Pastora. The former FSLN guerrilla known as Comandante Cero, Pastora broke with the first Ortega government amid disillusionment with the leadership to become a Contra, only to return to the fold under Ortega’s second mandate (2007-2012). In a sign of his current standing, he was placed in charge of the controversial project to dredge the San Juan River, which, in October 2010, triggered the revival of a territorial dispute with Costa Rica [RC-10-11]. Attorney General Hernán Estrada explained the ‘gift’ to Pastora as part of the government’s efforts to regularise land ownership, which benefited some 172,000 people during the last Ortega administration.

While the government has been in talks with the Bühler family and appears to be reaching some sort of behind-the-scenes deal, the land grab triggered alarm bells among various sectors. With the private sector think-tank Funides having recently identified the lack of legal security surrounding land ownership as a “fundamental obstacle preventing the promotion of investment in the country” [RC-12-01] and the human rights NGO Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (Cenidh), highlighting it as one of the biggest challenges facing the government in its most recent (2010) report, both the leading private sector lobby, Cosep, and the national tourism institute (Intur) expressed anxiety about the impact on Nicaragua’s image. Opposition deputies such as Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, who heads up the congressional tourism committee, were also quick to put it in historical context, drawing parallels with the Piñata that took place during the transition of power from the first FSLN government to the Violeta Chamorro administration (1990-1997).

• Another source of tension

The doubts regarding the Ortega government’s commitment to respecting property rights comes as it recently defused another dispute, also related to territorial claims, in the Raan, which is home to various indigenous groups including the Miskitos, Mayangnas and Afro-Nicaraguans. This week, in response to demands from the leaders of 22 indigenous communities, the National Demarcation and Titling Commission (Conadeti), set up in 2003 to oversee implementation of the 1987 law on indigenous autonomy, respecting indigenous rights to communal land, agreed to conduct an examination of the land situation in the region.

While the Cenidh noted in its last report that the Ortega government has made progress vis-à-vis indigenous land rights, Conadeti’s announcement followed weeks of tension amid the alleged invasion of indigenous territory by mestizos (people of mixed indigenous and European descent), which came to a head last month after 18 mestizos were kidnapped by indigenous groups demanding the eviction of 120 families who, they claim, had invaded their land to carry out illegal logging and other activities. According to Simon McDavis, the president of the territorial government Twi Waupasa, of the 156,000 hectares comprising the Twi Waupasa, 50,000 are occupied by the 120 families.

The government came under pressure from various sources: regional leaders expressed concerns regarding an escalation in racial tensions; McDavis warned that if the authorities did not intervene, the Miskito groups themselves would take action; and Brooklyn Rivera, an indigenous deputy for the Yatama party, a long time FSLN ally, who heads up the congressional indigenous affairs committee, insisted that only property titles issued prior to 1987, would be recognised. The government’s response was likely motivated by the prospect of the November 2012 municipal elections: while the Yatama is allied with the FSLN on certain issues, land is reportedly one topic on which it will not budge. The unrest in the region is also significant given that the Raan has previously seen secessionist threats from the indigenous Miskito Council of Elders in Bilwi, the Raan’s capital, (although these ultimately failed to materialise) [RC-09-05].

• Indigenous titles

In its most recent annual report (2010), a Nicaraguan human rights NGO, Centro Nicaragüense de Derechos Humanos (Cenidh), highlights as evidence of progress vis-à-vis indigenous land rights the fact that, by end 2010, fifteen of the 23 indigenous territories identified by the National Demarcation and Titling Commission (Conadeti) were now demarcated and titled, up from nine as of July 2009. The Cenidh also pointed out, however, that since 1905, only 10% (185,000 hectares) of the land subject to demands from indigenous groups (which account for some 6% of Nicaragua’s population, according to the UN’s Socio-Linguistic Atlas of the Indigenous Peoples, released in March 2010) had been titled.