In the «La Modelo» and «La Esperanza» prisons, 12 indigenous leaders suffer discrimination. The guards mock their drinks and herbal medicines, claiming these practices are “witchcraft.»

These 12 Mayangna and Miskitu indigenous people were detained in violent police operations. Since then, they have suffered forced disappearances, unfair trials, acts of racism, and prohibitions from practicing their cultural expressions.

The list of twelve Indigenous political prisoners includes community leaders, territorial authorities, and environmental defenders. Among them is the representative Brooklyn Rivera, captured on September 29, 2023, and the alternate deputy Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez, arrested two days later.

The territorial trustee was also arrested on August 28, 2021. Ignacio Celso Lino and the communal judge of Suniwás Argüello Celso Lino, the persecution reached forest defenders such as Donald Andrés Bruno Arcángel, arrested on September 4, 2021, and Dionisio Robins Zacarías, arrested on December 3 of that same year.

All the arrests were made during police operations and are part of a pattern of criminalization against the Mayangna and Miskitu indigenous peoples.

In addition to being unjustly imprisoned in the National Penitentiary System, they also face a logic that renders the values, practices, and customs of Nicaragua’s indigenous peoples invisible.

In “La Modelo” prison, prison authorities have insulted indigenous inmates by calling them “witches” for trying to preserve their cultural practices, including the consumption of traditional foods such as wabul of banana and buñia, an ancestral soft drink.

They also resort to natural medicines such as basil, coriander, which are sometimes stigmatized as «spells.» These items, essential to their cultural and spiritual survival, are frequently confiscated.

The Nicaraguan judicial system not only acts as an instrument of state terrorism but also perpetuates neocolonial and racist practices.