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The arrest of the indigenous leader and presidential adviser comes a day after local media published statements in which he denounced the environmental impact.
Nicaraguan police arrested Steadman Fagoth , an indigenous leader and presidential advisor on indigenous peoples’ policies, for attempting to “steal organic weapons” from the country’s army, authorities reported on Sunday.
The Nicaraguan Army said in a statement that the arrest occurred on Saturday afternoon in the Waspán sector, in the Caribbean region of Nicaragua, “and (he was) handed over to the National Police for the corresponding investigations.”
An Army patrol, the statement added, “learned information about plans prepared by citizen Stedman Fagot Müller to carry out illegal activities with elements linked to drug trafficking and organized crime , from Honduras, who intended to steal organic weapons from the institution at military posts located on the banks of the Coco River” in the Caribbean.
The arrest of the indigenous leader and presidential adviser comes a day after local media published statements in which he denounced the environmental impact following the massive arrival of heavily armed “settlers” (non-indigenous people), with the alleged complicity of the authorities and security forces.
In these words, as reported by various media, Fagoth also predicts the disappearance of some indigenous communities within 15 years due to the devastation caused by the “invasion” of the “settlers” of these lands within the Bosawás Reserve, a territory near the border with Honduras where there are Miskitos and Mayangnas.
The indigenous party Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka (Yatama, meaning ‘Children of Mother Earth’ in the Miskito language) denounced the arrest of Fagoth “by the military and police, just one day after his forceful statements to the media about the serious situation in the indigenous territory of Bosawás.”
Fagoth, the political party says, “is not a new name in the indigenous struggle,” since in 1980 “he was one of the main faces of the resistance against the Sandinista regime, along with iconic figures such as Brooklyn Rivera.”
Rivera, a Miskito leader and former deputy for the Yatama party, has been detained since September of last year. Thus, with the arrest of Fagoth and Rivera, there would be three indigenous leaders detained, including former Miskito deputy Nancy Elizabeth Henríquez.
Nicaragua has been experiencing a political and social crisis since April 2018 , which worsened after the controversial elections of November 2021, in which Ortega was re-elected for a fifth term – the fourth consecutive – with his main contenders in prison and whom he later expelled from the country and deprived of their nationality and political rights after accusing them of being “coup plotters” and “treason.”
