On December 23, 1994, the United Nations General Assembly, by resolution 49/214, declared August 09 as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.
These peoples represent a great diversity: more than 5,000 distinct groups in some 90 countries and speak an overwhelming majority of the world's approximately 7,000 languages. They number approximately 370 million people, or more than 5% of the world's population.
Indigenous peoples have inherited and practice unique cultures and ways of relating to people and the environment. They also retain social, cultural, economic and political traits that are distinct from those predominant in the societies in which they live.
They have sought for years the recognition of their identities, their way of life and the right to their traditional territories and natural resources. However, throughout history, their rights have always been violated. The international community now recognises that special measures are needed to protect their rights and maintain their cultures and ways of life.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples on September 13, 2007, which includes self-determination; the right to lands, territories and resources; economic, social and cultural rights; collective rights; and equality and non-discrimination.
Emphasis is placed here on the right of indigenous peoples to live with dignity, to maintain and strengthen their own institutions, cultures and traditions and to seek their own development, freely determined in accordance with their own needs and interests.
Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of this right they can freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. They have the right to maintain and strengthen their own political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while maintaining their right to participate fully, if they so wish, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.
Multiethnicity and multilingualism in Nicaragua are recognized by the Political Constitution of Nicaragua.
Article 5 states that “The State recognizes the existence of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, who enjoy the rights, duties and guarantees set forth in the Constitution and in particular, those of maintaining and developing their identity and culture, having their own forms of social organization and administering their local affairs; as well as maintaining communal forms of ownership of their lands and the enjoyment, use and benefit, all in accordance with the Law. For the communities of the Caribbean Coast, the autonomy regime is established in this Constitution.”.
The indigenous peoples of Nicaragua recognize the work carried out by the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity, GRUN, since “its development model is the only one that has managed to include and respect indigenous issues”.
In a 2013 study by indigenous economist and sociologist Jessy James on economic development models and indigenous peoples, he highlights that with “…the neoliberalization of the State and the national economy, promoted by liberal governments (1990 – 2006), severely impacted the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast.
Instead of political-administrative decentralization and a redistribution of resources, which encompasses all the problems of the autonomous process, what was observed was a recentralization of power and national resources. At the same time, the reorganization of the national economy based on the so-called “free market” has led to a new penetration and a historically original colonization of the unconscious and of nature..
The study states that with the GRUN there has been progress towards strengthening the autonomous institutionality of the autonomous regions, and reducing poverty, "Unlike the political and strategic actions of previous governments, this one defines a development model far from neoliberalism, the model of development of citizen power, translated into the National Human Development Plan.
It establishes as one of its strategic axes “the comprehensive development of the Caribbean Coast”, and in this line, for the first time, the Autonomous Regions create a Development Plan for the Caribbean Coast and its strategy, which is understood to encompass the demands and interests of the indigenous peoples and ethnic communities of the Caribbean.
According to data from the Population and Housing Census conducted by the National Institute for Development Information, INIDE, in 2005, the population that declared itself to be indigenous represents 13% of the total Nicaraguan population (more than 6 million).
Among the indigenous peoples in Nicaragua are the Chorotegas of Monimbó, San Juan de Oriente, Nindirí and Virgen de Hato; the Nahuatl of San Jorge, Nancimí, Ostional, Salinas de Nahualapa, Veracruz del Sapotal and Urbaite Las Pilas, without forgetting Sutiaba (Xiu) in the Pacific.
While in the Central Region the Chorotegas of Jinotega, Mozonte, Telpaneca, San Lucas, Totogalpa, San Antonio de Padua, Santa Barbara Cusmapa, Sebaco and Muy Muy. As well as Matagalpa with its cocoa-producing descendants.
The indigenous peoples of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua preserve their identity more clearly and are populated by Miskitus, Ramas and Mayangnas.
