CALPI received information that the community of Wilú has been attacked by settlers on March 11, 2023 and that on March 10, 2023, three Mayangna community members and two children members of the Mískitu indigenous people were kidnapped; the kidnapped people were on their way from the community of Musawás to the community of Betlehem in the Mayangna Sauni As territory, in the Bosawás Biosphere Reserve, within the Autonomous Region of the Northern Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua.
Wilu after the attack. Photo: Community members of Wilu
We were informed that at around 6:00 a.m. on march 11th, the community of Wilú was attacked by approximately 60 strongly armed non-indigenous settlers. The attack took advantage of the fact that men from the community had left to go hunting and most of the community had mostly women and children present. A person who fled the place reported the death of 7 community members, among them 2 women, one in serious condition. The names of the mortal victims are: Lenin Vílchez Patrón Flores, Jorge Enor Palacios Samuel (23 years old), Duts Castillo Frenly, Alberto Castillo Palacios (20 years old), Orzan Días Palacios, Nadilia Palacios (65 years old) and Lidina Flores Castillo. Jesmin Jacobo Lazaro is in serious condition. There are still women and children missing. The houses of the community were burned leaving only the church, the pastoral house and the school standing.
Women and children refugee at Musawas school. Photo: Community members of Wilu
They also report that Mr. Canisio Taylor, an evangelical pastor and teacher from the community of Musawás, who was traveling with Antonio Gadea and Lindolfo Charly, all members of the community of Musawás, and two Miskito children, whose names are unknown, were kidnapped on March 10th by settlers. They were kidnapped while traveling on the Waspúk River to their work areas near the community of Betlehem.
The family and community members are alarmed because they believe that these attacks and kidnappings are carried out by settlers who invade this indigenous territory to put pressure on the community members and sow terror, thus making it easier for them to take over the indigenous people's lands.
Wilu after the attack. Photo: Community members of Wilu
This is the second time that the Wilú community has been attacked by settlers without the authorities having protected them; on a previous occasion many of its members were forcibly displaced to other communities in the Mayangna Sauni As territory to safeguard their lives. On February 13, 2022 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) granted precautionary measures to the Wilú Community, however the Nicaraguan State has not complied with them.
Despite the fact that the attacks perpetrated by settlers armed with weapons in the Autonomous Region of the Northern Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua began in 2015, and since then they have been systematically carried out against the Miskitu and Mayangna indigenous communities; these communities continue to ask the State of Nicaragua for protection, investigation, prosecution and reparation for these serious violations of their human rights.
However, the State in most cases does not come to the communities, and when it does, it denies that the attacks were carried out by settlers and instead blames the indigenous people themselves, as happened in the case of the Kiwakumbaih massacre, in which more than twenty victims and witnesses of the events were contradicted.