The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

The last martyr of the indigenous lands in Costa Rica

2020-02-27T20:18:07.963Z


An indigenous leader is killed in the attempt to recover land by force from white farmers in the south of the country


MORE INFORMATION

  • Latin America, the deadliest region for environmentalists
  • The monarch butterfly sanctuary resists the death of its guardian
  • The mysterious death of the monarch butterfly guardian

The story paints a messy and convulsive scene, after several days of tensions and aggressions, of more or less violent clashes between groups of indigenous people and farmers who own land in areas reserved for native peoples. Near a site known as Mano de Tigre, in honor of a huge stone with apparent traces of a cat, some locals gathered, almost at 22.00 (local time). of this Monday, the lifeless body of one of the leaders who had not claudicated in the eagerness to recover the territories that the law grants them and the reality no.

His name was Jehry Rivera Rivera, he was 45 years old, two children and a small tourist lodge in which he proudly showed part of the Térraba town culture, to which he belonged as part of a branch called Brorán. Five bullets in the shoulders, the head, an armpit and the back left him in a crucified position on the clay soil for which machete fought in hand. Six years ago he had been assaulted for reporting an illegal logging, but this time the confrontation ended up swelling the list of homicides, which in 2019 closed at a rate of 10.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.

His companions asked for an ambulance, called the police and tried to help him, but it was only possible to hear him say that, please, his death would serve as something in the struggle for indigenous rights. "Keep fighting," says his father, Enrique Rivera, to EL PAÍS.

A suspect was arrested that same night. Apparently, he was the brother of a farmer whom Rivera wounded with the machete in the middle of the brawl and the shooting that the police would later report. The news is new, but it is constantly repeated for the original population with which one in 40 Costa Ricans identifies, according to a 2011 census. On March 18, another indigenous leader named Sergio Rojas, of the Bribri ethnicity, had been killed with 15 shots while resting. It happened in the Salitre territory, very close to Térraba, in a municipality called Buenos Aires, which maintains a long history of disputes between indigenous groups and external landowners.

The judicial authorities have not reported suspects or major clues about the murder of Rojas. Rivera's yes; Many people saw the moment he was shot and the police soon captured the alleged murderer. But the conflict goes beyond a new martyr for indigenous communities, or at least the party that defends land recovery methods by force. According to Rivera's father's story, the suspect and his son had already had discussions in the past. "That boy is half indigenous, he has Boruca blood [another ethnicity], but he is an accomplice of non-indigenous farmers. That's why he had already had discussions with Jehry and now this happened," he says.

“As a father I feel glad that he died defending these lands. There are indigenous people who do not. Now he is a hero of our slogan, a great leader, he gave himself as Jesus of Nazareth, ”he continues by phone from the earthy roads of Térraba, 130 kilometers from San José. The president of the communal association, Daniela Gutierrez, prefers not to talk about the murder and ensures that the environment is already calm, although she knows that the police presence is a condition.

Human rights defenders raise the claim for the violation of the rights of ancestral peoples to their lands and for the insecurity they experience despite the precautionary measures issued since 2015 by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on a part of these lands

The dispute accumulates decades and goes back to 1977, when the law that granted land to the eight indigenous peoples of the country was created, although many of them were already occupied by Sikuas, a term used in the Costa Rican south to call non-indigenous people. Until now, the State has been unable to resolve conflicts over rights over these territories, to stop new occupations and to placate internal political disputes between indigenous leaders.

Rivera and Rojas were two informal leaders, of whom they believe that what laws and institutions have not guaranteed them must be recovered by force, says Salomón Ortiz, leader of the Salitre community and their adversary in the ways in which They fought for their rights. “This boy who was killed on Monday was going through that more combative style and the weather here was already quite altered,” he says.

Formal and informal indigenous leaders await responses from the State without much hope. They insist that it is not enough to send police, that it is urgent to order the possession of land and take out the Sikuas , even if they have been there for years. The government of Carlos Alvarado sent a delegation to the area and several meetings were held between the parties, while Jehry's father planned the funeral for this Friday while still thinking about what is coming. “It is up to the State to make this more complicated. I ask Sibú our god to give us the strength to do what my son asked, to continue fighting for whatever years. ”

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2020-02-27

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.