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(CNN Spain) -
The Nicaraguan National Police presented three men on Wednesday whom it accused of the death of nine artisanal miners and the sexual abuse of a teenager and a 41-year-old woman.
According to the institution, the events occurred on August 23 in a community located in the Bosawas biosphere reserve, in the North Caribbean Coast region.
At a press conference before official media, the Police reported that they learned of the case through community members who heard detonations of firearms in the place and reported it to the authorities.
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Police say they found 9 people shot to death and had injuries caused by sharp objects.
The motive for the crime, according to the police, would have been personal quarrels between the criminals, who allegedly wanted to take over the gold extraction point where the victims worked.
According to the police report, on August 23 the victims, artisanal miners who worked at the Kiwakumbai point, in a mountainous sector located 50 kilometers northeast of the municipality of Bonanza, where a group of between 11 and 14 criminals appeared who, supposedly Motivated by a discord with those killed over the extraction of gold, they attacked them with a firearm and killed them.
The Police said that it continues with the search for another 11 alleged perpetrators of the events and will forward the detainees and the evidence to the judicial authority.
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CNN has not been able to determine if the detainees have attorneys or how they testify to the charges.
During the preliminary hearing, the Judiciary could appoint a public defender for them.
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Amaru Ruiz, president of the NGO Fundación del Rio, told CNN on Wednesday that according to information from local community leaders, the fatalities are at least 12 indigenous people, of which two are Mayan and 10 Miskito.
The conflict, according to Ruiz, began when settlers invaded indigenous territories to extract gold and they expelled them from their territory.
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Ruiz adds that there have been other attacks by settlers on Miskito or Mayan communities with the aim of appropriating territories for agricultural or mining activities.
The United States has reacted to these bloody events.
The Office of Human Rights, Democracy and Labor of the Department of State expressed on September 3 in its Twitter account: "The horrible attack against 13 men, women and children of the Mayan and Miskito indigenous groups of Nicaragua, calls for a rigorous investigation and transparent and accountable. Silence in the face of such barbarism is simply unacceptable. "
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