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Indigenous Rights A donation was made in support of Folilche, the Mapuche Cultural Center, Sofia Painiqueo, Directora, Nuņoa, Santiago, Chile.
Three Americas continues to send a stipend Dra. Maria Luisa Acosta, a lawyer who is successfully taking the case of the indigenous people on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua to guarantee their rights to their tribal lands. by Alice Cherbonnier A STRUGGLE THAT WILL NEVER END,” is how Nicaraguan attorney Maria Luisa Acosta, director of the Center for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples, describes her work. Acosta was in Baltimore in November as part of a national tour to call attention to how her country’s native peoples on the Atlantic coast are losing fishing and fresh water resources because of unconstitutional property transfers to foreign developers. Acosta’s husband was tortured and killed in retaliation for her work. It's a story that's been told and retold hundreds of times around the globe and throughout history: One group of people live simply off the land, without any formalization of ownership of property and natural resources. Another group, with a culture that "legalizes" such details, moves in and finds a way to obtain ownership of what was once, literally, common ground. The payment for transfer might be a few trinkets or beads, or a large lump sum to a member of the first group who claims to speak for the group, but in fact lacks that authority. This kind of unequal bargaining arrangement is still happening today. Take the case of the Miskito people of the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua. They stand to lose access to the Pearl Cays, an archipelago they have relied upon for centuries, because the ownership of several of the islands is being claimed by a US property developer who is, in turn, selling or leasing what he asserts as his rights to the public. Maria Luisa Acosta, a human rights lawyer who directs the Center for Legal Assistance for Indigenous Peoples (CALPI), has taken up the fight on behalf of the Miskito people. In November, she traveled to several cities in the US to call attention to the case...http://baltimorechronicle.com/struggle_dec02.html
Other sites documenting Maria Lusia Acosta's efforts: |
