World

Nicaragua taking first steps for indigenous autonomy

Dorotea Wilson, currently on a Canadian tour, is a candidate for the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the upcoming Feb. 25 Nicaraguan election. She currently represents the Bluefield District on the Atlantic coast and has been extensively involved in the Indigenous Women’s move- ment there, the autonomy process and the rebuilding of the region. She spoke with Fiona Connelly, Ontario organizer for Tools for Peace, Nancy Farmer, its Toronto organizer, and Paul Ogresko of the Tribune.

NF: Can you describe how you first became involved with the FSLN? I under- stand you were a nun working in the moun- tains. i

Wilson: In Nicaragua basically 80 per cent of the population is Christian, mostly Roman Catholic. I come from a deep Chris- tian background. I was a nun working ina convent in the mountains. We had different programs for community development and that was my opportunity to work with the people of the mountains — the campesi- nos, the women and the youth. This contact led me to commit myself to social transfor- mation and changes in Nicaragua.

NF: Did you take up arms or was your work on a more political basis when you first joined the FSLN?

Wilson: At first I carried letters around, in and out of the country. But then things became very tough and we had to take up the gun. So I took part in the guerrilla war and I was there until the 19th of July of 1979 when we were victorious.

FC: You were a nun at one point, then you left the church and took up arms. Was that a hard decision to come to?

Wilson: It took time — meditation and reflection — because it was against what I learned in school and during my stay in the convent. They taught us, for example, the commandment not to kill, and to pardon your enemies, and so on. So it was really a conflict. But I consulted, I talked it over with a lot of priests and nuns that had done the same thing.

So it wasn’t easy. It took one or two days to make the decision but that was the cho- ice. We had to do it because there was no other way to overthrow Somoza and gain justice, democracy and peace for our coun- try

tion Theology is a very powerful movement. Are you involved in this and does it move people as much as in, say, El Salvador?

Wilson: Yes. We always distinguish the hierarchy of the church from the base, The church that walks, the church that looks for transformation, the church that is the people — the people that move towards changes. The hierarchy are conservative, they are always on the right. But when you talk with the campesinos whose kids have been violated or kidnapped, then you say ‘you have to change that.” Then the only option is to join with them and change the country.

PO: Is the liberation church gaining more support than the reactionary church?

Wilson: Yes. We have a lot of priests and nuns who are very progressive, who are for change. They are not members, or militants,

8 e Pacific Tribune, November 6, 1989

FC: In much of Central America, Libera-_

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Sandinista support rally in Managua.

of the FSLN but they are revolutionaries. They are people who work for the majority of tlie population and not for a small minor- ity or the return of the old to power.

And they are also very critical of our government when things are going wrong and they have to say it. That doesn’t mean they don’t support the changes — just that they want them to be better.

NF: Can you describe the situation on the Atlantic coast prior to 1979?

Wilson: We had a 75-per-cent illiteracy rate and very high infant mortality. There are differences in our culture, tradition, our customs, different ethnic groups. During the Somoza regime, he didn’t care about developing the east coast. What we had was a lot of transnational companies — my dad worked as a miner for more than 40 years for a Canadian company. We had no trans- portation, no roads, hospitals or schools — we were completely isolated from the rest of the country. We were considered second class citizens. There were no rights for the indigenous people of Nicaragua.

PO: Can you tell us about the ethnic groups on the Atlantic coast?

Wilson: There are the Miskitos, the

Sumus, the Ramas, the Creoles, the Garif- ena, and the Spanish-speaking peoples — the Mestizos. The east coast of Nicaragua was colonized by the English, unlike the Pacific coast which was colonized by the Spaniards.

So our constitution has declared that Nicaragua is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation.

PO: Can you tell us about the difficult process towards self-autonomy after the revo- lution and your involvement in it?

Wilson: What we have to emphasize here is what we inherited from the past. None of the ethnic groups had any say in the use of their natural resources, the economy or even education in their mother tongue. After the revolution we had the U.S. boy- cott and the contra war and all the problems of the economy, since Somoza had taken everything. Those problems were even more pronounced on the east coast.

When the Sandinistas won, the different ethnic groups demanded immediate recog-

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nition of our cultures, respect of our rights, our religions and our Native languages and that the exploitation of our natural resour- ces be ended. We started to discuss with the people what the process of autonomy would mean — it took two to three years of discussion before we were ready to submit it to the National Assembly.

It was discussed and debated in all the towns and villages and there were a lot of different points of view of what autonomy would mean. So now we are heading towards the general election and the Atlan- tic coast will elect its regional autonomous

government. It will have 45 members. We:

have to guarantee representation from each ethnic group, no matter their number. Every group will be represented in the Assembly.

NF: How will this situation of representa- tion work and is this separate from voting for delegates to the National Assembly?

Wilson: The basic law has been approved and is in effect in both the north and south of the Atlantic coast. There will be 45 members elected from the north and the south sectors. The representation of each ethnic group has to be guaranteed — there will be 15 wards around the country and there will be three candidates selected from each ward. For example the law will say Ward 7 has to be represented by a Miskitos and so your candidate will have to be a Miskitos.

After the 90 Regional Assembly members are elected, they will vote for their directive boards and out of that board you will get your co-ordinator for that region. Also, there are different commissions working on the relationship between the central and regional government and that process of consultation and discussion is underway. What we have now is that health, educa- tion, natural resources, transportation and food will be in the hands of the Native people of each region.

We will vote both for our regional government and then the National Assem- bly as well as the president.

PO: Are there any organized Miskito. groups still working actively with the counter- revolution?

Wilson: There are still small groups with arms but they are not fighting. For the last four years we have had no combat, no con- frontation, on the Atlantic coast between the different indigenous groups. Just three weeks ago the leaders that were out of Nica- ragua, in Miami and Honduras, returned under the amnesty.

There were more than 23,000 indigenous people living on the Honduran border. By December we expect 15,000 of them to have returned. So people are back, they are rebuilding, they have their lands and we have defeated the contras.

PO: What is the role of the indigenous women’s organizations on the Atlantic coast?

Wilson: Women, as in the rest of Nicara- gua, are a majority of the population and we have a strong movement. When the fathers and sons left, whether they were kidnapped or went voluntarily to Hondu- ras, then the women had to stay and take care of the country. These are the people. who organized and who sent letters to their husbands and sons telling them they should return — that the Nicaraguan family should be united.

This movement was aimed at disman- tling the contras — that the men should return home again. Most of all we wanted peace to rebuild. We had the hurricane last year that completely destroyed our town of Bluefields and it’s 90 per cent rebuilt already. It was only possible through inter- national support, such as Tools for Peace.

NF: I know on the west coast the Nicara- guan women’s movement is concerned with issues such as access to abortion and legal rights — for instance, if their husband leaves them — and I’m wondering if these are sim- ilar concerns on the east coast.

Wilson: No, the movement on the east coast has its own particularities. The main emphasis is towards better living conditions and production. The war had caused great damage on our coast and families were split — sons, fathers, and daughters on opposite sides. So our platform is centered on repatriation, for production and the development of different skills for women, education and health. Most of all we have to create the material base for autonomy — it’s the only way for us to move forward.

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