RACISM AND ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION IN NICARAGUA Myrna Cunningham Kain With the collaboration of: Ariel Jacobson, Sofía Manzanares, Eileen Mairena, Eilen Gómez, Jefferson Sinclair Bush November 2006 Centro para la Autonomía y Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development Racism and Ethnic Discrimination in Nicaragua November 2006 Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Structure of the study 7 2.1 Scope and methodology 7 3. Racism and individual and collective human rights 9 3.1 A note on cultural and ethnic identity 11 4. Racism: colonial inheritance 13 4.1 Nicaragua: multiethnic and pluricultural state 14 4.2 The historic roots of differences, discrimination, and racism 14 4.2.1 Spanish Conquest and its repercussions in Indigenous cultures of the Pacific, Central and North 16 4.2.2 English colonization in the Caribbean Coast region 16 4.2.3 The Liberal policy in the Caribbean Coast: internal colonization 18 4.2.4 Afro-descendent communities in Nicaragua 22 4.2.5 Colonization through development models on Indigenous land 22 4.2.6 The autonomy process in the Caribbean Coast 23 4.2.6.1 Development of a normative juridical framework 25 4.2.6.2 Advances in the establishment of public policies and structural transformations of the State 26 4.2.6.3 Construction of intercultural citizenship 28 4.2.7 The agricultural frontier: a new form of internal colonization 29 4.2.8 Current expressions of external colonization 31 5 The Current Situation: Manifestations of ethnic discrimination against Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendent communities in Nicaragua 34 5.1 Socio demographic situation of Indigenous Peoples & Afro-descendent communities34 5.2 Expressions of racism in Nicaraguan society 35 5.3 Manifestations of ethnic discrimination in the cultural sphere 36 5.3.1 Ethnic devaluation and low self-esteem 36 5.3.2 Invisibility in daily public life 39 5.3.3 Ethno-linguistic hierarchy and interethnic conflict 40 5.3.4 Prejudices based on “awareness of color” 41 5.3.5 Discrimination against use of the mother tongue 42 5.3.6 Devaluation of local knowledge 43 5.3.7 Reproduction of racism in artistic production 43 5.4 Manifestations of ethnic discrimination in the social sphere 43 5.4.1 Lack of socio-demographic information 44 5.4.2 Social exclusion 45 5.4.3 Discrimination in health care 45 5.4.4 Discrimination in churches 46 5.4.5 Discrimination in education 47 5.4.6 Discrimination in processes promoted by international cooperation agencies and development aid 48 5.4.7 Discrimination through the media 48 2 of 104 Racism and Ethnic Discrimination in Nicaragua November 2006 5.4.8 The impact of racism on gender relations 49 5.4.9 Migration and racism 52 5.4.10 Advance of the agricultural frontier 53 5.5 Manifestations of ethnic discrimination in the economic sphere 54 5.5.1 Racism and poverty 54 5.5.2 Inequitable budgetary distribution 57 5.5.3 Lack of access to credit 58 5.5.4 Discriminatory labor policies 58 5.5.5 Growing threats to the natural and collective patrimony 59 5.5.6 Imposition of a development model 60 5.5.7 Free-market economies 60 5.6 Manifestations of ethnic discrimination in the juridical-legal sphere 61 5.6.1 Recognition and exercise of human rights 61 5.6.2 Limitations on the exercise of autonomy and self-government 62 5.6.3 Limitations on access to justice 64 5.6.4 Racial profiling and ethnic stereotypes 66 5.7 Manifestations of ethnic discrimination in the political sphere 66 5.7.1 Unequal relations with the State 66 5.7.2 Lack of access to State posts 67 5.7.3 Limited political participation 68 6 Demands of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendents 70 7 Evaluation of actions adopted by the State and other actors to combat racism in Nicaragua 76 7.1 Institutionalization of autonomy 78 7.2 Defending and protecting human rights 79 7.3 Strengthening regional institutions 79 7.4 Defending territorial rights 80 7.5 Implementing bilingual intercultural education 81 7.6 Intercultural higher education 82 7.7 Promoting traditional knowledge and community institutions 83 7.8 Cultural revitalization 84 7.9 Educating civil society 84 7.10 Promoting religious, spiritual, and cultural exchanges 85 8 Conclusions 86 9 Recommendations 88 9.1 Actions at the national and regional levels 88 9.2 Actions at the local and community levels 93 Bibliography 96 Annexes 100 List of interviews and focus groups 100 Instruments Utilized 103 3 of 104 Racism and Ethnic Discrimination in Nicaragua November 2006 1. INTRODUCTION “Back in 1950s, my mother used to tell us that we couldn’t speak in Mayangna out loud, because people would call us ‘el sumito,’ ‘el indito.’ If we thought and spoke as Mayangnas, we could be locked up (that is what she told us). But now with the struggle of Indigenous Peoples, now with publications about Indigenous Peoples, we can speak in public in our language. We now confront, however, new threats: we can lose our identity, losing our land, our traditional medicines with the introduction of transformed seeds, and the imposition of another identity.”1 This comment by one of the subjects interviewed reveals the continuation of expressions of discrimination in the daily life of Indigenous communities in the Caribbean Coast region of Nicaragua. Racism is the ideology that sustains ethnic domination, based on the belief that the inequalities between ethnic groups are normal and natural rather than the result of an unjust structuring of society. Throughout history, people have used a variety of biological, religious, and cultural arguments to justify racism, and to call other groups backward and incapacitated by their race. For example, in Nicaraguan legislation just a century ago, the inhabitants of the Autonomous Regions were defined as savages, and “hispanization” was promoted to “civilize” them. Racism is a phenomenon that throughout the processes of colonization and formation of nation-states, has served as the ideological basis to withhold the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-Caribbean communities, at the same time that the states pretended to integrate those Peoples by the force of new forms of social organization. Through the application of discriminatory policies, states have taken away and continue to take away the territories, natural resources, political and administrative systems, their knowledge, beliefs, values and languages of Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean peoples. The dominant development models that have been imposed and legitimized by states have been based on the lack of recognition for and abuse of the individual and collective rights of these Peoples. The racist belief that ethnic, cultural, and biological differences should imply social and political inferiority is expressed in terms of discrimination, depriving people of their human rights—which are by definition universal, inherent, and everlasting. In the case of Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendent groups in Nicaragua, it also results in the denial of their collective rights. Discrimination is the act through which one social group is deprived of the rights that are enjoyed by other groups.2 Ethnic and racial discrimination have been classified as legal, interpersonal, institutional, structural, and oral.3 1 Interview, Helen Gómez, October 2006. 2 The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1965 and came into force in 1969, defines racial discrimination in Article. 1 as all distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on reasons of race, color, lineage, or national or ethnic origin, that has as an object or result the 4 of 104 Racism and Ethnic Discrimination in Nicaragua November 2006 Particular sectors of the population that are considered inferior based on their ethnic identities have limited socio-economic mobility and limited access to political participation, and for this reason the organization of current society reflects a situation of structural racism, which in turn perpetuates inequality. The phenomenon of institutionalized racism is covert, and is falsely considered something of the past instead of as an ongoing process that is real, still in force, and continually reproduced in social relations. While the fight against racism advances, expressions of racism become more sophisticated,4 and it intensifies other discrimination based on gender, age, geographic origin, or socio-economic status.5 The ideology of racism is institutionalized by the State, as power and access is granted to certain groups based on the recognition of a superior culture. Racism then persists in the attitudes held by those with a voice in shaping laws, public policies, and programs, and therefore becomes imposed on the institutions and interactions that shape everyday life. One aspect that makes the analysis of racism and discrimination more complex is the fact that Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendent communities have internalized and accepted the racist structures, often reproducing those structures in their own relations. Stigmas held by certain groups against others create hierarchies that are inextricably linked to physical and cultural traits such as skin color, “grade” or “purity” of blood, clothing, and language and accents. At the international level there have been significant advances in the instruments and international mechanisms of protection and defense of the rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples. The Inter-American System of Human Rights is a notable advancement is the construction of jurisprudence on the collective rights, as well as the instruments and mechanisms established in the United Nations system. Nicaragua has ratified the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), however, it does not fulfill its commitments with respect to providing periodic information.