Miskitu People now live in the dirty water

Miskitu People now live in the dirty water

I’ve just returned to California this last Christmas from the Miskitu coast of Central America. I was there to verify the release of 2.5 tons of emergency food supplies we had shipped (which was confiscated by the Nicaraguan government) in August. I also brought computers and purchased food for the communities in Miskitu which are being besieged by armed illegal settlers being placed there by the government of neighboring Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan government has supplied these “settlers” they call “Colonos” with military weapons, and has been conducting an “ethnic cleansing” (attempting to wipe the Miskitu out) via cutting down and uprooting all food-trees, poisoning fish-able rivers, and forcing citizens of Miskitu off of their land — literally into the river waters…

miskitu-water-1They have been torturing men (sometimes amputating their legs and leaving them to bleed out), and our injured men are being rejected by the hospitals, who say, “They are Contras and deserve to die [direct quote from staff at Waspan Hospital].” The hospital in Puerto Cabezas has expressed the same attitude.

My people now live in the dirty water. People were not meant to live in water. Starvation and thirst are painful. Look at these pictures of their suffering. Help them. Do something NOW. Help us restore dignity, progress, our sovereignty, it’s our inalienable right.

Due to the responsibility I have to my people, the Miskitu Nation (especially the children, who are counting on me), I must provide any help I can for them. The raids on our villages have left children and adolescents traumatized, crippled and dead.

Many have started turning to drugs over the last ten years, such as crack cocaine. These atrocities have been sanctioned directly by Nicaraguan President Ortega and Honduran Military Forces.

miskitu-water-2Miskitu villages are under siege. Drug Traffickers, invaders, and “colonos” under Daniel Ortega’s protection and orders running villagers out of their homes in the mountains to the polluted Waspan and Rio Coco rivers, where they are literally dying from being forced to drink the parasite-infested waters. People are dying from severe dysentery, vomiting, and starvation. Miskitu was once a thriving fishing community. The people have no source of protein from the now bramble infested rivers.

 

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