Nicaragua’s green lobby is leaving rainforest people ‘utterly destitute’

“For centuries the Miskito people have defended their Central American rainforest kingdom. They rebuffed invading of the Spanish settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries with the help of British muskets, from which they derived their name, and remained autonomous even when nominally absorbed into the newly formed state of Nicaragua in 1894.

During the 1980s civil war, the Sandinista government accused the Miskitos of siding with Contra rebels, using that as a pretext to herd tens of thousands of the indigenous people into camps and destroy their villages. Those who survived rebuilt their communities after the war. Now this unique community, a mix of indigenous inhabitants and African slave descendants, are facing a new threat: environmentalism.”

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