A prominent Indigenous rights advocate from Nicaragua has died while in government custody, sparking international condemnation from human rights organizations.
Brooklyn Rivera, who had been detained by Nicaraguan authorities since September 2023, passed away under circumstances that have drawn sharp criticism from activists worldwide. Government officials released a statement on Sunday claiming Rivera’s death resulted from bacterial complications connected to COVID-19 that caused both physical and neurological decline.
International human rights advocates have strongly criticized both Rivera’s death and a government statement issued Saturday that referred to the detained leader as “Brother” while claiming officials were offering prayers for him.
“They took him alive, and after refusing to tell his family, his lawyer, the world anything about his fate, then they call him brother,” said Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer and member of a group of U.N. experts on Nicaragua. “Unconscionable cynicism on the part of the government to make it seem like they were trying to help him.”
Rivera served as a leader for the Miskito people, an Indigenous community residing along Nicaragua’s northeastern coastline that has maintained a long struggle to preserve their ancestral territories.
Throughout his decades of activism, Rivera opposed the ruling Sandinista government while working to secure autonomous status for the northeastern coastal region. This territory contains valuable deposits of gold, silver and other natural resources, making it a priority area for the administration of co-Presidents Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo as they seek to draw foreign investment.
