The National Commission for Demarcation and Titling (CONADETI) is the body responsible for overseeing and implementing the process of demarcation, as set forth by Law 445 (2003). It provides technical and financial assistance to all those communities engaged in demarcation, and is also charged with resolving any conflicts that may arise out of the process.
CONADETI is integrated by various governmental institutions. Its directive board includes one representative from each of the Atlantic coast’s ethnic groups: Garifuna, Rama, Miskito, Mayagna (Sumo) and Creole. It is spear-headed by the Presidents of the two regional councils (RAAS and RAAN), who rotate presidential control annually. Individuals from national government also work within CONADETI and its members are approximately 32 in total.
CONADETI receives funding directly from the government, but in the expensive work of demarcation, individual communities may also seek financial backing from outside sources such as NGOs and foreign consulates.
Demarcation is ‘an act of justice’
Interamericana talked with representatives from the commission to gain better insights into the process of demarcation, as well as the obstacles they’ve faced since the organisation’s creation in 2003. Miss Dolene Miller, second secretary to CONADETI’s directive board, was quick to establish the organisation’s primary role:
“The problem of the Atlantic Coast was mostly a problem of self-determination… Today there is a law that enables indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples to claim the collective territory that was the former Mosquitia… [CONADETI] is an institution that by mandate and in the first consideration must look out for the demarcation of these communities.”
Citing the historical precedents that led to the annexation of the former Mosquitia, Miss Miller went on to describe law 445 as ‘an act of justice’:
“In 1860 when the Moskitia coast was annexed to Nicaragua… all of a sudden we woke up being part of Nicaragua… Gradually we saw a process of conquering and colonising and destroying of our natural resources… So the law is an act of justice… that is what the Pacific people do not understand…”
CONFLICTS AND COMPLICATIONS
A lack of resources
A range of obstacles and complications have arisen in the course of the demarcation process, not least a lack of resources to carry out the task.
“We have a problem with resources.” Said Miss Anabel Omier, CONADETI’s legal advisor. “Every time we don’t have the presidency here [in RAAS] we don’t have the resources to work. Right now because the presidency is in the north… they’re prioritising all the titles there… and we can’t advance.”
The Agrarian Frontier
An equally problematic situation for CONADETI has arisen in relation to the so-called ‘agrarian frontier’ – a loosely defined area composed of displaced mestizo farmers who have been arriving from the Pacific since the 1990s.
“The mass of people who are mobilising towards the resources on the Atlantic Coast is not normal,” said Miller. “We don’t have anything against the Spaniard, it’s just that they are destroying the resources… [and] we are going to defend our natural resources because tomorrow we’re not going to have water. Do you know how much rivers and creeks have dried up on the Pacific because of bad handling? We do not want our rivers to dry. We still want to have forests. We need our forests.”
Miller explained that many such mestizos received land titles as peace-offerings at the end of Nicaragua’s various instances of civil war. Law 445 recognises such titles as legitimate. The problem, she said, is that their communities are now growing exponentially, and many new arrivals have no title whatsoever.
“We don’t even have a census that tells us exactly how many people are here.” Said Miller. “Between the 1995 census and the 2005 census, in the lapse of 10 years, the mestizo population grew by more than 150%. We’re seeing on the agrarian frontier… the municipalities can’t even make a plan. Because if they’re saying they have 14,000 inhabitants, according to the 1995 census, today it’s 45,000, maybe even 60,000. Who can handle that type of growth?”
‘Chaos’ in the Land Registry
The phenomenon of uncontrolled migration – and a general ignorance about the numbers arriving – is exacerbated by confusion within the land registry.
“We have a situation in the registry where one property has maybe three owners, three titles, three persons with the same land.” Said Miss Omier. In such cases it is often unclear which title should prevail.
“We have a chaos inside the registry,” continued Miss Miller. “And the government has created that chaos by issuing titles to people affecting other people’s land…”
POLITICS
Politicisation of a technical process
Political involvement in the demarcation process, according to CONADETI, has been disrupting their work, rather than helping it. This issue, more than any other, sparked heated responses from everyone present.
“We have two main parties who always want to show who has more force over this side of the country,” said Miss Omier “The process is a technical process. It don’t have nothing to do with politics. But from the beginning, they made it political… they make a political issue out of this process, when it has to be a technical issue.”
Miss Miller suggested that the decision to conduct demarcation at a territorial, rather than regional level, was a political one aimed at preventing the unification of the Mosquitia. “Central government does not want the demarcation law,” she said.
Personal interests of politicians
But political interests in the Atlantic coast also seem to be allied to personal interests, a point reiterated by Santiago Thomas, the President of the Rama and Creole Territorial government. Speaking of the deforestation and trafficking of land in the agrarian frontier, Miss Miller said:
“Many of the mestizos are just keeping the land for others, the ‘real’ owners. We asked ourselves… Why are these people still poor, if they’re benefiting from the lumber and benefiting from the cattle? Because it doesn’t belong to them.”
Who, then, are the persons profiting from the forests and cattle farms?
“We found out in our diagnosis that there are a lot of extensions that are being claimed by politicians.” Said Miller.
An agenda
The idea of central government having an agenda, ever since the annexation of the Mosquitia in 1860, was also roundly and repeatedly endorsed:
“For we, the native indigenous people,” added Rendel Hebbert, a team co-ordinator from CONADETI’s Executive Commission. “… it is not a surprise… Nicaraguan leadership, them have a plan… to dominate the Atlantic Coast. It’s a policy. If the frente go in with their red and black flag, they got the same policy against the coast. If the liberals go in, they got the same policy… to control us and to take away our rights. To make us weak. You see, the Nicaraguan government was afraid, historically, of what we the Indian and we the black is.”
To the future
If CONADETI’s assertions about powerful political interests and hidden agendas are true, the native peoples of the Caribbean coast have a David and Goliath battle ahead of them. No one, however, is yet ready to give up the fight:
“This is the turning point,” said Miller. “The Demarcation law is our freedom. It is telling me that I have rights to my resources, but now it is my responsibility to make good use of it. It takes a while but it’s going to reach there… The mestizos believe because they are the majority they can turn and twist the law according to their own interests and it’s not like that. We are saying come let us sit, let us talk, let us find a solution. There is enough for everyone, but there is something we must respect first, which is our law.”
The demarcation process continues…
