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With an area of approximately 27,260 km² (21.1% of the national territory) and a multi-ethnic population of 408,326 inhabitants, the Regional Government in Bluefields (57,000 inhabitants) decreed a voluntary lockdown in the RACCS. This lack of protection and adequate information led the Indigenous and Afro-descendant territorial and communal governments to take their own self-protection measures, decreeing a lockdown and regulating transport, movements and alcohol consumption, among other things. Indigenous Peoples' actions to address the pandemic Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples live in some of the poorest and most remote municipalities in the country and so, in most cases, those affected by the pandemic would have to travel for several hours to reach a hospital and, in some cases, would only be able to reach one by river. In April, after the Government of Nicaragua had already acknowledged the first cases of COVID-19, the Indigenous deputy Brooklyn Rivera, from the Indigenous party YATAMA ( Yapti Tasba Masraka Nanih Aslatakanka, “Children of Mother Earth”), stated as follows in Nicaragua’s National Assembly: “So far, we know of no particular measures for our peoples”, referring to the fact that the state had not issued any measures related to informing or protecting Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples during the pandemic.
According to the Observatory, there were 254 deaths in the RACCS and 211 in the RACN, each accounting for 2% of total deaths. The Observatory had reported 11,993 suspected cases and 2,867 deaths as of 30 December 2020 while the Ministry of Health had reported only 6,046 suspected cases and 165 deaths. With a population of 6.5 million inhabitants, Nicaragua was under-reporting its deaths. President Daniel Ortega was largely absent from the public eye during the height of the pandemic and, in the absence of leadership, civil society formed the Observatorio Ciudadano COVID-19 to inform and guide citizens on protective measures while also quantifying casualties. As protection measures are a right, the State of Nicaragua has a duty to provide them, in accordance with the duty to guarantee human rights. The IACHR and its Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression and Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (OSFREFE and OSRESCER) also expressed concern at the absence of reliable information and the persistence of official misinformation on the scope of the pandemic in Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan government initially denied the severity of COVID-19 and failed to comply with World Health Organization (WHO) measures, in response to which WHO publicly expressed its concern. State’s failure to provide protection from COVID-19 The Alliance of Indigenous and Afro-descendant Peoples of Nicaragua (APIAN) was formed in 2015. In 2007, Nicaragua voted in favour of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and in 2010 ratified ILO Convention 169. The state began the titling process in 2005 for the 23 Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories in the RACCN and RACCS, culminating in the issuing of property titles. 445 on the Communal Property Regime of the Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of the Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and of the Bocay, Coco, Indio and Maíz rivers was issued, recognising these communities’ right to self-government and creating a procedure for the titling of their territories. Following the judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IA Court) in the case of the Mayangna (Sumo) community of Awas Tingni v Nicaragua in 2001, Law No. In 1987, following a friendly settlement of the conflict through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), and in order to put an end to this Indigenous resistance, the FSLN created the Autonomous Regions of the Northern Caribbean Coast (RACCN) and Southern Caribbean Coast (RACCS), based on a Statute of Autonomy (Law No. Peasant farmers from the Pacific and the Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean Coast participated in the Contra. The Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) came to power in Nicaragua in 1979, subsequently having to confront the U.S.-funded “Contra” rebel groups. These include the Creole or Kriol (43,000) and the Garífuna (2,500). Other peoples who also enjoy collective rights, according to the Political Constitution of Nicaragua (1987), are the Afro-descendants, also known as “ethnic communities” in national legislation. In addition, the Caribbean (or Atlantic) coast is inhabited by the Miskitu (150,000), the Sumu or Mayangna (27,000) and the Rama (2,000). Three of Nicaragua’s seven Indigenous Peoples live in the Pacific, central and northern regions: the Chorotega (221,000), the Cacaopera or Matagalpa (97,500), the Ocanxiu or Sutiaba (49,000) and the Nahoa or Nahuatl (20,000).