World

Nicaragua
taking first
steps for
indigenous
autonomy

Dorotea Wilson, currently on a Canadian
tour, is a candidate for the Sandinista
National Liberation Front (FSLN) in the
upcoming Feb. 25 Nicaraguan election. She
currently represents the Bluefield District on
the Atlantic coast and has been extensively
involved in the Indigenous Women’s move-
ment there, the autonomy process and the
rebuilding of the region. She spoke with Fiona
Connelly, Ontario organizer for Tools for
Peace, Nancy Farmer, its Toronto organizer,
and Paul Ogresko of the Tribune.

NF: Can you describe how you first
became involved with the FSLN? I under-
stand you were a nun working in the moun-
tains. i

Wilson: In Nicaragua basically 80 per
cent of the population is Christian, mostly
Roman Catholic. I come from a deep Chris-
tian background. I was a nun working ina
convent in the mountains. We had different
programs for community development and
that was my opportunity to work with the
people of the mountains — the campesi-
nos, the women and the youth. This contact
led me to commit myself to social transfor-
mation and changes in Nicaragua.

NF: Did you take up arms or was your
work on a more political basis when you first
joined the FSLN?

Wilson: At first I carried letters around, in
and out of the country. But then things
became very tough and we had to take up
the gun. So I took part in the guerrilla war
and I was there until the 19th of July of 1979
when we were victorious.

FC: You were a nun at one point, then you
left the church and took up arms. Was that a
hard decision to come to?

Wilson: It took time — meditation and
reflection — because it was against what I
learned in school and during my stay in the
convent. They taught us, for example, the
commandment not to kill, and to pardon
your enemies, and so on. So it was really a
conflict. But I consulted, I talked it over
with a lot of priests and nuns that had done
the same thing.

So it wasn’t easy. It took one or two days
to make the decision but that was the cho-
ice. We had to do it because there was no
other way to overthrow Somoza and gain
justice, democracy and peace for our coun-
try

tion Theology is a very powerful movement.
Are you involved in this and does it move
people as much as in, say, El Salvador?

Wilson: Yes. We always distinguish the
hierarchy of the church from the base, The
church that walks, the church that looks for
transformation, the church that is the
people — the people that move towards
changes. The hierarchy are conservative,
they are always on the right. But when you
talk with the campesinos whose kids have
been violated or kidnapped, then you say
‘you have to change that.” Then the only
option is to join with them and change the
country.

PO: Is the liberation church gaining more
support than the reactionary church?

Wilson: Yes. We have a lot of priests and
nuns who are very progressive, who are for
change. They are not members, or militants,

8 e Pacific Tribune, November 6, 1989

FC: In much of Central America, Libera-_

Bh annannsranie

Bu 4 Pha

Sandinista support rally in Managua.

of the FSLN but they are revolutionaries.
They are people who work for the majority
of tlie population and not for a small minor-
ity or the return of the old to power.

And they are also very critical of our
government when things are going wrong
and they have to say it. That doesn’t mean
they don’t support the changes — just that
they want them to be better.

NF: Can you describe the situation on the
Atlantic coast prior to 1979?

Wilson: We had a 75-per-cent illiteracy
rate and very high infant mortality. There
are differences in our culture, tradition, our
customs, different ethnic groups. During
the Somoza regime, he didn’t care about
developing the east coast. What we had was
a lot of transnational companies — my dad
worked as a miner for more than 40 years
for a Canadian company. We had no trans-
portation, no roads, hospitals or schools
— we were completely isolated from the
rest of the country. We were considered
second class citizens. There were no rights
for the indigenous people of Nicaragua.

PO: Can you tell us about the ethnic
groups on the Atlantic coast?

Wilson: There are the Miskitos, the

Sumus, the Ramas, the Creoles, the Garif-
ena, and the Spanish-speaking peoples —
the Mestizos. The east coast of Nicaragua
was colonized by the English, unlike the
Pacific coast which was colonized by the
Spaniards.

So our constitution has declared that
Nicaragua is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual
and multi-cultural nation.

PO: Can you tell us about the difficult
process towards self-autonomy after the revo-
lution and your involvement in it?

Wilson: What we have to emphasize here
is what we inherited from the past. None of
the ethnic groups had any say in the use of
their natural resources, the economy or
even education in their mother tongue.
After the revolution we had the U.S. boy-
cott and the contra war and all the problems
of the economy, since Somoza had taken
everything. Those problems were even
more pronounced on the east coast.

When the Sandinistas won, the different
ethnic groups demanded immediate recog-

°

nition of our cultures, respect of our rights,
our religions and our Native languages and
that the exploitation of our natural resour-
ces be ended. We started to discuss with the
people what the process of autonomy
would mean — it took two to three years of
discussion before we were ready to submit it
to the National Assembly.

It was discussed and debated in all the
towns and villages and there were a lot of
different points of view of what autonomy
would mean. So now we are heading
towards the general election and the Atlan-
tic coast will elect its regional autonomous

government. It will have 45 members. We:

have to guarantee representation from each
ethnic group, no matter their number.
Every group will be represented in the
Assembly.

NF: How will this situation of representa-
tion work and is this separate from voting for
delegates to the National Assembly?

Wilson: The basic law has been approved
and is in effect in both the north and south
of the Atlantic coast. There will be 45
members elected from the north and the
south sectors. The representation of each
ethnic group has to be guaranteed — there
will be 15 wards around the country and
there will be three candidates selected from
each ward. For example the law will say
Ward 7 has to be represented by a Miskitos
and so your candidate will have to be a
Miskitos.

After the 90 Regional Assembly members
are elected, they will vote for their directive
boards and out of that board you will get
your co-ordinator for that region. Also,
there are different commissions working on
the relationship between the central and
regional government and that process of
consultation and discussion is underway.
What we have now is that health, educa-
tion, natural resources, transportation and
food will be in the hands of the Native
people of each region.

We will vote both for our regional
government and then the National Assem-
bly as well as the president.

PO: Are there any organized Miskito.
groups still working actively with the counter-
revolution?

Wilson: There are still small groups with
arms but they are not fighting. For the last
four years we have had no combat, no con-
frontation, on the Atlantic coast between
the different indigenous groups. Just three
weeks ago the leaders that were out of Nica-
ragua, in Miami and Honduras, returned
under the amnesty.

There were more than 23,000 indigenous
people living on the Honduran border. By
December we expect 15,000 of them to have
returned. So people are back, they are
rebuilding, they have their lands and we
have defeated the contras.

PO: What is the role of the indigenous
women’s organizations on the Atlantic coast?

Wilson: Women, as in the rest of Nicara-
gua, are a majority of the population and
we have a strong movement. When the
fathers and sons left, whether they were
kidnapped or went voluntarily to Hondu-
ras, then the women had to stay and take
care of the country. These are the people.
who organized and who sent letters to their
husbands and sons telling them they should
return — that the Nicaraguan family should
be united.

This movement was aimed at disman-
tling the contras — that the men should
return home again. Most of all we wanted
peace to rebuild. We had the hurricane last
year that completely destroyed our town of
Bluefields and it’s 90 per cent rebuilt
already. It was only possible through inter-
national support, such as Tools for Peace.

NF: I know on the west coast the Nicara-
guan women’s movement is concerned with
issues such as access to abortion and legal
rights — for instance, if their husband leaves
them — and I’m wondering if these are sim-
ilar concerns on the east coast.

Wilson: No, the movement on the east
coast has its own particularities. The main
emphasis is towards better living conditions
and production. The war had caused great
damage on our coast and families were
split — sons, fathers, and daughters on
opposite sides. So our platform is centered
on repatriation, for production and the
development of different skills for women,
education and health. Most of all we have to
create the material base for autonomy
— it’s the only way for us to move forward.

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