{"id":174935,"date":"2020-12-14T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=174935"},"modified":"2020-12-12T08:32:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T08:32:41","slug":"media-fuels-economic-war-on-nicaragua-with-false-conflict-beef-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/12\/media-fuels-economic-war-on-nicaragua-with-false-conflict-beef-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Fuels Economic War on Nicaragua with False \u2018Conflict Beef\u2019 Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberal media outlets are aiding a US economic war on Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government, calling for a boycott of \u201cconflict beef\u201d based on deeply flawed opposition accusations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

10 Dec 2020 – <\/em>Reports by Reveal News<\/a> and PBS NewsHour<\/a> have called for a boycott of \u201cconflict beef\u201d from Nicaragua. The Center for Investigative Reporting\u2019s website Reveal claims to be \u201cfair and comprehensive<\/a>,\u201d and PBS says it is \u201ctrusted<\/a>,\u201d but their misleading and inaccurate reports could have drastic consequences<\/a> for Nicaragua, at a time when the country is already struggling to deal with US sanctions, the Covid-19 pandemic<\/a>, and the aftermath of two damaging hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Their argument is that cattle farmers who produce the beef that is exported have in many cases illegally settled territory in the rainforest that belongs to Indigenous communities, and that the government does little to resolve the violent conflict that results.<\/p>\n

There are some 40,000 Indigenous families in Nicaragua, and nearly a third of its territory is legally owned and administered by 300 Indigenous communities. Reveal and PBS focus on Bosaw\u00e1s, the largest tropical rainforest reserve in Central America, which has seven territories belonging to Mayangna and Miskitu Indigenous groups, whose land claims have been recognized by the government. (Since 2006, the governing party in Nicaragua has been the socialist Sandinista Front<\/a>, a longstanding target<\/a> of US hostility.)<\/p>\n

For decades, non-Indigenous (or mestizo) settlers have entered these areas, some \u201cbuying\u201d land from Indigenous communities, even though it cannot legally be sold, and others simply taking it. A history of legal, quasi-legal, and illegal land occupation, along with intermixing of mestizo families with Indigenous people, have produced a multifaceted, volatile situation, which occasionally causes violent disputes.<\/p>\n

A local NGO, called CEJUDHCAN, in February 2020 counted<\/a> 40 deaths of Indigenous people over five years connected to land disputes, with further mestizo deaths uncounted.<\/p>\n

The remoteness of the area provides ample scope for reports of violence to be distorted for political purposes. For example, in January, Reuters reported<\/a> an attack on the Mayangna community of Alal by 80 men, leading to six deaths, 10 people being kidnapped, and houses being destroyed.<\/p>\n

\"Reveal<\/p>\n

Along with local opposition media, The Guardian<\/a> and BBC<\/a> repeated the story, apparently based on just two phone calls from people claiming that \u201cthe state is doing nothing.\u201d Yet Nicaraguan police investigated quickly<\/a>, finding 12 houses burned down and two people injured, but no one dead or disappeared.<\/p>\n

Mayangna leaders condemned<\/a> the false reports. Two days later in Wakuruskasna, seven miles from Alal, police found and identified<\/a> four murder victims. They described a criminal gang responsible for both incidents, capturing one alleged member<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reveal News journalist Nathan Halverson misrepresents a different incident. In February, a young girl bathing in a river in Santa Clara was reportedly<\/a> hit by a bullet. Halverson repeats the uncorroborated claim that settlers were \u201csending a message\u201d to the local Indigenous community: \u201cLeave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halverson dismisses the police\u2019s conclusion that the injury was caused by another child shooting off a gun \u2014 a version corroborated<\/a> by Lejan Mora, president of Santa Clara\u2019s Indigenous government, who knows the family. Community leaders told Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) that the family had been bribed to lie about the \u201cattack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halverson claims the homicide rate in the area \u201csoared so high\u2026 that it would rank among the most dangerous places in the world.\u201d Lottie Cunningham Wren, who runs CEJUDHCAN, tells Halverson that the roughly 40 deaths in five years amount to \u201cethnocide\u201d in which the Indigenous people will \u201cdisappear\u201d \u2014 an improbable outcome, given that there are 180,000 Miskitu and 30,000 Mayangna people.<\/p>\n

Misrepresenting Indigenous land disputes<\/h3>\n

To those unfamiliar with Nicaragua, news items about Indigenous groups conjure images of uncontacted tribes in the Amazon. Reveal\/PBS calls the area \u201cpristine jungle.\u201d Yet these communities have good roads, access to schools, health posts, local municipal services, and government agricultural and technical support.<\/p>\n

GO CONTINUE READING Go to Original – thegrayzone.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liberal media outlets are aiding a US economic war on Nicaragua\u2019s Sandinista government, calling for a boycott of \u201cconflict beef\u201d based on deeply flawed opposition accusations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[541,1308],"class_list":["post-174935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-and-the-caribbean","tag-latin-america-caribbean","tag-nicaragua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}