29 He lived in the Northern Atlantic Region of Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, from 1996 to 1998, and sporadically in 1999 and the year 2000. He was one of the three main researchers and the general coordinator of the General Diagnostic Study on land tenure among the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast, carried out by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council. The diagnostic study had two main objectives. The formal part sought to cartographically reflect what the communities or some of the communities of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua considered to be their communal lands and their uses. The tacit purpose was modernization of the land registry. It also sought to define the boundaries of the territories of indigenous communities, to further clarify which were the national lands on which the State could act. The diagnostic study was carried out in the course of implementing an agreement between Nicaragua and the World Bank. The diagnostic study had five chapters. In the first chapter, called General Principles, it recommended that, given the history of the Nicaraguan State’s relations with indigenous communities, it issue a statement expressing its willingness to solve such problems. Another recommendation was to complete the diagnostic study carried out by the Central American and Caribbean Research Council, as it was estimated that there are between 280 and 300 communities on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, and the diagnostic study only covered about 50% of that total universe. To attain a comprehensive view of the claims, of the overlaps, of the land tenure problems generally, it was necessary to complete the diagnostic study. A third aspect of the chapter on General Principles was to deliver the results of the diagnostic study to the communities which had supplied the information. This is something which is not usually done, and it is a key aspect to begin a process of demarcation and land titling. A second chapter, called Conflict Resolution, was very important because of the existing overlaps in the area. Overlaps are areas where several communities’ use and possession of the territory coincide. The key recommendation to deliver the results of the diagnostic study to the communities, through a massive workshop, was never carried out, nor have the measures required to implement the recommendations of the diagnostic study been taken. It was suggested that the State should resort to customary law and to existing relations among the communities, through their traditional authorities, to seek a solution to the conflicts. For this reason it was essential that solution of the conflicts take place within a framework in which the Nicaraguan State were no longer judge and party, which has been its historical role in this regard, for it to become instead a facilitator State. The State did not follow up on the recommendations made in the diagnostic study. Two bills were submitted by the executive branch of government in 1998 in connection with the communal lands of the indigenous communities of the Atlantic Coast, but none of those two projects was a response to what had been reflected in the diagnostic study. Nicaragua consulted with the indigenous communities about the preliminary draft of the Land Titling Law for their lands. These consultations were attained through pressure by the indigenous peoples. A proposal was submitted by the two Regional Councils in September, 2000, and the existing perception at the national level is that this proposal will not be approved, because the political will to do so does not exist. The former INRA, currently the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, has no authority for demarcation or titling of communal lands of indigenous communities. There has