56
and Jotam López Espinoza, who appeared on their own behalf and as
representatives of the Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community, filed an
amparo remedy before the Civil Court of the Appellate Court of the Sixth
Region of Matagalpa, against Roberto Stadhagen Vogl, Minister of MARENA,
Roberto Araquistain, General Director of the National Forestry Service of
MARENA, Jorge Brooks Saldaña, Director of the State Forestry Administration
(ADFOREST) of MARENA, and Efraín Osejo et al., members of the Board of
Directors of the Regional Council of the RAAN during the periods from 1994 to
1996 and 1996 to 1998. In that remedy they requested that: a) the
concession to SOLCARSA be declared null, because it was granted and ratified
setting aside the Constitutional rights and guarantees of the Awas Tingni
Community; b) an order be issued for the Board of Directors of the Regional
Council of the RAAN to process the request submitted in March, 1996 to
“further a process to attain recognition and official [c]ertification of the
property rights of the Community to its ancestral lands”; c) an order be issued
for “the officials of MARENA to refrain from furthering a concession to utilize
[n]atural [r]esources in the area of the concession to SOLCARSA, until land
tenure in that area has been defined or an agreement has been reached with
Awas Tingni and any other Community which has a justified claim to
communal lands within that area”, and d) the disputed act be suspended;41
r.ii)
on November 12, 1997, the Civil Panel of the Appellate Court of the
Sixth Region of Matagalpa admitted the amparo application; it denied the
request of the applicants that the act be suspended because “apparently the
act ha[d] been carried out”; it ordered that the decision be made known to
the Attorney General of the Republic, and that the officials against whom the
application had been filed should be notified for them to report to the
Supreme Court of Justice on their actions, and it summoned the parties to
appear before that Court “to exercise their rights”;42
r.iii)
on October 14, 1998, the Constitutional Panel of the Supreme Court of
Justice declared “the amparo remedy application to be inadmissible because it
41
cfr. November 12, 1997 decision by the Appellate Court of the Sixth Region, Civil Court,
Matagalpa, on the amparo remedy filed by María Luisa Acosta Castellón, as legal representative of
Benevicto Salomón Mclean, Siriaco Castillo Fenley, Orlando Salomón Felipe and Jotam López Espinoza, on
their own behalf and as Syndic, Coordinator, Town Judge, and Person Responsible for the Forest,
respectively, of the Awas Tingni Community, against Roberto Stadhagen Vogl, Minister of MARENA,
Roberto Araquistain, General Director of the National Forestry Service of MARENA, Jorge Brooks Saldaña,
Director of the State Forestry Administration of MARENA, and Efraín Osejo et al., members of the Board
of Directors of the Regional Council of the RAAN; and judgment No. 163 of October 14, 1998, by the
Constitutional Court of the Supreme Court of Justice of Nicaragua, on the amparo remedy filed by María
Luisa Acosta Castellón, as legal representative of Benevicto Salomón Mclean, Siriaco Castillo Fenley,
Orlando Salomón Felipe and Jotam López Espinoza, on their own behalf and as Syndic, Coordinator, Town
Judge, and Person Responsible for the Forest, respectively, of the Awas Tingni Community, against
Roberto Stadhagen Vogl, Minister of MARENA, Roberto Araquistain, General Director of the National
Forestry Service of MARENA, Jorge Brooks Saldaña, Director of the State Forestry Administration of
MARENA, and Efraín Osejo et al., members of the Board of Directors of the Regional Council of the RAAN.
42
cfr. November 12, 1997 decision by the Appellate Court of the Sixth Region, Civil Court,
Matagalpa, on the amparo remedy filed by María Luisa Acosta Castellón, as legal representative of
Benevicto Salomón Mclean, Siriaco Castillo Fenley, Orlando Salomón Felipe and Jotam López Espinoza, on
their own behalf and as Syndic, Coordinator, Town Judge, and Person Responsible for the Forest,
respectively, of the Awas Tingni Community, against Roberto Stadhagen Vogl, Minister of MARENA,
Roberto Araquistain, General Director of the National Forestry Service of MARENA, Jorge Brooks Saldaña,
Director of the State Forestry Administration of MARENA, and Efraín Osejo et al., members of the Board
of Directors of the Regional Council of the RAAN.