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disrespect for recognition of indigenous rights of the communities.
From a
procedural standpoint, the courts did not discuss the reason why the remedy was
rejected.
For the indigenous communities, there is no other procedure through which they can
assert their ancestral rights, which are recognized in the Constitution.
Article 18 of the Autonomy Statute of the Autonomous Regions states that the
administration of justice must be subject to special regulations, but it is a general
law for which regulations have not been developed. There is no procedure that
allows the judicial authorities to take into account the specificities they should
consider.
m.
Testimony of Marco Antonio Centeno Caffarena, Director of the
Office of Rural Titling in Nicaragua
The witness lives in Managua, Nicaragua. He has been a Government official since
1991, having held high-level positions as an advisor and on issues pertaining to
property. He is currently the General Director of the Office of Rural Titling.
To explain the history of land titling in Nicaragua, one must differentiate three
periods or stages in the course of the 20th century.
The first moment was that of implementation of the Treaty between the United
Kingdom and the Republic of Nicaragua, the Harrison-Altamirano treaty, as it was
called. Article three of this treaty ordered that title deeds to a specific area be
granted to the existing indigenous communities of the Nicaraguan Miskitia. Each
four-member household unit was to be granted title deed to eight manzanas of land.
If the household had more than that number of members, they should receive title
deed to an additional two manzanas per person.
The objective of the treaty was to grant title deeds to all the ethnic groups or
indigenous communities inhabiting the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua at that time.
Between 1915 and 1920, more than 80,000 hectares were titled, and 60 title deeds
were issued which are duly registered in the Public Real-Estate Record Office at
Bluefields, which is the only one on the Atlantic Coast. In addition, two titles were
granted to the Tilba-Lupia community, the registration numbers for which are 2111
and 2112. At that time, the Mayagna or Sumo ethnic groups were granted title to a
considerable amount of land, roughly 3,690 hectares, taking into account the results
of the 1950 population census, which estimated that population at roughly 407
individuals in the Atlantic Coast region of Nicaragua.
The procedure followed during implementation of the Harrison-Altamirano Treaty was
an elementary one. The Titling Committee for the Mosquitia was set up, and it
visited the places where title deeds were to be granted or where there were
communities, and the communities stated their demands. These demands “were
published, so that if any one felt that there was an infringement, they could object”.
If there were no objections, the land was measured and title deed subsequently
granted, but if someone objected, a friendly settlement was sought by providing
compensation for the areas where others were affected by the titling.
Subsequently, during the sixties and seventies, there was a second moment during
which the Nicaraguan Agrarian Institute (IAN) granted title deeds following an
agrarian criterion; for this reason, the comprehensive approach to titling gave way to