Nicaragua

Press Releases & Public Statements

Homes burnt during the Wilu massacre
Press Release
Amidst Failed US Sanctions, the Indigenous Pay the Price for Nicaragua’s Gold Rush
In a new report, Nicaragua’s Gold Rush, the Oakland Institute exposes how, despite US sanctions on Nicaragua’s gold mining sector, the industry has boomed, fueled by foreign business interests. The US is the primary destination, accounting for a staggering 79 percent of total Nicaraguan gold exports.
Casas quemadas durante la masacre Wilu
Press Release
Entre el fracaso de las sanciones de EE. UU. en Nicaragua, los indígenas pagan el precio de la fiebre del oro
En un nuevo informe, La fiebre del oro de Nicaragua, el Oakland Institute expone que, a pesar de las sanciones de EE. UU. al sector de la extracción de oro de Nicaragua, la industria ha aumentado radicalmente, dirigida por empresas extranjeras. EE. UU. es el destino principal del producto e importa un asombroso 79 por ciento de todo el oro exportado de Nicaragua.
Burned houses in the community of Wilú, Mayangna Sauni As Territory
Press Release
The Oakland Institute Denounces Another Massacre of Indigenous People in Nicaragua with Complicity of the Global North
On March 11, 2023, settlers massacred at least five Indigenous Mayangna people in the community of Wilú, Mayangna Sauni As Territory.
Community meeting on the court hearing in Santa Fe, November 2018
Press Release
US Treasury Sanctions Nicaraguan State Mining Company for Role in Rights Abuses
Beyond these sanctions, it is imperative for governments in the US, Canada, and beyond to act quickly to prevent mining companies registered in their countries from advancing this violence and dispossession.

Audio & Video

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The #HUNGERFORJUSTICE Broadcast: Nicaragua's Failed Revolution with Lottie Cunningham
The weekly #HUNGERFORJUSTICE Broadcast Series lays the building blocks for a just food system. Watch the recording of our episode with 2020 Right Livelihood Award Laureate and Indigenous lawyer Lottie Cunningham Wren. She is joined by The Oakland Institute's founder and executive director Anuradha Mittal and research fellow Josh Mayer to discuss Nicaragua's Failed Revolution.
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Nicaragua: Una Revolución Fallida Webinario en Español - Video
El 5 de agosto de 2020, lanzamos Nicaragua: Una Revolución Fallida: La Lucha Indígena Por El Saneamiento, una traducción al español del informe Nicaragua's Failed Revolution. Este informe expone a empresas extranjeras mineras de oro, actores nacionales e internacionales de la industria maderera y ganadera, así como a destacados funcionarios nicaragüenses detrás de la violencia incesante que enfrentan las comunidades indígenas y afrodescendientes en la Región Autónoma de la Costa Caribe del país.
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Webinar Video: Nicaragua's Failed Revolution
On April 29th, the Oakland Institute released a new report Nicaragua’s Failed Revolution: The Indigenous Struggle for Saneamiento exposing the drivers–foreign gold mining firms, national and international actors in logging and cattle ranching industry, as well as prominent Nicaraguan officials – behind the incessant violence facing the Indigenous & Afro-descendant communities in the Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions of the country.

News Articles

El Faro
Nicaragua’s Gold Rush: A New Frontier of Corporate Extraction
A modern-day gold rush is poisoning ecosystems and terrorizing Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in Nicaragua, as corporations and settlers invade autonomous territories and nature reserves, stealing land and extracting profits in a lucrative business environment enforced through state and paramilitary violence.
Mongabay
Activists ask for help combatting violence against Nicaragua’s Indigenous communities
Indigenous communities on Nicaragua’s northern Caribbean coast continue to suffer threats, kidnappings, torture and unlawful arrests while defending communal territory from illegal settlements and mining.
Mongabay
Harmful mining continues in Nicaragua despite U.S. sanctions, new investigation shows
U.S. sanctions imposed in 2022 against Nicaragua’s mining industry were supposed to help combat a bloody wave of human rights abuses against local communities. But several years later, some aspects of the sanctions still aren’t being enforced, allowing mining companies to continue operations and even expand into new parts of the country.
Havana Times
The Indigenous Pay the Price for Nicaragua’s Gold Rush
In a new report, Nicaragua’s Gold Rush, the Oakland Institute exposes how, despite US sanctions on Nicaragua’s gold mining sector, the industry has boomed, fueled by foreign business interests. The US is the primary destination, accounting for a staggering 79 percent of total Nicaraguan gold exports.