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dam-l Nica Day of Action Final Report
>Demonstrators Protest Violation of Indigenous Rights and Destruction of
>Rainforest at Nicaraguan Embassy - November 10, 1997
New York action--3 arrests--follows this DC report
> Activists re-decorated the exterior of the Nicaraguan Embassy in
>Washington, DC on Monday, November 10 with a 30-foot banner as about 50
>people below chanted "Aleman entiende: La selva no se vende" (Aleman,
>understand this: the rainforest is not for sale"). The demonstrators
>were protesting the continued logging of the rainforest on Nicaragua's
>Caribbean Coast by the Korean company Solcarsa despite a Nicaraguan
>Supreme Court ruling that the land was turned over by the Ministry of
>Natural Resources illegally. Their protest was in solidarity with an
>action in Managua by Jovenes Ambientalistas! (JA! - Environmentalist
>Youth).
>
> At about 12:30 p.m., representatives of Nicaragua Network, the
>Native Forest Network, and the Rainforest Action Group of Delaware
>Valley handed over a Statement of Principles to embassy personnel which
>demanded respect for the rights of the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and other
>peoples of the Caribbean Coast, an area which has been officially
>designated as autonomous, but whose right to self-determination is
>seldom recognized by the Managua government. It also called for a halt
>to the devastation of their lands and the rainforest. The Statement was
>signed by organizations from around the United States as well as from
>Venezuela, El Salvador, Sweden, Portugal, Germany, Canada, and the
>United Kingdom.
>
> The Native Forest Network banner read "Aleman! Respeta a los
>pueblos indigenas. No destruya la selva. Protect the Nicaraguan
>Rainforest and Indigenous People." It fluttered over the windows on the
>top floor of the embassy for about 30 minutes until uniformed Secret
>Service agents pointed it out to embassy personnel, who had it removed.
>Meanwhile the protest went on, with demonstrators saying they would not
>leave until the Statement of Principles and the sheets with its signers
>was faxed to the office of President Aleman in Managua. Staffers
>initially agreed to do so if protesters complied with the Secret
>Service's request to move across the street from the embassy. The
>staff then equivocated, saying they could not send a document down
>without the Ambassador's approval -- and he (Francisco Aguirre) was out
>to lunch.
>
> Protesters responded by chanting louder and treating the embassy
>to feedback from the bullhorns. A delegation from the protesters
>approached the embassy every 15 to 20 minutes, hearing eventually that
>the Ambassador was meeting with staff about the issue, and finally, at
>2:15 p.m., that he had agreed to fax it to Managua and that they were
>doing so.
>
> The Washington action was covered in at least two Nicaraguan
>newspapers, *El Nuevo Diario* and *Barricada*, whose report included a
>prominently-placed photograph. The unveiling of the banner on the
>embassy and the protest were videotaped and shipped down to Nicaragua
>immediately with a demonstrator on his way back to Managua. The video
>is expected to air on Nicaragua's Channel 4 shortly. Inter-Press
>Service, the Third World wire agency, carried a long story on the
>action in Spanish which was available to news outlets by Sunday.
>
> We understand from JA! that the Day of Action secured a promise
>from Nicaragua's Comptroller General -- widely known for his hard-
>hitting corruption investigations -- that the Solcarsa concession would
>soon be investigated by his office.
>
> The protesters in Washington included about a dozen people from
>around the country who had just attended the Nicaragua Network National
>Leadership Meeting, as well as solidarity activists from the Washington
>and Baltimore areas, a large contingent from the Native Forest
>Network's Eastern North America office in Burlington, Vermont, the
>Executive Director of the Rainforest Action Group of Delaware Valley in
>Philadelphia, and members of a Pastors for Peace caravan carrying
>material aid to Nicaragua's Caribbean Coast in a school bus.
>
>
>
>The following is a report by Bill Weinberg on the action in New York:
>
>At 11 AM on November 10, some twenty-five activists from the Wetlands
>Rainforest Action Group, the Amanakaa Amazon Network and the Nicaragua
>Solidarity Network of Greater New York met outside the Nicaraguan
>consulate at Second Avenue and East 43rd Street to peacefully protest
>logging concessions to the Korean firm Solcarsa in the Miskito
>Rainforest. Almost immediately, three protesters were arrested by the
>NYPD on completely bogus "disorderly condcut" charges--a predictable
>consequence following the recent reelection of reactionary Mayor
>Rudolph Giuliani on a pro-cop "quality of life" platform. The Wetlands
>Rainforest Action Group's James Hanson and Amanakaa Amazon Network's
>Christine Halvorsen went into the consulate to meet with Consul General
>Eliseo Fabio Nunez Morales, who expressed concern for the rainforest
>but warned that yanking the Solcarsa contract would be seen by the
>autonomous government on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast as a violation of
>their rights and could lead to civil war. The protestors continued to
>pass out leaflets outside the consulate until 1 PM. Plans to march on
>the Korean consulate were dropped in order to deal with the people who
>had been arrested. The Wetlands Rainforest Action Group regrouped later
>that day at Shell Oil headquarters for a protest of environmental and
>human rights crimes in Nigeria.