Challenges of autonomy in Nicaragua (interview with Myrna Cunningham)

Abstract

The rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic communities are an old topic of debate in Latin America. New is that autonomy as a possible basis for the effective exercise of those rights, is now placed in the center of the discussion. Mexico is certainly one of the most dynamic centers of this controversy, especially after the neo-Zapatista uprising in early 1994. worth remembering that until 1990, the Latin American regional epicenter of reflection was Nicaragua. Yet after electoral defeat of the Sandinistas by a conservative coalition in that year, the international profile of the Nicaraguan issue, particularly the system of autonomy established in the Atlantic Coast, lost momentum and faded almost completely. means left to deal with the matter and to many of the coastal autonomy was a failed attempt that ended in nothing or a " total failure." is the autonomy process was suspended in Nicaragua? Do the coastal stopped fighting for their historical claims and abandoned their will to build an autonomous status to the extent of their aspirations as peoples with their own identities? Nothing could be farther from reality. As the interview shows eloquently that offer the reader the coastal autonomy is alive and constant search.