Nicaraguan Indigenous Leader Brooklyn Rivera Dies in Custody

Brooklyn Rivera, a prominent Indigenous leader and former Nicaraguan lawmaker, has died in state custody at age 73, the government confirmed on Sunday. The health ministry attributed his death to physical and neurological deterioration resulting from a bacterial infection following COVID-19.

Rivera had been detained since September 2023, when police raided his home in Bilwi on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast. Authorities never publicly disclosed the charges against him. For nearly three years, his family and international observers received no confirmation of his imprisonment and were denied visitation rights. Last Wednesday, the interior ministry released photographs and medical reports showing Rivera bedridden, intubated, and severely emaciated, describing his condition as delicate with multiple organ failure.

His death has drawn condemnation from human rights organizations and foreign governments, who dispute the official account. A member of the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, Reed Brody, stated that the cause of death was not merely illness but the result of being held in conditions of enforced disappearance for over two years, denied independent...