Brooklyn Riveras Bryan, Hero and Martyr.

By: Pedro Corzo - 18/06/2026

Guest columnist.
Share:     

I did not know Mr. Rivera Bryan, however, his death moved me deeply, without surprising me, since it is the painful end of those who become, thanks to their patriotic dedication, icons of the struggle they have undertaken.

I don't know many details of his life, but I've been hearing and reading about Brooklin Rivera since the 1980s, after I arrived in Venezuela. I've always ignored Castro's totalitarian regime; he was an enemy of one of its most loyal servants, Daniel Ortega. Of Rivera, I only know of his fight against Sandinismo and his deep identification with the Miskito people.

Rivera, a peasant who assumed leadership of the Miskito people, was destined for martyrdom. His democratic convictions led him to a tragic confrontation with the most abusive predators Nicaragua has ever suffered, Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

The Sandinistas' rise to power led to his arrest by the shadowy state security forces then headed by Tomás Borges. After his release, he moved to Miskito territory, where he organized the Misurasata militia, composed of indigenous people opposed to Sandinismo.

In the 1980s, he joined the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance, ARDE, led by Eden Pastora, a guerrilla movement opposed to the Sandinista regime commanded by the Ortega brothers, both of whom were in the process of building a dictatorship inspired by the totalitarian system imposed in Cuba by the Castros.

Before the end of the Civil War in 1987, the different indigenous factions that fought against Sandinismo, Misurasata and Kisan, merged into a single group, the Nicaraguan Indian Party Yatama, with Rivera assuming its leadership, committing to guarantee the social and cultural identity of the Indians, expressing his willingness to lay down arms if the regime recognized full autonomy for the Miskito people, signing a peace agreement with the repressive Borges for that purpose.

After the war ended in 1990, and with Violeta Chamorro elected president, he served his people by teaching at the Indian and Caribbean University of Bluefields and actively participating in the Ibero-American Foundation of Indigenous Peoples, headquartered in La Paz, Bolivia. He also held the position of Minister for the Development of Autonomous Regions, a post responsible for the development of Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

In 2002, he signed a cooperation agreement with his former enemies in the FSLN, on behalf of YATAMA, an action that caused a group of anti-Sandinista veterans to accuse him of being a traitor.

His alliance with the FSLN led him back to the National Assembly as a deputy, where he focused on the socio-economic development of the indigenous regions, education, and ecology—a constant theme in his life.

The coalition between Yatama and the FSLN was problematic. Rivera apparently realized he had been very naive to believe it was possible to coexist with those who had never ceased to be autocrats.

In 2015, FSLN members in the Assembly of Deputies assumed that the indigenous leader was contrary to their purposes and stripped him of parliamentary immunity to accuse him of provoking acts of violence and other irregularities.

Rivera, despite the pressures and the knowledge of the crimes that the presidential family was capable of committing, did not give up, he did not make deals, as soon as he was able he denounced before the United Nations the pillaging of the Sandinista regime, which led to him being prohibited from returning to his country, a repression that motivated his clandestine return through the border with Honduras.

Dictatorships never rest and seek to perpetuate themselves, so repression is continuous and constant. Brooklin Rivera was kidnapped on the orders of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

He disappeared for 971 days, almost three years, until he died in prison, as has happened with at least seven other political prisoners from 2018 to date, events that should draw the attention of international organizations specializing in human rights issues.

The kidnapping of Brooklin Rivera should have alerted us all, raising our vigilance. He was arrested and disappeared, a prerequisite for his murder. This is a common practice of Castro-Chavismo: they make their enemies disappear to facilitate oblivion.

The murder of this remarkable defender of freedom is deeply regrettable. Castro-Chavismo, in every country it has governed, has produced many martyrs, but as José Martí wrote, “Death is not real when the work of life has been well done,” and Brooklin Rivera fulfilled that task.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».