Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera dies in Nicaragua after nearly 3 years of detention

Brooklyn Rivera, a renowned Indigenous leader from Nicaragua who spent years fighting for the rights of his community and was imprisoned by the government in September 2023, has died.

Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.

The Nicaraguan government issued a statement Sunday claiming that Rivera died from a bacterial infection after his health had declined following a case of COVID-19, which led to his physical and neurological deterioration.

Human rights activists and groups worldwide denounced his death and a statement that the government released Saturday in which they referred to Rivera as “Brother” and said they were praying for him.

“They took him alive, and after refusing to tell his family, his lawyer, the world anything about his fate, then they call him brother,” said Reed Brody, an American human rights lawyer and member of a group of U.N. experts on Nicaragua. “Unconscionable cynicism on the part of the government to make it seem like they were trying to help him.”

The U.S. government had called for his release on Friday after the government published photos of him in the hospital in critical condition.

The Argentina-based Inter-American Center for Legal Assistance in Human Rights also denounced Rivera’s death.

Those responsible for the death of the Indigenous lawmaker “should be held criminally accountable,” it wrote on X.