Evaristo Larios, a prominent indigenous leader from the Rama and Kriol territories of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast, has died while in state custody, his family confirmed today. He was 52. Larios had been held in the El Chipote prison in Managua since his arrest in December 2021, charged with “conspiracy” and “undermining national stability”. His detention came amid a broader crackdown on indigenous land rights activists and opposition figures by the government of President Daniel Ortega.
Larios was the president of the Rama and Kriol Territorial Government, a semi-autonomous body representing some 40,000 people across 400,000 hectares of rainforest and coastal territory. He had long campaigned for communal land titles and against illegal logging and mining concessions granted to foreign companies without local consent. His arrest followed a protest against a government-backed gold mining project on ancestral land.
Reports from inside the prison indicate Larios had been denied adequate medical care for a chronic liver condition. His family said they were only informed of his death after he had passed. The Nicaraguan government has not commented. Human Rights Watch has called for an independent investigation, noting that at least 150 political prisoners have died in Nicaraguan custody since 2018, many from preventable causes.
The death represents a blow to indigenous governance in the region. Larios was a rare figure who successfully united diverse communities around a shared vision of territorial autonomy and ecological stewardship. His movement had gained international attention through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which had petitioned the Ortega government for his release.
This is not an isolated incident. Since the 2018 protests, Ortega’s government has systematically dismantled indigenous self-government structures. In 2022, the government dissolved the Rama and Kriol Territorial Government and replaced it with a state-appointed council. Larios’s detention was a clear message that dissent over resource extraction would not be tolerated.
The timing is significant. Nicaragua is currently locked in a trade dispute with the International Monetary Fund over its refusal to audit mining revenues. The government has expropriated millions of dollars in gold exports. The region Larios represented sits atop one of the world’s last undeveloped gold belts. His death removes a key obstacle to further exploitation.
For the biosphere, this is a loss beyond the human. Larios’s community had successfully resisted deforestation for decades. The Rama and Kriol territories are carbon-dense forests that act as a critical buffer against global warming. Their protection is not just a local concern but a planetary one. Every hectare cleared releases centuries of stored carbon. Every leader silenced brings that future closer.
We are watching the slow collapse of environmental governance in a region already on the front line of climate change. Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast is seeing rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion into freshwater sources, and increasingly destructive storms. Yet the state continues to extract resources as if the next century does not exist.
Larios’s death should be an urgent trigger for international action. But the machinery of diplomacy is slow. The United Nations has issued statements. The European Union has expressed concern. No meaningful sanctions have been imposed. And the Ortega government knows that gold trumps human rights on the global market.
What happens next? Local leaders are in hiding. The territorial government is in exile in Costa Rica. Communities are under pressure to accept mining deals or face violence. The carbon stays in the ground only as long as people like Evaristo Larios protect it. He could not protect himself.
This is not a story about one man. It is a story about a system that trades the long-term survival of people and ecosystems for short-term profit. It is a reminder that climate action is inseparable from social justice. And it is a warning: the biosphere cannot afford many more such deaths.
