DANIEL: “They murdered Sandino, they destroyed his human matter, but they couldn’t destroy Sandino’s Spirit, they couldn’t destroy Sandino’s Soul. They couldn’t destroy it! Therefore, where is it? Where is it? It’s in the Soul of the Nicaraguan people!”
President-Commander Daniel and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
at the Act of the 44th Anniversary of the Triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution
Daniel’s words
In November 1986 our Brother Thomas Sankara visited us, we were in the middle of the war, the President of the United States, violating his own North American laws and codes, violating International Law, had taken the lead, showing his face. It must be admitted, he was not like others who shield themselves, Reagan stood up, and even said: I am Contra. Nothing strange, logically, that Reagan was Contra, the strange thing would have been if Reagan had not been Contra. And he found our country, our people in arms, this was a people in arms; the heart, the soul, the conscience, in arms.
We wanted peace, we had fought against the tyranny imposed by the Yankees, because we wanted peace, we wanted our people to be freed from extreme poverty, from illiteracy, which exceeded 60%. And we had had to fight against the one who was the Governor imposed by the Yankees here in Nicaragua, because Somoza was nothing more than a Governor imposed by the Yankees after he accomplished the mission of assassinating Sandino, and the Yankees armed him, financed him, and he was a brother to the Yankees.
You know that when we use the term Yankee we refer to those who have a racist, imperialist attitude, which is not the case with the North American people. The North American people are not like that. The North American People have been a people in solidarity with our struggle, indisputably, the weight of the capitalist system, the weight of the Military Industry, bends any President, who after many promises he makes manages to occupy the Presidency of the United States.
Let’s remember the expectation that Obama created, it seemed that Obama was going to be something else. But it’s double standards. It was to take a step, like the one he took visiting Cuba, he stabbed Venezuela; that is, it was the moment in which Obama dictated that law, decreeing that Venezuela was a threat to the Security of the United States.
Well, he arrived loaded with good intentions and his government, and it is not because the North American Presidents, with exceptions logically, would like to invade nations, destroy nations, assassinate peoples, bomb them, with NATO logically. NATO is nothing more than an instrument of the Yankee Empire; Europe is nothing more than a detachment at the service of North American Imperialism.
And it was Obama who launched those terrible attacks against Brother Peoples, Revolutionary Peoples, in Solidarity; just remember our brother Muammar Gaddafi. We cannot forget Gaddafi, how he, immediately with the Triumph of the Revolution and seeing the aggression suffered by Nicaragua, expressed his solidarity with Nicaragua and gave us unconditional solidarity.
But Gaddafi went further, Gaddafi was a support in that region, who pushed for the Unity of the Arab Peoples. In other words, his job was that, to seek the Unity of the Arab Peoples, and to find how to also modernize the Libyan People. There, visiting the university, the youth studied there, the youth studied at the university, he gave them access to the university, logically with issues that are very delicate due to the culture that weighs on those peoples and that we have to respect.
But he pushed further looking for how to open spaces in his own town, and he reached the extreme memory, one of many days that we met with Gaddafi, he arrived with an escort of women, that was unthinkable, and there he was with the escort of women. Of course, Imperialism cared little, in what was progress, the well-being that Gaddafi brought him, and he brought him to the Libyan People, and also to the Peoples that are further south in that entire area.
Gaddafi, with the development that he had, with the productive activities that he carried out in Libya, with the investments that he promoted, then right there the labor force that was desperate because it did not have a job there, further south on the African continent, and that they continually sought how to emigrate to Europe, Libya at that time became a point of contention, because they assimilated that migrant population from other Sister Nations, families who wanted work and found it there in Libya.
That is, NATO, with the crime it committed in Libya, and NATO, that is, Europe, that is, the United States, destroying the Libyan State, destroyed it, one of the countries with the highest income, where Libyan families only for the sale from oil they automatically received a percentage; that is to say, of course they studied, they looked for how to work, but they received an income, because justice was done with the oil income.
And they destroyed Libya, they bombed it; I remember bragging to Mrs. Chancellor, the Chancellor was Hilary Clinton, Clinton’s wife. Look carefully, I’m talking about the people who were supposed to be nobler, kinder people, more respectful of International Law, and Mrs. Hilary Clinton giving some statements, that she was jumping with rage thundering against Libya and against Gaddafi. And how when Gaddafi was assassinated, because Gaddafi was not one of those who gave up, he was not one of those who sold himself; and when Gaddafi is assassinated, how the lady jumped for joy, toasting with champagne, for the assassination of Gaddafi.
And what did they do? They destroyed a State, there is Libya destroyed, and what was a point of retention for the migration that went to Europe, because the Europeans are enemies of the emigrants; That is where racism weighs, after they dominated and exploited those Peoples, that colonized them, sucked them in, well, then they no longer wanted to receive people from those countries who were looking for a way to go to work in Europe.
So by assassinating Gaddafi, destroying Libya, the retention point for emigrants was broken there. And that is why we have seen how emigrants to Europe began to multiply, thousands and thousands of emigrants, human beings who are not given security to enter and who are there in boats looking for a place to dock, and meanwhile they are they permanently repeat the sinking of ships and the death of thousands of emigrants. Europe should answer for these crimes before the International Organizations, before the Court, that famous Court that they mention so much, they should answer before that Court.
And he told them that, in those conditions in which Sankara was here in Nicaragua, he led him to write what Rosario read. She spoke to the heart, she spoke to the soul, and we immediately identified with her. He was the youngest Revolutionary Leader in Africa and with enormous authority, with great prestige.
Then we visited him there, we went to his country, to his land, Burkina Faso. We went there with Rosario, with Father Miguel d’Escoto, with Lumberto, and David McFields. We were a medium delegation, let’s say, there were about ten of us who were in the delegation, we went to visit Sankara, who had made the gesture of coming to show solidarity with us from lands so far away to Nicaragua. And we became Brothers, when he came to Nicaragua we became Brothers, and when we met there we also ratified that Brotherhood.
Then, in the midst of what are the conspiracies that the colonialists move in the African region, because, of course, the colonialists move their contacts, their influences, have their agents, to promote coups d’état, to promote terror, assassinations, in those circumstances murdered our Brother Thomas Sankara.
And his voice, his thought, his breath, is still alive, as our Brother, the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, has well expressed. And we tell you that Nicaragua has immense affection and a commitment to the battle that Sankara had to fight at the time, and that today you continue to fight. Because they managed to assassinate Sankara physically, but his thoughts, his ideas, his revolutionary position, his strength, this is still alive in the People of Burkina Faso.
I think we must give a round of applause here to these boys, these young people, these artists, they are artists, the fruit of the Sandinista Revolution. These groups have multiplied throughout the country carrying the Revolutionary Message; through music, through singing, there goes the forging of consciousness in Youth.
And they are tireless, because they have spent weeks touring the Departments, the Municipalities, they and other groups. Every day commemorating this date throughout the month of July. And today, last night, today, they have not rested, for that reason Darío said: Youth, Divine Treasure…! Youth, Divine Treasure! What strength boys, what strength girls. What Vigor!
That is given, yes, by consciousness, because they are not mercenaries, they are not looking to become millionaires with music… No! Their enjoyment is raising awareness, because they have awareness, they have dignity, they have loyalty to the revolution, loyalty to Sandino, loyalty to the people.
Dear Nicaraguan Brothers, Dear Nicaraguan Families, since this Act began in all the municipalities of the country, there they are, in the neighborhood, in the region, the families, the Youth are gathered there, in front of the television, in front of the screens, following up on this Act that we are transmitting on the National Chain, and also International.
We have very important issues to address, but before I forget, where is the compañero from Puerto Rico who gave me this ball? Let’s see, please come those who gave me the ball. This is a ball that has the Puerto Rican flag and has the number 21, which is the number of Roberto Clemente, this hero that we have here. The number 21.
They have given me this ball when I was coming in, and what can I tell you, young people? Like you, there are thousands of young people there in Puerto Rico, and thousands of young people in the United States, and in New York, and in Washington, and in New Orleans, everywhere, who love Puerto Rico and are safe, and we accompany them in that fight, that Puerto Rico will be Free, it will be Independent. Take our hug, our affection to the Youth and the People of Puerto Rico.
We have underlying issues there, which we want to share with the Nicaraguan people and with you Brothers of Solidarity who accompany us, who visit us. First I am going to refer to an issue that for Nicaraguans is a matter of Sovereignty.
We have, look how many heroes, there are thousands of heroes, but we have formally highlighted as heroes, something that is not easy, to place in the Constitution of the Republic of Nicaragua the Caciques Diriangén and Nicarao, who dealt the first defeat to the Spanish invaders .
It was an operation where Cacique Nicarao was closer to the area where the Spanish were already entering our territory, he had agreed with Cacique Diriangén, to welcome them, discuss with them why they wanted to seize the land. Because the conquerors were very clear, these lands were given to us by the king, they said, and here comes Christ, who blesses what the king does, and here is the little sword that puts order if what the king says is not fulfilled. That is, they directly threatened our ancestors with death.
And there an exchange took place, a discussion between Nicarao and Gil González, who was the conquistador who was entering Nicaragua here, and part of the plan was that, well, what do they want? Gold, of course, gold. Well, here we have these turtles, these chickens, we can give them a little gold too. No, we want all the gold. Well, what they had there they picked up and gave it to them.
That gave the conquistadores confidence, who then asked who was ahead. Cacique Diriangén was there with his tribe, with his people. There he is waiting for you too to attend to him, Nicarao told them. They went there very confident. When they arrived at Diriangén, there was an ambush, and not having the weapons that the Spanish had, with arrows, with spears, with clubs, the Diriangén combatants launched themselves, surrounded them, and in the end made them flee. First defeat of Imperialism, because it was Spanish Imperialism, Imperialism. First defeat of Imperialism in Nicaragua!
For this reason, we have Diriangén, Nicarao, then Presbyter Tomás Ruiz, of indigenous origin, priest, priest, but who began to fight for independence. The Spaniards took him prisoner, imprisoned him, kept him until Tomás Ruiz died. Father Tomás Ruiz is a National Hero… A true Christian!
Another hero, José Dolores and Andrés Castro, both were in charge of the Nicaraguans who defeated the expansionist troops of William Walker, who had imposed himself as President of Nicaragua, that the first law he had dictated was slavery. And the People rebelled, and there the Yankee Empire suffers its first defeat. It was fight after fight.
There also stands out another Nicaraguan, a Professor, Emmanuel Mongalo, who was instrumental in evicting William Walker’s racist and slave-owning Yankees, and he went with a torch to the fortress where they were locked up and managed to start a fire, a fire, they had to go out and there it was easy to defeat them. Then the US Navy came to rescue William Walker.
But before that, William Walker, who was President of Nicaragua, yes, he was formally President of Nicaragua, the Yankee Ambassador was at his inauguration, and since he was very upset with the beatings he was receiving, then he set fire to the City of Granada, the burned and left a sign in English that said: Here was Granada.
Then, Darío, indisputably Dario, Rubén Darío, who knew how to denounce the Empire and above all, he also knew how to really define what is hardest in life, and Dario does it masterfully, is a poem called “Afternoon of the Arena”.
They are fighting, there is the barrier, the public shouting: Another bull! Another bull! The bull is accompanied by the ox, because the ox is occupied later to go and remove the bulls that remain dead. There goes the ox to drag them out. So, the bull and the ox are talking, and the bull complaining because he is almost certain that he is going to die, and remembering how he dominated the field, how he lived freely with that great strength in the field and how now they had him there, because on the verge of death.
The bull complaining to the ox, and in the dialogue, a very rich dialogue, already at the end, when the time has come for the bull to be taken out, the ox tells him: Your time has come. Then the bull says: What is harder than death. Then the ox answers: Impotence! Impotence! And that goes for everyone. What is harder for a People than the impotence of not being able to rebel, not being able to fight, not being able to defend themselves, even at the risk of death.
Then we have General Benjamín Zeledón, who had to face Yankee troops in 1912, the North American Army that embarked in Nicaragua, and then this occupation was practically prolonged, until the General of Free Women and Men appeared. Augusto César Sandino, who faced them, stood up to them, and defeated them. They couldn’t defeat him, they had to retreat.
Their goal was to kill Sandino, he was a bandit, they said, they had to kill him. And they couldn’t! They brought the Air Force into combat here against Sandino, but they couldn’t, and in the end they had no choice but to withdraw.
And a President was left who was not a blind instrument of the Yankees, nor was he Zeledón. He was a President who thought that with the Yankees leaving, and since Sandino had fought for the Yankees to leave, then it was now necessary to find a way to dialogue, negotiate, so that the Country could live in Peace. And the talks began, and Sandino traveling from the mountains to Managua, and the other Generals told him: Don’t go, they’re going to kill you. But Sandino said: There is no further path left, if I have fought for Peace, and I have no enemies to face right now because he has already left and we have already defeated him.
Then, already on Sandino’s last trip to Managua, the President with the last name Sacasa offered him a dinner at the Presidency. Sandino goes there with two Generals, President Sacasa is there with his daughter, and when General Sandino leaves dinner and comes to look for the place where he was staying, they were waiting for him. The Yankees had already organized the plan with the Chief of the Guard that they had organized and who was in command of the Yankees, Somoza. And he kills Sandino.
And always listening to that song, “La Tumba del Guerrilla, where is it, where is it?” Well, Somoza insisted on erasing any trace of our General’s bones. That he burned it, that they threw it into the lake, that they passed it from one place to another; that is, there are thousands of versions. We have made efforts to find out how to find it, but so far it has not been possible to give…
The most important thing, yes, because Sandino’s bones could be in one place, in a cemetery, and Sandino’s Thought be absent, Sandino’s combativeness be absent. So here the important thing is that they assassinated Sandino, they destroyed his human matter, but they could not destroy the Spirit of Sandino, they could not destroy the Soul of Sandino. They couldn’t destroy it! So where is it? Where is? It is in the Soul of the Nicaraguan People! It is in the Heart of the Nicaraguan People! There is Sandino. What better place! What better place! Giving a thousand battles! Giving a thousand battles!
And the wife of our General Sandino, Blanca Stella Arauz, also a heroine.
Then, another Hero is Rigoberto López Pérez, that is a truly extraordinary hero, out of the ordinary, because when one goes to combat he has something to go into combat with, to have a weapon. If the fight is strong, he can retreat, and then give it continuity in another way. That is to say, the human being who goes to fight has the advantage that he is not going to commit suicide, but that he is going to fight to win it, and looks for how to arm himself.
Rigoberto left an extraordinary letter to his mother, where he explains to his mother that he has already had it in his mind that there is no other way to start destroying the Somocista tyranny than to execute Somoza. And he prepares himself with other Comrades, Comrades Edwin Castro, Narváez, Cornelio Silva, three Compañeros, and he, four, are conspiring, seeing where Somoza moves, where he can be executed.
But in all this, well, the other three Companions are like Rigoberto’s support force; because Rigoberto’s decision is that, in order to do it, he has to go in alone, and he has already practiced with the revolver, looking for how to hit the points where the bulletproof vest cannot reach, because he is starting from the principle that Somoza wore a bulletproof vest, so he had to look for points, because if it went to the chest, the bullet would not enter the bulletproof vest.
So he prepared himself very well, and he tells his mother to understand that he is going to die, he is sure that he is going to die, he is aware that he is going to die, but that it is a step that must be taken, for Dignity, for Patriotism , so he writes, he is convinced. In the end, he sneaks into a party that was given to Somoza, he is carrying the revolver, he managed to get in with the revolver, and he is dancing with a young woman, and when Rigoberto is facing Somoza who is seated, he pulls out the revolver, and the shots they were accurate.
The Yankees ran with Somoza at that moment and took him to the Hospital in Panama, a famous Hospital in Panama, in the Panama Canal, they took him there to see if they would save his life.
Meanwhile, what Rigoberto already knew was going to happen happened, he let all the cartridges go to Somoza, and then they fell on him. Logically at that moment, the fury of Somoza’s bodyguard was so great that they all began to parade to shoot Rigoberto’s corpse. A parade, shooting, shooting, shooting.
So Rigoberto is one of those truly extraordinary Heroes, he was a Being from another Planet, as the artists, the singers would say. And National Hero, Rigoberto.
Then, Carlos Fonseca, Carlos who knew how to link Sandino’s Thought to the historical moment that Nicaragua is experiencing at that time, because the guerrilla struggles against Somoza were continuing, and even the name given to the Front was discussed. The first actions of the Front were as the National Liberation Front, but then Carlos insisted that we had to start from our roots, from our History, from what Sandino meant within the struggle. And there the Sandinista National Liberation Front was born, thanks to Carlos.
Then, also among the National Heroes is a journalist who was of conservative thought but was not an extremist, let’s say: Pedro Joaquín Chamorro, Director of a newspaper, Diario La Prensa. Compañera Rosario worked with him, she was his assistant for years, and when I was in prison there my mother would come to talk to Rosario, to talk to him. In that sense he was not a poisoned anti-Sandinista. So Somoza ordered him to be assassinated, wanting to blame the Front, because the Front was already in battle.
Then we have another National Hero who is Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo. Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, many of you who have come to the Act there in the Plaza, not in the Plaza de la Revolución, but in the enormous Plaza, where we held the Acts until before the pandemic, and there were hundreds of thousands of people, the Plaza overflowed and the avenue overflowed. And who accompanied us there, who made the Message? Cardinal Miguel, despite the fact that the Vatican did not take a good look at that, and that is why they later sought how, in the medium term, to remove him, discharge him, send him to retirement.
The other National Hero, this was approved by the National Assembly for December 31 of last year. He came on December 31, which is the date Roberto Clemente died, Clemente died. He was a truly extraordinary hero, Clemente. He was the first to be concerned about the earthquake in Nicaragua, because he had been in Nicaragua, he had linked up with the Nicaraguan people.
He began to look for how to gather help there and charter a plane to bring the cargo here to Nicaragua. He could have sent the plane and stayed there with the family in Puerto Rico, and the family insisted that no, that he send the plane, that he stay there because it was New Year’s Eve. He insisted that no, that he wanted to come and deliver this aid directly to the families affected by the earthquake. He got on the plane, and then in flight time the plane was lost on radar, and Clemente was left at sea. In a totally extraordinary act of Solidarity!
Here you know that, at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Nicaragua has always taken territorial disputes, it has taken them to the Court, and Nicaragua abides by what the Court says, that is a principle.
A number of cases have been taken to the Court to delimit territory with Honduras in the maritime zones; to delimit territory with Costa Rica, on the subject of the San Juan River as well; delimit territories both in the Caribbean Sea and in the Pacific Sea. Well, I would say that in most cases we have gone well. In the case of the River, the Court made it clear that the River belonged to Nicaragua, but that Costa Rica had the right to navigate it from a certain place. And we fulfilled it.
With Colombia, the situation has been more complicated, because the Islands of San Andrés and Providencia are about 200 kilometers from the Nicaraguan coast and about 600, 800 kilometers from the Colombian coast; that is to say, they were part of the Nicaraguan territory when the divisions occurred as these countries gained independence.
But, the Caribbean Coast had been disputed by England, the United States was also disputing the coast logically, and since there was also the Panama Canal, the United States had two options, because they dominated, they ordered the studies to be done with their engineers from the Marina, did studies here in Nicaragua, which were presented to the United States Congress.
So the studies came from one side and the other, and in the end the US Congress decided that the Canal would go through Panama, and Nicaragua, the United States imposed a submissive government, imposed a law where Nicaragua could not open any works canal in its territory without the authorization of the United States.
At that time they had rivalries with the Europeans, they did not want the Europeans here either, when they said “America for the Americans”, it was for the Europeans to leave here, because the Europeans were not needed to have these countries under their control as they had them.
Then there were negotiations, where in the end this led to Colombia agreeing to hand over Panama, because Panama was part of Colombia, and in exchange, in the midst of those contradictions that existed with the English, then they were already occupying the territories that they had. The British have been occupying the Caribbean Coast, including, logically, San Andrés and Providencia.
So, that remained so until we began to take the matter to court. Because? Because it was not only the issue of San Andrés y Providencia that should belong to Nicaragua, many of the Nicaraguan brothers that you know were born in San Andrés y Providencia, and they have come here because it is closer than going to Colombia.
So, we went to the Court to claim, first, our territorial sea right, that is, the maritime territory that was denied to us, because what was Colombia doing? They have huge warships moving practically on the Nicaraguan coast and they would not allow Nicaraguan ships to go even a kilometer or two kilometers beyond their coasts, which is against the maritime territory rights of any country.
We spent years like this, they with their warships and we fighting at Court. In the end, in 2012, the Court ruled and made it clear that Nicaragua had the right to a territorial sea space in the Caribbean Sea of 75,000 square kilometers, that is, Nicaragua is already there.
When the ruling is handed down, President Peña Nieto is taking office in Mexico, and we went there to the Inauguration of President Peña Nieto, and the President of Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos, sent me to say that if we can meet, I say yes, logically.
We met there at the hotel and started talking; then he tells me: This issue for us is very complex. Uribe was already screaming that this ruling should not be recognized, because you know the Colombian Right is terrible; that this ruling should not be accepted and that the warships had to be kept off the Nicaraguan coast so that Nicaragua would not enter.
I told President Santos that I understood that it was not easy for him, first because the approval would have to go through the Colombian Congress; Compliance with a Court Judgment is not easy, even if it is by international law, because political contradictions enter into political games. And he tells me: It would be good to let some time pass and then we’ll talk to see how we resolve this.
I told him that we were clear that this could not be imposed by force, we did not have the strength to impose it by force, but that we were going to start using that space now with the little boats we had, fishing boats and the coast guards that we have, which are really tiny little boats next to the huge ships that Colombia has.
In effect, we were doing it there, the Army immediately began to operate with the Navy boats, even boats that did not have the capacity to make a complete tour of the new area that had been awarded by the Court to Nicaragua because it did not provide fuel, so they had to take another boat with enough fuel to cover them.
And when that type of incursion on our part occurred, the warships would appear and stand in front of our little boats, and they began to threaten that they were going to sink our little boat if it did not withdraw, which was in Colombian territory; and our people did not enter, they withdrew. It was like that, a risk, but there was no compliance with the Court’s ruling.
Later, there was a change of governments in Colombia, and none was interested in normalizing relations with Nicaragua, recognizing the Court’s ruling, which is mandatory for any country. So we went to the Court again and we told the Court that, since Colombia did not…, then we demanded more maritime space already on the area that had been assigned to Colombia from the San Andrés and Providencia Islands.
Well, that trial was much shorter, and this trial was ruled in favor of Colombia. In other words, the Court said that Nicaragua could not be given more maritime space that is already over 200 miles from the Colombian maritime spaces, because there is not even antecedents or precedents. So we logically accept the ruling.
And here, look closely, they say: “Great victory for Colombia in The Hague, the Court did not agree to Nicaragua’s claims to expand its Continental Shelf.” This was written on his twitter account by President Gustavo Petro. And he puts later: “We hope with this ruling to close the border controversy and focus on bringing sustainable development to our Archipelagos, ” speaking of Providencia and San Andrés.
So, what would we expect at this time from Colombia? What would we expect? They are acknowledging the ruling of the Court, which benefits them, they are acknowledging it, and we are abiding by it; But what about the Court ruling, what benefits us, are they going to abide by it? I tell President Petro: There is no other path to follow, and there we are left one by one, we won one, they won one, and we were left one by one. But we must abide by the ruling of the Court and for that there must be signs, because on the other hand there are already ex-Colombian Presidents who are there looking for a way to add fuel to the fire.
I want to remind President Petro that when we were in the war imposed by the Yankees in the 1980s, we worked for the formation of a working group seeking to prevent aggression, the war from the United States, and that is where the Group was formed, the Contadora and there was Colombia, and there we communicated very well with the Colombian President, he doing his job, the Foreign Ministers who went to the meetings too; that is, making an effort for peace in Nicaragua at that time.
Later, we already know the story, in the end we managed to achieve peace, and the war in Colombia was left. Due to our training, we logically had very good relations with the Colombian guerrillas. I even remember that, in a Peace Initiative, we were not in the Government at that time, but they invited me to participate, because here we had an experience that we had managed to achieve peace, of a war as heavy as the that we had here where the United States was fully involved.
So I went to Colombia, to Bogotá, from there they took us to San Vicente del Caguan where the Guerrilla was nearby, there they were making contacts, meetings, and we were there exchanging with them, both with the Colombian Government delegate and with the Guerrilla comrades.
There we met with Commander Manuel Marulanda Vélez, founder of the FARC, we met with him, we gave the Sandino Order to Commander Manuel Marulanda, the Colombian government knew that, but it was within our law. There on the mountain we gave the Sandino Order to Manuel Marulanda.
Then, in the end, there was no Agreement, some writings came out, the process was not consolidated, and this process managed to gain strength in recent times. I remember, with President Chávez, of course, they are neighbors of Colombia, they had all the impact there, so they were interested in promoting peace in Colombia, and I told him about these episodes, and of course we supported and support the Process of Peace in Colombia.
With this I want to say that we have not been nations alien to the Peace Processes; then, we have not been nations that have had great confrontations in another order, the problems have been of a bordering order.
So, if the Court has already ruled in their favor, and the Court has already ruled in our favor, there we already have the way out so that we can find a way to translate this into a Decree, Agreement, where it is clear that Nicaragua is already the owner, as in effect it is and is exercising sovereignty in those 75,000 square kilometers that the Court gave to Nicaragua in the Caribbean Sea. So, with the best spirit of peace, of understanding, I send this message to President Petro.
Then, I want to refer to the last meeting, the first after many years that took place in Europe, between CELAC and the European Union. It was a meeting to which Nicaragua logically, regardless of the fact that the European Union thunders against us continuously, the European Parliament speaks atrocities against Nicaragua, against us, and the European Parliament calls for more sanctions against Nicaragua, and from the European Union there are also violent voices in against Nicaragua, equally against Venezuela, even talking about preventing the arrival of President Nicolás Maduro at the meeting, under the threat that they were going to put him in jail.
So, we went to the meeting, logically, because we are not about to cut off communication with countries with which we do not share their policies in which they do not respect International Laws, in which they commit abominable crimes, but we want them to respect us, yes. They want to be running Nicaragua and, logically, according to the Yankees, according to the United States, what they want is to get rid of the Revolutionary Governments of Latin America.
And in this meeting the first point that was discussed there, the Europeans, is a meeting that the European Community with CELAC wanted to include the fascist, the Nazi President of Ukraine, who was there at the meeting. The Europeans pressed hard, but there the majority of the CELAC countries did not accept, and they could not seat the fascist President of Ukraine there.
Then the Europeans insisted on trying to introduce a few paragraphs where they blamed the Russian Federation for everything that is happening in Ukraine. Logically we could not accept this, but also, it did not make sense in the agenda between the European Union and CELAC to include these issues, when right there other countries made the European Union see that since 2009 they had spoken that from of 2020 they were going to deliver $100,000 million for the issue of the environment, and that they had delivered an amount in the year 2020, each year they were going to deliver that amount, and then they did not deliver anything, neither in 2021 nor in 2022 Not even in 2023 have they entered anything.
So they were complained about for this, and some Presidents there told them: But hey, you quickly take billions from yourself to put them in Ukraine and you cannot take the money for peace, for the fight against poverty, to protect the environment here in this Latin American and Caribbean Region. So, what they did was commit again, they said that now they are going to comply. We’ll see.
We present a first point there, which is the one that has to do with cluster bombs that are prohibited, by the United States themselves they are prohibited, the North American Governors themselves have said that these bombs are terrible because later they kill children, they kill the people, because the bombs are scattered everywhere. It is a bomb that, when it explodes, releases a bunch of little bombs and the little bombs are scattered on the ground. It is prohibited. The European Union has banned them too. So, the point that we presented, that a call be made to the United States not to be delivering these types of bombs to Ukraine. They simply vetoed the point.
Later, we raised the point that has to do with the judgment of the International Court of Justice on Nicaragua, which is a Judgment that is alive, it was ruled 37 years ago, but the Judgment is alive, and the United States does not comply with it. So, what are we proposing to them there? Well, that they accompany a call, an exhortation as they say, to comply with the compensation that they owe to Nicaragua, because the ruling of the Court is very clear in this sense, it even speaks of acts of terrorism on the part of the United States in Nicaragua.
I would say that these were two points that we raised there and unfortunately not… Now, there is a principle in these meetings, the Agreements must be reached by consensus. Consensus is that everyone has to be in favor, or at the last minute someone can abstain; but if one opposes, it no longer happens.
And what did they do? Some officials from the European Union came and later appeared accompanied by the President of CELAC, our dear Brother Ralph Gonsalves, who understand how difficult it is for him to be dealing with the Europeans, and they hold a press conference and at the press conference they communicate that the Agreement is out. And then they also say yes, that Nicaragua did not agree. So, right there there is no Agreement, those are the rules. But, then, what is serious about this? That the European Union is hurting CELAC.
The other point that they did not accept us there, because they have it with Venezuela and with Nicaragua they approved, and we logically do not hesitate to approve, the Resolution to lift the blockade on Cuba, that is, it is normal that we support that Resolution. It is outrageous, a crime against humanity, more than 60 years now.
So, we proposed that the Agreement be drafted there as well, calling for an end to the policy of aggressions, sanctions, against Cuba in the first place, Venezuela and Nicaragua. They did not accept to include Venezuela and Nicaragua. So what do we see there? A European Union that is putting the claws in CELAC, and CELAC will have to make its reflections, make its decisions.
Logically we are going to write to our brother Ralph Gonsalves, because there he, as coordinator, simply could not accept that there was an Agreement, when they themselves later came out saying that Nicaragua had not signed, had not accepted. Even as they are saying that there was an agreement, we ran to issue a press release to announce that Nicaragua had neither signed, nor had it supported, nor had it accepted, that therefore what they were saying was not valid.
Logically, this that is happening, these commitments that they acquire, that they say that now they are going to give $45,000 million, that’s what they announced. Before they came here with the cross and the sword, and they came with little mirrors too, so that our indigenous ancestors would know the little mirrors and see themselves in the little mirrors.
Now they come with promises of billions. In addition, what they have shown right now in their behavior in relation to these Agreements is that they do not comply. And then, when it comes to trade, they always want to have their advantages, they set the rules, their protectionist measures and leave the Latin American and Caribbean countries at a disadvantage. In any case, it will be a topic that will have to be discussed further.
And they are now looking for how to reach Bilateral Agreements with some countries. Hopefully those countries do well, we don’t want any country to do badly. But with the madness that they have, putting money into it, how they are putting money into Ukraine, the damage that the European economy is suffering, the damage that the global economy is suffering, well, we don’t see how what was agreed is on the right track, that they agreed, we did not sign it, at the meeting in Brussels.
This is what I wanted to share with you, dear Nicaraguan Brothers, dear Brothers in Solidarity with Brotherly Peoples and Countries. And to recognize what the Solidarity of the Peoples is, the Solidarity of the Peoples is always there.
I remember when I met Benjamin Linder, an American engineer who came here to the side of the mountain in the North, to help the population dig wells so that they would have water, and the mercenaries of the Ronald Reagan government assassinated him. And this is how they murdered other Swiss Brothers, Brothers from other Countries were murdered; I’m talking about the 80’s when there was a hard war.
In other words, the Solidarity of the Peoples, even in the most difficult moments, remains firmly, and we see and feel it every day when you write and defend the Truth of the Peoples, the Truth of the Revolutions, the Truth about Nicaragua. Thank you dear Herman@s, thank you dear Compañer@s.
Statements by Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
after the Act of the 44th Anniversary of the Sandinista Popular Revolution
Good evening. Here, happy, grateful to the God of all victories, because here we are, and with the desire to fight and to continue building the better Nicaragua that we all want; continue developing all the Social Programs, the Housing Programs, the Programs that communicate to us: highways, bridges, roads, health, education. Everything we have been doing with so much love, so much commitment, so much dedication, and continue to do it with more and more energy, because our people deserve it.
Today and every July 19 we feel more and more committed, because this people of ours is glorious, a Heroic People, a Formidable People, a Victorious People, because it lives from the Spirit, from Faith, and from Love.
That is why we say: Christ Jesus lives here, we live with Christ in the Heart, and that is Love, and it is with love and for love, Christian, Socialist and Solidarity, that we work and serve this great people of ours, who is the hero , who is the protagonist, who is the Owner of All Victories, Thank you.
Chicago ALBA Solidarity 
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