ADDRESS IN TRIBUTE TO DR. PAUL OQUIST KELLEY
Place: Building of the Secretariat of the Presidency: Dr. Paul Oquist Kelley
Friday, October 18th 2024
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Compañero Laureano Ortega Murillo, Delegate of the Presidency of the Republic;
Compañera Arling Alonso, First Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the National Assembly
Compañeras and Compañeros, Deputies and Deputies of the National Assembly;
Relatives of Fellow Doctor Paul Oquist Kelley;
Compañeras and Compañeros of the Secretariats of the Presidency;
Friends of the Citizen Power Media.
1. We are gathered on this 81st anniversary of the birth of our brother Paul Oquist Kelley to recognize his life fully dedicated to the Sandinista Popular Revolution.
2. In this tribute to our brother Paul, there is the drive and presence and the special affection of our Compañero President of the Republic, Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra and of our Vice President of the Republic, Compañera Rosario Murillo Zambrana, with whom Paul worked most of his life analyzing, studying, keeping himself up to date, proposing and executing tasks. In short, working, always working, in total immersion and commitment in favor of your beloved Nicaraguan people and the Sandinista Popular Revolution.
3. If we look at Paul's resume we will see that he obtained a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Berkeley, California. Well, for many years I thought it was economics he had studied, given the skill with which he handled economic and development issues.
4. From a very young age he participated in activities promoted by civil rights movements in his country. Rights of the black population, of women, of Latinos, especially agricultural workers. From here he began to glimpse the social and political consciousness that would end up forging both his revolutionary vision of the world and his life.
5. In long hours shared with him, I came to learn that the first time he visited Nicaragua was in 1961, at the age of 17, after his high school studies at Belmont High School in Los Angeles, where he met Patricio Arguello Ryan, the national hero who fell fighting Zionism in September 1970. This friendship would define Paul's political life, and he would join the FSLN hand in hand with Comandante Julio Buitrago and Patricio Arguello Ryan.
6. In 1969 he returned to Nicaragua for the fifth time with his wife Pilar Aguilar Matamoros. He worked on different tasks for the Liberation of Nicaragua and the triumph of the Sandinista Popular Revolution. Already in 1980 he was declared a son of Nicaragua by a decree of the Government Junta and in 1983 he renounced American citizenship.
7. During the first stage of the Revolution he worked on tasks organizing information systems. Although he had no formal position reflecting the profound importance of Paul's work in data collection, analysis and proposals. He was in charge of collecting and providing efficient, timely, truthful information so that our President Comandante Daniel Ortega at the head of the National Reconstruction Adminsitration could make the right decisions. And he continued to do that for the rest of his sojourn on this plane of life.
8. Paul was part of the legal team which, based on the assembled evidence, defeated the Yankees in the arena of the International Court of Justice, convicting them of crimes of terrorism. He was central to the calculation of the damages caused to our people, determining the figure of US$17 billion dollars, which they still owe us.
9. In the second stage of the Revolution, as Minister and Private Secretary of National Policy of the Presidency of the Republic, he accompanied Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario in the design of how the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity would be arranged so as to carry out the transformations by the Sandinista Popular Revolution, in this new context.
10. Paul spoke out forcefully, with the firm voice of our Revolution on the issue of the destruction of the planet as a result of Savage Capitalism. He rejected double standards, half measures and lukewarm measures and demanded at the highest levels the urgent and necessary measures to be taken to save the planet.
11. His commitment to this cause led him to be appointed to important positions and spaces in the world, especially at the United Nations, being considered one of the world's experts on climate change and development financing. What pride for Nicaragua! What pride for our Revolution!
12. He accompanied another great man of the Sandinista Popular Revolution, Father Miguel d'Escoto, our Chancellor of Dignity, when Padre Miguel was elected President of the UN General Assembly in 2008.
13. During the coup attempt in 2018, Paul was in the front ranks. We saw him fighting in the world's media, in every space, at every opportunity, firm as always, denouncing this attempted coup d'état against our people and our Revolution. Condemning with clear and forceful arguments the terrorist, criminal and destabilizing actions that the imperialists of the earth tried to carry out hand in hand with the local sell-outs, the habitual oligarchs. Paul was there, defending the Victories of the Nicaraguan People.
Compañeras and Compañeros,
14. In this tribute to our Brother Paul Oquist Kelley we celebrate his Life, his Commitment, his Loyalty, his Courage, his Love for Nicaragua and his invaluable contributions to the Nicaraguan People, to the Sandinista Popular Revolution.
15. I remember his imposing voice telling me "Valdrack, it's not over till its over– - it's not over until it's over, when it was three in the morning and one was barely awake, encouraging me to keep up with him. Many of us remember his relentless dedication to what he did and that he did it with passion and skill.
16. In short, a being with a special and extraordinary intelligence, a visionary, always with uncompromising energy, who tirelessly served our People and the Sandinista Popular Revolution.
17. In this place, which was for many years the base for his struggle, from the first stage of the Sandinista Popular Revolution and later when the People-President took office again, in every way, in these corridors, auditoriums and offices.
From here, where Paul served the People of Nicaragua, the Sandinista Popular Revolution with his Strength, his Energy, his Spirit of Struggle and Victory, his Firmness, his Consistency, his unyielding Loyalty, his Love put to every test. Here where he served all his life this Nicaragua that he made his own and that in turn made him her own. Who moved to another plane of life convinced of the correctness of his revolutionary ideas and of his pride in being Nicaraguan.
18. This, his workplace. This, his trench of combat, where his energetic, cheerful, pure, contagious laughter still resounds. With the greatest justice it is being named "Presidential Secretariat Building: Dr. Paul Oquist Kelley".
19. I say with total gratitude that I had the opportunity to learn from his enormous intelligence and his vast experience. I keep in my heart the pride of having met him and that he ever said to me: my friend. Because for me, he was both a friend and a teacher.
20. I'm sure that when he may have arrived at some checkpoint up above, and may have been asked where he came from, he took out his Nicaraguan passport and proudly, in his special accent, said: Paul Oquist, Revolutionary Nicaraguan Combatant!
Paul Oquist lives in the hearts of the Nicaraguan People!
Thank you very much.