Act of handing over the Hospital Sandino A New Dawn in Bilwi
February 23rd 2026
Address by Daniel
Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, we are in a month where, as our General of Free Men and Women had then sworn, the Nation is not or sale, nor were the combatants of the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty going to surrender, much less sell out, and that's why he swore: A Free Patriotic Nation! A Free Nation! And he managed to defeat the invaders. They could not defeat him.
We all know the story, how after the withdrawal, in defeat, of the Yankee troops, from Nicaragua, defeated by an Army of Peasants, of Workers. Then Sandino, who had taken up arms not because he wanted to make war, but because he was a lover of Peace, and could not accept that Nicaragua was occupied by Yankee troops. And once the Yankee troops were withdrawn from Nicaragua, Somoza assumed the leadership of the Army, one organized by the Yankees and managed by the Yankees, but with a President apparently wanting to promote Peace, so they began to engage in exchanges.
Sandino knew the risks he was running, and the other Compañeros at the Head of the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty told him so. He made several trips to Managua and when he came to Managua, on the first trip, there were no Yankee troops here anymore; his generals told him then not to go to Managua, because they were going to assassinate him here.
And he replied: There is no other way but to risk one’s Life, we have risked it facing their troops, we have defeated them; now it is a matter of dialogue and seeking agreements, understandings, so that Peace reigns in Nicaragua and that there are no more wars in Nicaragua.
He went down once to Managua, and they met, they talked, with Somoza himself. That photo is historic, where Somoza embraces Sandino with the embrace of Judas, like the kiss of Judas to Christ that hug Somoza gave to Sandino, while telling him that they were Freemason Brothers. There's that picture for history.
The meetings continue, the Peace Agreements were signed; once the Peace Agreements were completed, the President invited Sandino to the Presidential House, here where the Monument of General Sandino is, on the Hill of Tiscapa, that was the Presidency. He invited him to a dinner, and Sandino went with various Compañeros, and Sacasa, who was the President, received him there at the Presidency with his daughter and with other Ministers. And who could have imagined that the death sentence had already been issued by the traitors.
After the dinner finished, they said goodbye, and Sandino began to go down the avenue, General Sandino began his way down; at that time they had named that avenue "Roosevelt Avenue", as a mark of servility to the Empire. They were going down and Somoza's guards were already near that area, they stopped them and made them get out of the vehicles.
Then President Sacasa's daughter appeared and told them, President Sacasa's daughter was insisting, but they already had the order to arrest him and assassinate him. And that's what happened on February 21st.
On February 21st he was murdered bear where the police station is currently located, the Ajax Delegado, in that area. A plan was under way to establish and build a monument there to Sandino, so that we might have a place there to visit him because Sandino Lives On! Sandino Lives! He was physically eliminated, but Sandino remains in the Heart of the People.
This month of February is full of historical events, before the battles of General Sandino, of the battles of Zeledón against the Yankees, there had been the battle of the Indian archers of Matagalpa with General José Dolores Estrada at their head, and Andrés Castro throwing that stone and bringing down the invader. This Heroic Deed cannot be forgotten, it is sown in our history.
And on February 1st, when Walker was the President of Nicaragua, but facing the resistance and struggle of Nicaragua’s heroes, of the barefoot fighters, poorly armed, but with very great consciousness of what their Patriotic Nation means, such that they were willing to give their lives to defend their Nation.
And one February 1st, when the Yankees were already in retreat and had taken up quarters in Rivas, they were quartered in a place that was known as El Mesón, they were quartered there, resisting the attacks launched by the Nicaraguan Patriots, they were still resisting. And a professor, Professor Emanuel Mongalo took the flame, the torch, and carried the torch to that hotel El Meson and set it on fire, and the Yankees began to retreat from the hotel. Heroic actions of a Noble People, of a People that does not seek to dominate anyone, only to be free.
And in this month of February we also commemorate one more Anniversary of the cry that rose up around the world: Monimbó is Nicaragua! February 26th and it was a surprise, because no one imagined an insurrection in Monimbó, but it was organized by the Artisans, the humble Workers of Monimbó, the Peasants, and they rose up in combat.
It was a combat that frightened the Tyranny, which began to send tanks, planes, to bomb the People of Monimbó so that the People of Monimbó would be terrified, and so the People of Monimbó would flee. However, on the contrary, the combatants of the Sandinista Front, what they did was move to Monimbó with Camilo at their head, and continue fighting the battle there .
That popular explosion was so big and the crimes committed there with the tanks, with the aviation were so terrible that it moved the Nicaraguan people, and it moved the world. They managed to kill most of the combatants, including Camilo, but that did not demoralize the people of Monimbó.
With the passage of time, they then organized and rose up again, finally accompanying the overthrow of the Dictatorship on July 19th 1979.
We are going to salute from this Olof Palme Convention Center, with all the Warmth, all the Love that Combativeness of the Youth, the Brothers and Sisters of Bilwi. They can see us and we can also see them there, they are there outside a Hospital which never in the history of Nicaragua could it be imagined a Hospital with so much development, with so much technology, with so many Doctors and people at the service of the population, serving the Brothers and Sisters of the Northern Caribbean Coast.
And there is a precise historical link between General Sandino and Bilwi, because when he told the traitors who had sold their weapons, that he neither sells out himself, nor surrenders, and while the traitors dumped their weapons there in the sea, there near Bilwi, in the sea there, they were terrified, they were cowards, and they ran to throw away their weapons there...
So General Sandino organized a detachment of brothers from Bilwi and a component of women from Bilwi who took on the task of going into the sea looking for those weapons, diving, until they rescued the weapons; and so a good handful of weapons were rescued that were immediately used, because they were given into the hands of the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty.
And General Sandino organized, there on the sea coast and on the banks of the Coco River as well, he organized the communities there, recognizing their value their right to own their own lands; because at that time they did not have ownership of their own lands.
And there in Bilwi we now have, we are going to give the data we have here, about what this Majestic Work is for the Health of our People, and we are sure that everyone who goes to that Hospital to request Medical Attention, whether from Bilwi itself, or from the Communities, whether from Communities that are further from Bilwi, or from the Mining Region, will be able to request medical attention with high-tech equipment and without being charged a cent.
There they are taking photos of the Hospital, a First World Hospital, just look at the corridors there look at the CAT scanner, a modern CAT scanner, which if someone wanted to get an examination privately would cost them a great deal. No one pays a cent there! We have doctors there; all the relevant teams are there. And there now is our Youth, the Youth that will deliver this afternoon, this evening, they will hand over that Hospital to the People of Bilwi.
The name of the Hospital was the idea of Rosario, who is grandniece of General Sandino, and not for nothing since today, Monday, February 23rd we will hand over the Sandino Nuevo Amanecer Hospital, of Bilwi on our North Caribbean Coast, allowing us to offer better conditions of service to more than 500,000 Brothers and Sisters.
The construction of this modern hospital cost a little over US$100 million, and it has all the most modern equipment available in the world right now; because the hospitals that we have been building recently now come with the most modern technology. They are expensive pieces of equipment, but it is for the health, the life of children, young people and adults. It is the health of the people.
We congratulate the Workers who worked on the construction of this Hospital, the Technicians, the Engineers, the Ministry of Health, Doctor Porras, the Minister of Health; he has to be responsible for these Works, and of course be accountable for these Works, to the People.
You can see how well the sign appears with the name Hospital Sandino Nuevo Amanecer, Autonomous Region of the Northern Caribbean.
And here, accompanied by Compañera Rosario, Compañero Gustavo, Compañera Raquel Dixon, also from the Caribbean Coast, yes, from Bilwi, Raquel Dixon, who is on the Board of the National Assembly, as First Secretary. I met Raquel on a visit to the Coast, meeting her there, a teacher and a brave, fully aware, combative woman, and who has enhanced the reputation of the Coast being on the Executive Board of the National Assembly.
We also have another Brother here from the Caribbean Coast, who is the Presidential Delegate for the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, Comandante Lumberto Campbell.
Our Brother, Fellow Combatant Army General Julio César Avilés, Commander-in-Chief of the Nicaraguan Army.
Colonel General Bayardo Rodríguez, Chief of the General Staff of the Nicaraguan Army; Colonel General Marvin Elías Corrales, Inspector General of the Nicaraguan Army.
First Commissioner Francisco Díaz, Head of the Nicaraguan Police Forces; Commissioner General Victoriano Ruiz, Head of the Nicaraguan Police Forces.
Compañera María Amelia Coronel, Minister of the Interior; and our beloved Brother and Compañero, Commissioner General Luis Cañas, Deputy Minister of the Interior.
Now, after listening, or already having listened to that Song of Honor, of Courage "Sovereignty” we have listened to it just now, so now we are going to hear the song "Hay Patria". So with “Hay Patria" the Compañeras and Compañeros are going to start marching there to hand over the Hospital Sandino Nuevo Amanecer, in Bilwi.
The hand over of this work, an extraordinary work for the health of the People, we do with all the Love, with all the Courage, with all Combativeness, because it is thanks to the Heroes and Martyrs, thousands and thousands; more than 100,000 just in the battle to overthrow the Dictatorship, and then the other battle to confront another Yankee invasion.
Because we triumphed in '79 and that was when that invasion came, with the President of the United States at the head of the terrorists, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague condemning the United States for its terrorist acts and ordering them to compensate Nicaragua.
The day will come when there will be a US Government that is truly respectful of the Laws, respectful of its own Constitution, respectful of humanity; there will be a Government in the United States that will compensate Nicaragua... That day will come!
These Works, these Hospitals, these Roads, the Houses, everything that is being built and handed over to the People, we owe as well to the mothers and relatives of the Heroes and Martyrs.
All of them are present, with General Sandino at their head, they too are present at the handover of this Hospital.
Sandino Lives On, the Struggle Continues!
Onward To Victory always!
We Don't Sell Out, We Don't Surrender!
We Don't Sell Out, We Don't Surrender!
We Don't Sell Out, We Don't Surrender!
Onward To Victory always!