Address by President Comandante Daniel Ortega Saavedra on the 41st Anniversary of Nicaragua's Ministry of Government
October 19th 2020
Beloved Nicaraguan Sisters and Brothers; dear families of this Country of Diriangén, of Darío, and of Sandino. Dear compañera María Amelia Coronel, our greetings from compañera Rosario, Vice President, and from myself; dear compañero, brother, Army General, Julio César Avilés Castillo, Commander in Chief of the Nicaraguan Army; dear brother, Compañero First Commissioner General Francisco Díaz Madriz, Director General of the National Police.
Compañera Rosa Adelina Barahona, dear dister, Minister of Defense; dear brother, compañero Luis Cañas Novoa, Vice Minister of the Interior, one of the founders of the Ministry of the Interior; there are several founders of the Ministry of the Interior, when Comandante Borge was its head. This is how the Ministry of the Interior was set up at the Triumph of the Revolution, it was as the Ministry of the Interior; Commissioner General Róger Rodríguez Guzmán, Vice-Minister of the Interior; dear sister, compañera Karla Salinas, Vice-Minister of the Interior.
Our greetings to all the compañeros of the Powers of the State, from the President of the National Assembly, our brother Dr. Gustavo Porras; from the President of the Supreme Court of Justice, our sister compañera Alba Luz Ramos; from the Supreme Electoral Council, Magistrate Mayra Salinas; from the Attorney General of the Republic, compañera Ana Julia Guido; from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, our brother Denis Moncada; from the Attorney General of the Republic, compañera Wendy Morales, and to all the National and Local Authorities present here.
And our warm embrace to all the families, to all the relatives of the sisters and brothers who are in the different Directorates of the Ministry of the Interior; of those who are in the National Penitentiary System, truly a work of service, in complex, difficult conditions. Complicated, difficult, for those ensuring the service, those receiving the service, and for the relatives of the person receiving the service.
And what can I tell you about the contrast between the care provided by the National Prison System, from the time of the triumph of the Revolution until now, and the care provided by the National Prison System during the time of the Somoza tyranny imposed by the Yankees, when, in my own experience, I spent more than seven years in the Modelo and other prisons in the country, and in the prison torture rooms.
When the Modelo Prison was being built, Somoza sent the personnel who were going to attend the Modelo Prison to Spain for training and preparation, and there they were taught their specialization by the fascists who had committed thousands of crimes there in Spain, who had imposed one of the most brutal tyrannies in the world, accompanying Hitler, accompanying Mussolini, in horrendous crimes, against their own people.
And I remember that, in the cells of the Aviación prison, one cell, Cell 16 was famous, it was a cell a little larger than this platform, there were 120, 150 prisoners sleeping on the floor. We were made to sleep on the floor because we were Sandinista prisoners, not by the prisoners, but by the wardens. And there we slept on the floor with other prisoners because there was no room for all the prisoners in the bunks that were there; there were bunks with one or two tiers, but there were very few bunks and so prisoners slept crosswise in the bunks, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Those who could sleep in bunks.
Then, there was a special bunk for the one who carried out the internal surveillance tasks at the service of the Warden, and who maintained authority, and with a truncheon. He was what they called the Cell NCO. That is to say, they were not trained officials like you, Dear brothers, compañeros, but in fact just prisoners with long sentences, criminals, who were chosen by the heads of the penitentiary systems of the different prisons in our Country, to be in charge of maintaining discipline among the inmates inside the cells. There they were all crowded together!
And don't even talk about the food! The food was known as "La Chupeta", because it was just a little tortilla with 4 grains of beans that could be counted and another 4 grains of rice that could be counted. That was it. That was the food.
Then, in the Modelo, they put us in a cell, we were 7 Sandinista Brothers, they put us in a cell each, to isolate us in a cell block. And there we found a little sign that said: “You have to stay standing all day. From the time you get up, until the night hours, you have to stand in the cell. You can't sit down, but you have to stand up.” Very small cells, of course! And “you cannot speak”; that is, we could not be talking to the other Compañeros, nor could we exchange words with the Guards who were watching us in the corridors of the prison. “You cannot sing”, forbidden to sing, forbidden to whistle; that is to say, it was a regime of total isolation. And then, the controls, the repression, the truncheon against the prisoners, that was at any time.
What a difference from the attention prisoners receive today. But we know how there are always prisoners who invent that they are being tortured. And the doors of the prison system, dear Nicaraguan sisters and brothers, Relatives of the prisoners who are in the prisons of Nicaragua, the doors are open for you to visit them, when it is said that they are being tortured, that they are dying, that their lips are being sewn up? I would like to see them prove a single case of anyone with their lips sewn up!
They invent things, any number of things they invent, simply to create a negative image of Nicaragua, before whom? Before the international organizations managed by the Yankees, such as the OAS, and to seek how to make their opinion heard in some countries of the European Union that so readily lend themselves also to being part of the interventionist policy ordered by the Yankees. The Yankees give them an order, and they run to repeat it. If the Yankee applies an illegal coercive measure, then they go and apply it; if the Yankee applies another illegal measure, then they go and apply that measure too.
And who punishes the Europeans or the Yankees? Who punishes them for the violation of human rights in their countries? Ah, but they feel entitled to judge our developing countries; they judge us, they label us, and they disqualify us, simply because they do not accept that these countries seek a little independence, a little autonomy, a little respect, some few respectful relations with the developed countries. No! They feel powerful, because they have colonialist, imperialist policies, some European countries have them, never mind the Yankee empire.
The Yankee empire is showing people right now, through its current government, it is showing what it really is. But that has always been the case. Some may be taken by surprised. But why be surprised if that has always been the behavior of empires?
You will remember, at school we knew as young people or in the family one learned of how the empires of antiquity confronted each other to dominate the known World when they had not yet arrived in America; then the different Empires that were being formed at that time were disputing the domination of Europe, and any country they subdued, that country lost its identity completely... It was lost!
The empire that persecuted and finally ordered the crucifixion of Christ, was the Roman Empire that had occupied the territory where Christ preached. And it was the governor, imposed by the Roman Empire, who had to decide before the People whom to execute, whether Barabbas, or Christ. Yes! Pontius Pilate, it was his role to take the decision.
As children, we also learned the history of Moses and the Seven Plagues of Egypt, and that subdued, oppressed, desperate People, then looking for how to find the Promised Land, crossing the sea and going across deserts. So what we are seeing now is nothing more than the repetition of a history, where Peoples, nations, that try to develop their own identity, are subjugated by the most powerful, the ones with more resources, that have more wealth, that have more weapons, and that feel entitled to take over the whole World.
This is what is being repeated now when the Yankee empire is on the warpath, not only against other peoples whom it attacks in a thousand ways, but also against the American People themselves. The American People have been historically attacked by that system. Unemployment, hunger, for North American families, have been there all the time.
I never tire of repeating how Rubén Darío, when he passed through New York, spoke of the 50-storey buildings, spoke of the rich and also spoke of how in the midst of so much wealth was, “My God”, he said, “the suffering, suffering, suffering ...” Because there, in the streets, American citizens were shivering and dying of cold, as they are still dying at this moment, and not because of the pandemic, but because it is a society that, despite such wealth, has not had the sensibility to give well being to all American families, not to mention immigrants.
They, who are immigrants themselves, who arrived, with blood and fire, to take over the territory that belonged to our indigenous ancestors, as happened with these lands, now they come and also persecute immigrants, imprison immigrants, imprisoning children, and murdering, every day they murder citizens generally of African descent.
And there is no worldwide campaign, when there should be a worldwide campaign. Where is the United Nations Commission on Human Rights? Where is it that does not dare to speak as it should against the barbarism of the US empire? Against the criminal, genocidal violation by the US government, when it blockades Cuba in the way that it has blockaded it, and goes crazy when, at the United Nations, countries exercise their right to vote and elect Cuba to the Commission on Human Rights?
170 votes for Cuba! Who is isolated in the world? In moral terms, in political terms, the Yankee empire is isolated? 170 votes! And out came the spokespersons of the Yankee Empire, upset, shouting, screaming, claiming human rights are being violated because Cuba had been elected among other countries that had every right to be elected,.
A campaign has also been launched, with fury, against Nicaragua, and that campaign intensified with the coup attempt in April 2018, and then they have maintained it and talk continuously about the need to bring democracy to Nicaragua, when in their own countries we see that they are incapable of respecting the principles of democracy in a comprehensive way.
Democracy, it is true, is in part holding elections, but it is also guaranteeing health care to the people after they have elected you, it is guaranteeing education to the people after they have elected you, it is looking for ways of working for the people after they have elected you, it is building fire stations all over the country, as we are building them here. We are going to have a fire station in each municipality of Nicaragua, already at this moment and you will have noted, and the Minister reminded us in her report, fire stations have been constructed in remote places of the country, out of 156 municipalities already fire stations have been constructed in 101 municipalities.
That is to say, we will begin the year 2021 with the goal of building 2 fire stations per month in the remaining Municipalities. To make progress, and then continue in the following year until we have a fire station in each municipality.
We already know what a fire station means, it gives security to families, it doesn't matter what political views a Family may have, it doesn't matter what ideology the family has, it doesn't matter! A family feels safe if they know there is a fire station nearby, because fires can happen at any time, in a poor person's home or in a rich person's home, they can happen at any time; in large buildings too there are fires. And forest fires, when we have to take care of the forests, and the more firemen we have too, with those firemen helping, that contributes to the protection of the environment.
I was saying, and I repeat, to the Nicaraguan families who have relatives imprisoned in the prison system, the doors are open. Every day they create scandals they invent for the media paid by the Yankee empire. Yes, families that lend themselves and when they are asked, in some cases the family has been recommended to go and see that their child is okay. What happens is on the one hand the family is saying publicly that their son is dying, and then they are asked to visit them, and they don't go, and when they are asked to go accompanied by some social organization so those accompanying the family can see for themselves, and still they don't go. And they don't visit because they know that everything they are saying publicly is a lie and that if they arrive at the place, accompanied by a social organization, they'll be shown up as lying. That is just one of the propaganda lines that they use.
In the area of Migration and foreign visitors we have the task of ensuring free passage in the borders. It is true that there have been situations directly related to the pandemic in which the borders have been closed, but the transit of heavy transport related to food supplies was being maintained, the transport of food acrross the Central American Region.
Then restrictions were placed, because the pandemic was escalating in Costa Rica, so communication and dialogue were sought with the Costa Rican authorities, and with all the Central American authorities, because it was affecting all of Central America and Mexico. In the end, agreements were reached to reproduce the model that Costa Rica was installing, to reproduce it in other countries, that is, putting into practice the principle of reciprocity, which affects us all, because traffic was not as fluid as it was before these measures were imposed.
Now there has been a new meeting and these measures are being dismantled and this will guarantee a better flow of transport. Because apart from the pandemic, there are protests in Costa Rica, there are roadblocks in Costa Rica... Yes, there are the roadblocks in Costa Rica! But of course since it's Costa Rica...
Ah, if those obstacles were in Nicaragua, the media would be on fire, thundering against Nicaragua, and the UN and OAS human rights organizations too needless to say. Even without that in Nicaragua, they thunder against us. And the Yankees, with whom we have communication, we have relations, they know perfectly well that Nicaragua plays a decisive role across all the institutions, because we coordinate with them, we work with the DEA, we work with the self-same US army and with all the Central American armies, and others further afield, and we work with the Central American police forces and others further afield, and on migration also with the Central American migration authorities.
They know perfectly well that Nicaragua is the safest country in the region, where there is a permanent fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. Far fewer drugs enter Nicaragua than enter even a neighborhood in the U.S. And why don't they stop the entry of those drugs? If they are a great power, why don't they stop it? Because their authorities are involved in drug trafficking as well, not all of them, but a good part of their authorities are involved in drug trafficking, and so they do business as well.
That's why the arrival of drugs in the United States is not stopped and this affects all of us Central Americans, and Mexico, because the drugs come from the South and will continue to be produced while that market is there in the United States. And they come and produce a report and name us, Nicaragua together with the Central American countries, as being responsible for not taking controlling the drug trade. They name us in their reports, simply as a result of an attitude of the Empire, which disqualifies us once and for all and looks for "the mote in someone else's eye", it goes looking for the mote in these countries, when it has the great beam in its own eye, in its own country, because they are the great consumers, that's where the money is to pay for the drugs.
If wanted to they could manage to control that, they could do it, but it has become a big business, because the North American Banks are big money launderers too, but they do not sentence the bankers to jail, they just fine them. So, if they wanted to they could control the entry of drugs into the United States, if they would only put an end to the corruption they have in the migration controls to enter the United States, by land, air and sea; they could put an end to the corruption in their police forces, in their institutions, in their intelligence agencies, in the DEA, in the FBI. There is corruption, they know it perfectly well. Then drugs would no longer enter the United States in the form in which do now, and so the movement of drugs would be totally reduced, and therefore the production of drugs in Colombia would be reduced, because it would no longer be a viable business for those who produce drugs in Colombia to producing them, since there would be no market.
The big market is in the United States, it is in the developed countries, and it is there that they have to look for how to control it. Here we do it out of principle, out of conviction, and because we have institutions that are totally committed against drug trafficking, against organized crime, against terrorism.
They are the ones who go around promoting terrorists everywhere, promoting terrorists here in Nicaragua, financing terrorists who disguise themselves as "democratic" politicians, but they are terrorists, who murder citizens, teachers, murder compañeros of the Police, murder compañeros of the Army? They have done it! We have given the facts countless times already. And that's a behavior that doesn't change, and there are resources flowing to maintain those terrorist activities.
Well, they are looking for a way to give a bad image of Nicaragua, where even with this pandemic Nicaragua is one of the countries that has done best out of all countries; because while it is true that here we have had several cases, hundreds of cases, and we have also had deaths from the pandemic, but we have launched systematic campaigns through the Ministry of Health so that basic, minimal protective measures are taken: hand washing, masks, distancing; that is to say, elementary measures, but we cannot force anyone either, it has to be voluntary; the measures get explained, and everyone takes them voluntarily.
Here, well, I would say that the pandemic is waning, although of course, we cannot be over-confident, because now the epidemic has again shot up in the United States and in European countries, and in other Latin American countries the epidemic has also shot up again, it has multiplied.
The number of deaths has multiplied by thousands, and at this moment there are something over 40 million 100,000 or 200,000 citizens in all the planet Earth that have been affected, of which 1 million 100,000 have died. Most of them have been infected in developed countries, and also in developing countries, some with a small population, others with a lot of population, but these phenomena have occurred there, such that they have even taken measures to isolate the population, to lock up the population. And people do not want to be locked up.
So, state of siege! The army goes out into the streets, they send out the army and the police so that people don't leave their homes. But of course, a month goes by, two months go by, three months go by, and people become desperate, and they begin to get sick, and their defenses are lowered, and they begin to suffer from stress and panic. So in the end they decide to go outside, and there has been the conflict right now in Europe, of people who want to get out. And they're going outside, some are going outside with their masks, others are going outside without their masks, but they feel that there's no other way.
And it seems that all the people who were locked up and who are now starting to go outside, some of them are starting to get out and about too, of course they were not out in the streets, but they cannot stay locked up all their lives; so once out and about they start to receive the impact of the virus that is multiplying by thousands every day. But thank God the number of deaths does not multiply per day in the same way as the number of people who are are infected by the virus or are carriers of the virus, look at the figures, 40 million infected, 40 million 100,000, and 1 million 100,000 dead.
Of course, as I told you, we cannot be over-confident, we must always continue to fight the pandemic in the way we have fought it to date, appealing to the sense of responsibility, to the conscience of all people, and without taking extreme measures, which in fact negatively affect families.
Well, dear sisters and brothers, dear friends, we are going to conclude, I am going to conclude by referring to a political, social fact that indeed has to do with Democracy. Bolivia! Bolivia! A few months ago, almost a year ago, when Evo was a candidate for the Presidency, all the polls showed a victory for Evo, and there was this organization that has been an instrument of death, of the aggressive and expansionist policy of the United States. There it was... the OAS.
Well, and there were the usual arguments like those that take place in every type of election, there was questioning. There is no election where there is no questioning, in States everywhere, nor is it generally mentioned, nor is it said that in the United States too, there are questionings there in the American elections. As if they do not have them.
Now, even the President himself is making accusations that they want to cheat him, that they are already putting in false votes, falsified votes from the Democratic Party, and he's accusing the Democrats of being communists. Imagine, what an incredible thing! It is madness, complete madness! communist Democrats! Since when have the Democrats been communist?
In fact it was Kennedy, a Democrat, who began the aggression against Cuba, who endorsed and organized the invasion against Cuba, and to whom did the Kennedy Administration, which has been presented as the most democratic Presidency in the history of the United States, turn? To whom did he turn? He turned to Somoza, and he turned to the Guatemalan dictatorship, the military, so that here in Nicaragua on the Caribbean Coast they could train the brigade or brigades that were going to invade Cuba. And here Somoza went to see them off when they were already boarding their boats to land in Cuba, which was when Somoza told them, and Fidel remembered it here on the First Anniversary of the Revolution, that Somoza told them: “And bring me a hair from Fidel's beard”.
Look at the relationship between a government being called communist right now, or rather a party that was in government, that party is being called communist, when that party in fact behaved like that. There is nothing communist about the Democratic Party, there is nothing socialist about it; they are the ones who destroyed Libya, there is Libya torn apart as well as other nations in that area, and that provoked emigration from Africa across to Europe.
Then, there in Bolivia they made a plan, being clear that the 2019 election was won by Evo, and the plan was to begin to question the election, claiming that things were not going well, there were no results yet; then the OAS came, fulfilling its task for the Empire, and said: These elections are flawed, therefore they must be repeated. And this was immediately accompanied by a coup d'Etat against compañero Evo Morales, where the Army and the Police told Evo that he'd better leave, even though he was the President, and Evo, to avoid bloodshed, has no other choice but to leave for Argentina.
But they continued to fight the battle, and these elections that took place yesterday were postponed once and then postponed again, because, of course, the other side were doing their research and they realized the strength of the Movement towards Socialism which our brother Evo Morales organized and heads. But they never imagined that there would be so many votes for compañero Luis Alberto Arce Catacora. Luis Alberto was the presidential candidate, together with compañero David Choquehuanca, the candidates supported by Evo, by the Party, by the MAS.
And the other side thought that since these candidates didn't have the strength that Evo had, the image, the strength that Evo had, they thought that they were going to win the elections. And it turns out that the number of voters in favor of the MAS and therefore of President Luis Alberto Arce, and we do call Luis Alberto Arce President, because in fact, although the official result is not available, as you well know one always has to wait for the official result as we do here too, and you sometimes have to wait several days for the official result, but even before that, given the reality, the various political parties have already made their statements recognizing which party won.
So there the opposition parties, since the gap is enormous, cannot invent a second round, because there whoever gets 40% of the vote, if the one in second place is more than 10% behind, then whoever reaches 40% has already won. But in this case, Luis Alberto, our brothers, won 52% and a little bit more. So the second and third places have already recognized, and even the electoral council was in fact already recognizing the victory.
And there the great lesson is that, no matter how powerful Imperialism is, no matter how powerful its instruments are, or the traitors who do the work of Imperialism there, no matter how devious the OAS is, because the OAS is there too, there are times when the force of the Peoples is so powerful that it rises up, through its votes, in a way that defeats the conspirators.
Today it has been demonstrated who was lying a year ago, when they said that the elections had to be annulled because there must have been fraud for Evo to win. What is being demonstrated is that that infamous lie has fallen apart.
And today we have spoken with brother Evo Morales, by telephone; we have spoken with Luis Alberto, President Elect, with David Choquehuanca, Vice President Elect, and we have conveyed to them the Joy of our People. Because this is the Victory of a People that comes from our roots, from a People that is demonstrating, that no matter how powerful the Empire is, or how powerful their media and right there in Bolivia and beyond there was a world wide campaign against the MAS, against Evo, but when the Peoples take the decision to win, then the Peoples achieve Victory.
Congratulations Bolivian Brothers!
Congratulations Evo!
Congratulations Luis Alberto Arce!
Tonight I want to express to the Mothers and Relatives of all the Brothers and Sisters who have given their lives over the years, from the foundation of the Ministry of the Interior, and then too in the Ministry of the Interior, that their children are present in the hearts of all the compañeros who work in the Ministry of the Interior. That their children are present in our hearts. That their children accompany the work of the sisters and brothers who assist families when there are fires, of the sisters and brothers who are care for the prisons, of the sisters and brothers who facilitate the movement of people, by land, air and sea. Their children are present, in fulfillment of the ethos they bequeathed.
And to you, beloved relatives, children, widows, mothers, we say that with them and for them we will continue to fight for what they fought for, namely for the People, for Nicaraguan families, for Peace, so that in Peace we Nicaraguans can see each other, treat each other, as Christ commands, as brothers and sisters.
Long live the Heroes and Martyrs of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Interior!
Honor and Glory to the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Government!
Honor and Glory!
Forever Until Victory, Sisters and Brothers!
And Long Live Nicaragua, Blessed and Forever Free!
Long live peace!
Long live Peace!
And long live Peace!