Message from President-Comandante Daniel at the XIX Summit
of Heads of State and Government of ALBA-TCP "Alliance for Life and Independence".
June 24, 2021
Thank you, beloved brother President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro Moros. Our greetings to the heroic People of Bolivar, of Chavez, of Nicolás. Our greetings to the soldiers and officers who parade today to commemorating the 200th Anniversary of that historic battle, the Battle of Carabobo.
It is no coincidence that this year, 2021, we are commemorating the Bicentennial of Independence in the Central American Region and also further north, Mexico. In other words, all of America that was occupied, subjugated, subjected by blood and fire to the Spanish Empire, that Indigenous America also mixed with Spanish blood in Carabobo; as Fidel said, this America said "Enough!" and set in motion the chariot of History. And by setting the chariot of History in motion, this America, as Fidel rightly stated, this America said "Enough!" and so the chariot of History took its course.
Because the Battle of Carabobo was decisive, it was a strategic blow, the mortal blow to the Spanish Empire's structure of domination, a structure of domination that even practiced slavery, importing slaves from Africa after enslaving and exhausting the indigenous population. They needed to bring a fresh labor force and they brought it from Africa.
And who dominated this America? The Spanish Empire, which exercised its dominion in conspiracy with those who blessed slavery in the name of Christ, the loss of life of indigenous families, the destruction of the indigenous heritage, trying to erase History, trying to erase Indo-American Culture.
But with the force characteristic of the Indo-American Culture the Peoples in Our America rose up, with that force Bolivar and the patriots that accompanied him in those Heroic Journeys that our brother Nicolás has described to us; truly extraordinary Journeys, worthy episodes lived by the Heroes that cleared the Way, opening the route for Independence, from Spain, and what of course later came to pose a new challenge for us.
That was our First Independence, and later we would have to fight, as we are fighting, for our Second and Definitive Independence. And that historic step was taken by Cuba, and then other Peoples advanced along the same path, liberating ourselves, just as Cuba, with the force of Ideas, Reason and Arms. There was no other alternative in the historical circumstances at the time.
That is how the Sandinista Revolution came about and that is how our friendship with Cuba was born, with Fidel, when we were fighting the battle against tyranny, which was nothing other than the battle against Imperialism, the Imperialism that had used the tyrannies it had installed across the length and breadth of Latin America to expel Cuba from the OAS.
Who were, among others, these "democrats"? The "democratic governments" that expelled Cuba from the OAS, who voted there in that moment of submission to the Empire, governments imposed by the Empire itself, servants of the Yankee Empire? The Somoza government... Yes, the "democrat" Somoza voted there! And we could go on naming, one by one, the dictatorships that existed at that time in Latin America, all subjugated, because they had all been imposed at the same time by the yankee Empire, all to serve the yankee Empire.
And instead, when Cuba was expelled from the OAS in those historical circumstances, Cuba managed instead, thank God, to get out of that sewer that was dirtying and staining, and which continues to dirty and stain, the Peoples of Our America who are still members such that, once and for all, we should stop being members of that sewer, and strengthen our Identity, our Culture, our Independence.
It is clear that this is an instrument of domination of the yankee Empire, which has been used not only to expel Cuba, but also to invade Nations that were fighting for Freedom and became a threat to the enemies of Freedom; that is to say, to the yankee Empire.
It was the OAS that in recent times organized the invasion of the Dominican Republic. That cannot be forgotten! And where did the troops come from, along with the yankee troops, that came to occupy the sacred Dominican soil? Somoza's troops joined those "liberating troops", as they called them; Brazilian troops, dominated and serving the Yankees, when that People was governed by a dictatorship; they also marched there. All the Dictators imposed by the Yankees sent their troops to invade the Dominican Republic.
That is to say, the OAS is a weapon that the Empire has available, with which it threatens and has threatened to invade Venezuela. They have not given up on invading Cuba or Nicaragua, they always say that "all options are open", that is the answer given by the Imperialists of the Earth.
That is why I think that we are fighting a battle where, on the one hand, after 200 years we are moving forward in the construction of our Second and Definitive Independence, and in spite of ideological differences, in spite of the influence of the Empire over the OAS, that yankee Empire instrument of shame and death, in circumstances that only historic moments of Heroism, of Steadfastness, of Freedom, of Love for the Integration and Unity of the Peoples can produce, in those circumstances, we in Latin America and the Caribbean achieved the Reuniting of our Peoples, of our Nations in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
A miracle, thanks to the revolutionary processes that had been developing in our countries via different ways, and where our brother Comandante Fidel and our beloved brother Comandante Hugo Chavez, vanguard of the vanguard in that Battle, defenders of those principles of Unity, unquestionably stood out.
And we now have that new instrument, that new instrument is an instrument which will totally bury the OAS. The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is going to bury the OAS, and then we Latin American and Caribbean peoples will be able to say: Now we are Free! Now we are Independent! Now we have the Unity and a Meeting Point that gives us the Strength of which the Empire deprived us with the tools at its service !
In these days of pandemic we would have liked to be with you, beloved sisters and brothers, in a face-to-face meeting, but here, with great limitations, we have started a vaccination process , we began the vaccination choosing to vaccinate People with serious illnesses and who, if they were affected by the virus, would run a high risk of dying. And the vast majority of these people who are from poor backgrounds and would not have the means to buy the vaccine, have been lining up to be vaccinated.
The vaccine has been delivered and given to them, with no political or ideological distinction. Hard adversaries of the Revolution, of Sandinismo, have come to sit in line and have recognized the efficient, professional, generous way in which our doctors and nurses are working in different points of the national territory, taking the vaccine to the different departments, and from the departments to the different municipalities.
And they have told us that we are at the vaccination age, because here the vaccination age we set at the beginning was 50 years of age, but with emphasis on people were already unwell.... Now it has been extended, and is even been applied to other younger people, and we have been asked why we do not get vaccinated as we have been waiting for as many Nicaraguans as possible to get vaccinated, and we have been making great progress with the people most at risk.
So we hope to get vaccinated next week, we announce it here, we are going to get vaccinated next week. I am about 75, Rosario just turned 70, on the 22nd she turned 70, and the doctors tell us that we should get vaccinated.
So we will be getting vaccinated next week, and so we will be able to take part being physically present in events, what an Honor it would have been for us to have been able to be with you, beloved brothers and sisters, on this day. But soon, God willing, soon we will meet, Nicolás, we will meet with you, with Cilia, with Arreaza, with Delcy, we will meet with you all there. Because, well, in these moments, we are at the most difficult moments of our development, since the Empire sees us growing, sees us getting stronger.
They want to carry out a coup d'état against Pedro Castillo the teacher... Yes, some information is already coming out here where they are saying that they are dragging things out, dragging things out, and in fact not allowing the teacher to assume the presidency in Peru; Peru, which saw another monstrosity, resulting from the weakening of the OAS, when what the Yankees did, together with the OAS itself was to invent the Lima Group; but the strength of the Peoples is greater.
They are making more threats against us, demanding that we release a group of citizens about whom there is proof of criminal money laundering; money laundering derived from operations by the US government and its intelligence entities to pass resources through different agencies, millions and millions of dollars, camouflaging them as if they were for a certain kind of work, when it turns out that the money is for other purposes altogether, promoting a coup d'état, like the one they tried in April 2018. All this is becoming clear.
Twenty people are under arrest, and some people are rending their garments, why? Because they are agents serving the yankees. Here thousands of citizens are in prison, a good part of them are of poor origin, most of them are of poor origin, and poor people are arrested who steal clothes from a wire fence where someone left clothes out to dry. And those people go to jail. There are no human rights concerns. Poor people fall into delinquency, or maybe young people who go around stealing cell phones; well, and there is nothing for it but to capture them, because there has to be some kind of order, stability.
In other words, there must be Stability and Security, there must be respect for the Law, and the Law is not only to be applied to poor people who commit crimes; the Law must also be applied and is being applied to aristocratic people, people who have been frequent visitors to Washington, frequent visitors to New York, with tickets and hotels paid for by the yankee Government, and even expenses, people who move resources and move finances.
Right now as we are going toward the elections next November 7th and our opponents are clear that these Elections are going to be won by the People; the People will win them with the Sandinista Front in the lead, because they themselves are clear about the amount of public works being carried despite the fact that this is a very poor People, with a very small budget, but they see how many public works, how many roads, how many highways there are now...
And how did our health service come into existence? With the Revolution. And where did we get the blueprint for this health system? From Fidel, from Cuba. We went to Cuba seeking support, Solidarity to develop our health system, to develop education, to launch the Literacy Campaign so as to make people literate.
It was Cuba... Why? Because those services in Cuba were not sold as a merchandise, but are given to the People as a benefit earned by the People, the People's rights to Health and Education. And that allowed us, from 1979-80, to lay the foundations of an Education and Health System, which allowed us to advance in the midst of a terrible war launched by the yankees, precisely for which they were condemned at the end of June 1986 by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
On June 27th they were condemned by the Court and the Court ordered them to indemnify Nicaragua. At that time it was about US$17 billion for all the destruction they had caused in our country, destruction of schools, bridges, ports, airports; thousands of dead, thousands of wounded, thousands of mutilated.
US$17 billion, which today is much more, and I told President Obama this when we had the meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, I told him so. I told him about Cuba, that it was about time they lifted the blockade, and I told him about the debt they had with Nicaragua, which is now much greater, and they are obliged to honor it. They who say they are "respectful of International Laws", they who call themselves "democrats", are obliged to recognize that judgment, that sentence, paying the Nicaraguan people so as to rebuild what was destroyed.
Of course, we have been moving forward in recent years with greater momentum thanks to ALBA; that is to say, we spent 18 years out of government, from 1990 to 2007, when we regained power, and it was then that we immediately joined ALBA; just after our inauguration on January 10th 2007, right here with President-Comandante Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, Evo was also present, and the Vice-President of Cuba, Machado Ventura, was there too.
Here in the National Rubén Darío Theater, we immediately signed our adherence, joining ALBA, the New Route being built, that was opening up and that would give birth to the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. And ALBA continues still to be the nucleus for strengthening the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States; ALBA continues to be the nucleus for reinforcing the defense of our Peoples against imperialist aggression, within the international community.
And on this day, beloved sister and brothers, we want to tell you that threats like those they make against Cuba, against Venezuela, and when they say Nicaragua must be attacked, because Nicaragua does not have the strength that Venezuela has, nor Cuba; Nicaragua is easier, they say, because it is weaker, poorer. In other words, they measure everything in terms of poverty. What a cowardly mentality!
They forget that this People and this impoverished country defeated the first yankee expansionist invasion in the century before last, in 1856, when the yankee government ships came to rescue the defeated yankees, after they had even gone to the extreme, I do not know if this happened in other Countries, but here they went to the extreme that the yankee mercenary William Walker appointed himself President of the Republic of Nicaragua, and at his swearing in, at his swearing in, at his inauguration, the yankee ambassador was present. And Walker appointed a priest as his ambassador to the United States, and the priest went there as Walker's ambassador to the United States. Imagine the shame of it!
But they were defeated even though they caused much pain and death, they set fire to the city of Granada, in a fit of anger when they saw they were defeated they burned down the city of Granada and left a sign that said, "Granada used to be here". But our People was not demoralized, just because the yankees were there.
And when a Nicaraguan soldier, sergeant Andres Castro ran out of ammunition, because the rifles that the Nicaraguan troops had were not repeating rifles, then what did he do? He took a stone and threw it at the yankee, and managed to knock down the yankee, Andres Castro, who is a National Hero. He is one of our National Heroes.
Then later the yankees came again to invade Nicaragua, overthrowing a government that did not obey them, a Liberal Government, and they overthrew it! And then came the rebellion led by another National Hero, General Benjamin Zeledon when the fighting broke out.
Back then Zeledón, surrounded by the yankee troops that had landed in the Port of Corinto and made their way from Corinto to Masaya by train; when the yankee troops led by a colonel told Zeledón to surrender, Zeledón sent a letter to his Family, but he also replied to the yankees that he would not surrender, that he was fighting for the honor and love of his country, and that he was well aware of what that meant. And he wrote to his family, to his wife, to his children, and on October 4, 1912, the same day of his birthday, there in combat General Benjamin Zeledon gave his life.
And the yankee troops stayed on ruling over this People, the yankee troops organized elections here in Nicaragua, they organized the Supreme Electoral Council under senior US army officers and with a US army colonel presiding over it. And they organized electoral councils all over the country, and the political parties subordinate to the Yankees went happily to the elections, while the yankee troops, the yankee soldiers took the votes, counted the votes and then declared the winner and announced the President. What a disgrace !
But in the face of disgrace, came dignity, when Sandino set out to confront the yankee troops, and this People, yes, precarious, small, poor, barefoot. In those days it was a People that went in sandals or barefoot, that People, led by Sandino, set out to give battle to the yankees.
The Army for the Defense of National Sovereignty was organized, and there Sandino up the mountains wrote the "Supreme Dream of Bolivar", because Sandino, understanding Bolivar, was convinced that only a United America could be a Nation able to coexist with the Yankee Empire. There was no alternative.
Sandino gave battle, and the yankees used their aviation against Sandino, they sent troops constantly, steadily, but they did not manage to defeat Sandino. And there, in the Pentagon, in the Congress of the United States where they keep their records, where the yankees' defeat in Vietnam appears, they also had no choice but to accept defeat here in Nicaragua, because they had to withdraw, without defeating Sandino !
Sandino then set to work seeking Peace, and he came to Managua seeking Peace, while being clear that they might assassinate him, but he was convinced: what other way was there Sandino said, under the circumstances, but to search for Peace. And one can see how treacherous the yankees are and their servants, the sell-outs, when Somoza, who had been put in place as chief of the National Guard by the yankees, and had been trained by the Yankees, when Sandino came to Managua, coming down from the mountains to parley and negotiate the peace agreement, then Somoza, smooth as you like, asked Sandino to take a photograph, and told him that they were brothers, that they were brother Masons, he told Sandino, that they should take a photograph and that he was his brother.
There is that famous photograph, the photograph of Judas, the Judas of the yankees, of the Judas trained by the yankees, of the Judas ordered by the yankees to assassinate Sandino.
And what was the next step? Sandino was invited to the Presidency for a dinner, and Sandino went to the dinner, and when he came out of the dinner and came down the hill from the presidential residence, they were waiting for him. They captured him on February 21, 1934 and together with other Sandinista leaders they shot them, they assassinated them in the most cowardly and treacherous way. A typical practice of the United States intelligence organizations.
Then, after the assassination of Sandino, the Yankees felt at ease with their Somoza government, for more than 40 years the Somozas ruled, armed by the yankees, welcomed by the yankee Presidents, recognized as a "democracy".
But this impoverished People, did not abandon their conscience, did not lose their Indo-Hispanic identity, of Bolivar, of Sandino, who said that we should feel proud of the indigenous blood in our veins, this People returned to seek Freedom. And Freedom here meant getting out from under the imperialist oppression, and after thousands of deaths the Victory finally came on July 19th 1979.
Then came another war that was imposed on us immediately, from 1979 to 1990, a year when we had elections totally intervened by yankee financing of the opposition parties, and with the threat that if Sandinismo won those elections, war would return to Nicaragua. And the result ? Far from being a free election, it was an election where they put a gun to the People's head, and the vote was against us. Many people wept as they voted, because they were voting when they already had two dead children, three dead children, and they did not want any more dead children.
Then came 18 years of "democratic" governments, made in the image and likeness of the Yankee Empire, in the service of the Yankee Empire. And they started privatizing health and education, and illiteracy began to increase, and they tried to take away land from rural families, they took away companies from the workers, they stole them, doing big business privatizing State companies
There were three governments run by the yankees. They thought that the Sandinista Front would never ever return to government, and they had a slogan, the yankee servants, which they shouted in their media after 1990, they were shouting that slogan up until 2007.
They shouted every day and all day long: "You know when the Sandinistas will return to power? Never! Never!" And they said it with certainty, but what was the surprise in store for them? When the Sandinista People returned to Power in 2007, and we achieved Growth, we achieved Stability, when, as a member of ALBA, we were able to obtain resources to recover from the conditions neoliberalism had left us with here in Nicaragua.
The Solidarity of ALBA, the Solidarity of our brother, Comandante Hugo Chavez, was decisive for Nicaragua to have electricity, because when we took office there was no electricity. And all the many programs we were able to start again thanks to ALBA, like the Literacy Program, because then illiteracy was a problem again and we had to teach literacy, and we did so until we were able to eliminate illiteracy completely.
And since the Sandinista Front returned to government and governs in an area that the Imperialists consider to be their backyard, their patch, and now the elections are coming and they have already tried a coup in April 2018, so now they have been working to try another coup d'état prior to the elections, arguing that they are not clean, that they are not fair. Because for the yankees the only good, fair and clean elections are the ones their own candidates win, their sell-outs. If the election is won by someone who does not serve the Yankees, then that election is disqualified.
So then, as I was telling you, we have the European Union ordering us to release prisoners, because if we do not they are going to teach us a big lesson, they are going to apply big sanctions. But have we asked the Europeans to release the political prisoners they have in Europe? In the European Union community there are many political prisoners.
Until yesterday there was a group of political prisoners in Spain, and there are still others, whose crime was to have held elections in the Catalonia. They, the Catalan Authorities, who have this right according to the norms and laws that Spain, the Spanish State, has, they decided to hold a referendum, an election, to see what the Catalan People thought about changes in their relation with the Spanish State.
Then, for holding those elections they were beaten, oppressed, imprisoned, and a group of more than 20 political prisoners, political prisoners among all the other political prisoners in Spain, as there are political prisoners in all the countries of the European Union, but it does not occur to us to go and demand their release, because those are their own internal situations.
We have our criteria in this respect, we may not agree, but we are not so bold, it does not occur to us to intervene and tell them that their political prisoners must be released. It does not occur to us! Just as it does not occur to us to go to the United States, whose high authorities are also demanding the release of political prisoners here, just when they are now coming up with another law to continue oppressing the Nicaragua's People.
And they also have political prisoners in the United States, political prisoners of all kinds, from those with black or brown skin and they easily fit them up, inventing crimes, because, quite simply, racism exists in the United States, as it exists in Europe as well. And as they recognize themselves.
Although they are not called political prisoners, more than 400 Americans out of the thousands who went to Congress to protest, because they said that the elections were fraudulent. It is not the first time there is talk of electoral fraud in the United States, but on this occasion they went to Congress, and there was outrage because they went to Congress, overwhelmingly white American citizens.
Just look, there they have more than 400 on trial, here there are just 20, there they have more than 400 on trial, and we could tell them to release all the political prisoners they have in the United States, some for having black skin, others for having brown skin, others for having gone to protest to Congress. Yes, they went to protest to the Congress and they took over the Congress.
Would they agree that we demand the yankee government releases all the political prisoners they have, or not to apply the death penalty anymore, because it is the only country in this region that applies the death penalty?
Or would they agree that we go to Canada to tell the Canadians to go ahead and investigate and punish those responsible for the crimes committed against the children who were discovered and are being discovered, just today another news item has come out about discovering the bodies of children?
These are not white boys and girls, these boys and girls are from Canada's First Nations, from those who were the owners of those lands stolen by the colonizers when they arrived, and said, "this land is ours", and they stole it from Canada's indigenous peoples. And they murdered them like they did in the United States if they resisted. And then they seized the children and locked them away, and now it turns out that graves are being found containing hundreds of children.
Where are the human rights organizations in that case? Where are the human rights bodies of the United Nations?
Where are they? Where are the human rights bodies of the OAS? These are racist crimes, brutal crimes, cowardly crimes that deserve no forgiveness. What they demand is punishment !
As I was telling you, beloved brothers and sisters, we are now entering this stage close to the elections, but still according to the electoral calendar it is not yet the moment to register candidates, but you are seeing a campaign in the major international media talking about the fact that we have four presidential candidates imprisoned and that the others are political leaders.
That is to say, it is a campaign full of lies, when as of this moment not a single candidate has been registered, and the opposition candidates have been looking for a way, some kind of formula, to agree a candidate. They were meeting, over and over again at the yankee embassy, with the yankee ambassador there meeting with them and demanding they choose this person or that person, and there they were fighting and arguing.
And then they were led off to the Spanish embassy, and then they were taken to another embassy, going around and around the European embassies and the yankee embassy, asking for support, asking for money, as they admitted themselves, boasting as they were entering and leaving those meetings, in their social media, but also in full public view. An intrusion, an interference, directed by the yankees, with the Europeans helping to reinforce it.
We, naturally, have called the ambassadors to account, we have called the ambassadors and told them that they are violating international treaties. We have pointed out the scandal they would make in their own countries if an ambassador from another country were to appear conspiring against their government, conspiring to promote a coup d'état or conspiring to organize electoral candidates.
How the yankees have complained about Russian interference in their Elections! How they, the ones who most intervene in elections in the world, the yankee government, have complained... What cynicism! But well, such are the realities.
And what we can tell you, beloved sisters and brothers, is that we Nicaraguans, despite the frailty our enemies may see in us, we have strength, we have capital, we have wealth, namely our Dignity, which is our Love for our Nation. And that has always been there, it has been steadfast throughout our History, and today, the more they threaten us, the stronger it grows, the more the strength of our People's Dignity grows, just as we also know that the more they attack the Dignity of the Venezuelan People, of the Bolivarian People, of the Cuban People they too grow stronger, as do all the Peoples they attack and threaten.
That is why we say: Here there is no surrender! Here there is no surrender! Here there is not one step backwards! Here we will continue making progress, carrying out our electoral process as we are doing in accordance with international and national norms, we are proceeding, in accordance with our laws, in accordance with our regulations, with the participation of a large number of political parties taking part in this electoral process.
And in Peace also, defending Peace, which is the most sacred thing for this People and which is what they appreciate most, that our government that has managed to re-establish Peace. Because Peace makes it possible to multiply schools, health posts, roads, housing, planting in the fields for the food of Nicaragua's People.
Our Spirit, beloved brothers and sisters, is the Spirit of the Heroes of Carabobo. Our Spirit is the Spirit of Bolivar, of whom it has been well said, as Chavez used to say and repeat, something that is very real: Bolivar's Sword is on the march in Latin America!
Long live ALBA!
Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!
Long Live Chávez and Long Live Fidel, ALBA's Fathers!
Long Live our Brother Nicolás!
And greetings to all the Leaders, Presidents of Governments.
Our greetings to Fidel... Of course, Fidel is ever present with us! To Raul. To Díaz-Canel. To the President of Bolivia, to our brother Luis Arce. To Evo. To our brother Ralph Gonsalves. To our brother Rafael Correa. Likewise our greetings to Compañero Roosevelt. To Jorge Arreaza. To Delcy. To Cilia. To all Venezuela's Youth, to all Venezuela's Workers, to all Venezuela's Families, to the Brave, Patriotic and Heroic Venezuelan Army.
Thank you, beloved sisters and brothers.