President-Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
during the Citizen Verification Day
July 25th 2021
Good afternoon, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, Nicaraguan families, here I am with my ID number 126-111145-000S. I was born in La Libertad, Chontales, I am a Chontaleño, and during all my Life, as a child, as a boy, as a young man, I never heard from my parents that they had participated in elections. Why? Simply because there were no Free Elections in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua was a Country occupied by the Yankees who had imposed Somoza to govern our Country, until the Revolution triumphed in 1979, thanks be to God, thanks to the People, thanks to the Heroism of Nicaragua's Families, attacked by the Yankee Empire after the Triumph of the Revolution.
In other words, the Yankee Empire was irritated, it rejected the Victory of Nicaragua's People, because they felt that they were losing a point of control in this America, Latin America and the Caribbean, which the Yankees had decided was their backyard. But Cuba had already been liberated, that is, when we triumphed here, Cuba was already liberated; Cuba in 1959, ourselves in 1979, 20 years later. Cuba in 1959 and our triumph in 1979.
And then the battle against the terrorist policy of the Yankee Empire began again, and in the middle of that battle we approved the first real Constitution Nicaragua ever had. In a truly Independent, Sovereign way, we approved that Constitution, and in that Constitution we established Principles such as the Right of the People to elect their authorities without foreign interference, and as a result of that new Constitution, born with the Revolution, Nicaragua had its first really Sovereign Constitution.
Bear in mind, this year we will indeed be celebrating 200 Years of Independence, but from September 15, 1821 to July 19, 1979, Nicaragua was a Nation that while nominally Independent, was not really Independent. It was subjected to the Yankees, and the Yankees in their rage for not being able to totally subdue the Nicaraguan People, then invaded Nicaragua. You know the history well, Nicaragua was one of the first countries in all of Latin America and the Caribbean to be invaded by the Yankees in the last century, with Walker, the Yankees invaded Nicaragua and wanted to take over Nicaragua.
And in that Constitution we established fundamental Principles: The Right of the People, the Right of Nicaraguans, to Work, to Health, to Education, we also established the Principle of Mixed Economy. And well, there were Elections, there were Elections and as a result of that Constitution we had the first free election in Nicaragua's history after the nominal Independence achieved by Central America in 1821.
So you see, after almost 200 years, the first free elections were held here in our country, with the Triumph of the Revolution. And those first free elections, in spite of Yankee aggression, in spite of Yankee intervention, seeking to unite those who have no shame and do not even deserve to be called Nicaraguans because they are children of the Empire and of Yankee policy, pariahs, because even the Empire does not respect them, the Empire uses them and when they feel like it, it kicks them over too.
So those first elections that we held here against the Empire that tried to boycott them while it waged war against us, murdering Nicaraguans, practicing terrorism in Nicaragua, those elections were held in November 1984, and those elections were won by the Nicaraguan people with the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
And now we are really just a short way from the next elections, which will also be held in November, this year 2021. And well, the Verification is very important so that all Nicaraguans, from 16 years old onwards, know where, in which place we will all have to go to vote.
We will go to vote, God willing, in the month of November, God willing! It is not as if the Empire wants it. The Empire does not want elections in Nicaragua. The Empire wants to boycott them, wants to sow terrorism again in our country, but, God willing, and I am sure that God is with us, we are going to hold those elections, and our people, our youth, will go and vote in November of this year 2021.
We have seen how yesterday, in the middle of the rain, thousands and thousands of Nicaraguans went out to verify themselves, with their cédulas. They went to verify themselves. Right here I was asking the compañeras and the compañero attending, if with the rain that had fallen since one o'clock in this area, because it rained practically all over the country, if the influx had been less, because it was a heavy downpour that fell at that time.
And they tell me that no, that the affluence of Nicaraguan brothers and sisters with their voting cards was maintained, verifying themselves in a Sovereign Exercise, with these Elections being one more step in the battle for our Second Independence, which is the one we are defending, our Second Independence that will be a true Independence making us totally Free and Independent.
In other words, going to vote next November is to vote for the Independence of our Nation, to achieve our Second Independence, because that of 200 years ago, well, it was an effort that we cannot deny, where blood was even shed, but in the end it was frustrated, because the Yankees came and said "America for the Americans", that is to say, "America for the Yankees".
And they began to dominate our countries, and any country that did not want to yield to them, they invaded it, or carried out a coups d'état, coups d'état as brutal as the one they carried out in Chile, where they assassinated the heroic President Salvador Allende. There was no respect. The Yankees do not respect, because for them elections are only worthwhile when their stooges win, that is, those they set up as candidates; then if they win, the election is good; if their stooges lose, the election is no good, and they do everything possible to destabilize the country, to destroy the country....
As they have done with Cuba, with Venezuela, with Bolivia, with Brazil, as they destabilized the government of Lula, of Dilma, even having them put in jail, with falsehoods, with lies. And the Empire applauding, and the Empire's proxy governments applauding as well, while they put Lula in jail, or when they carried out coups d'état in Venezuela, against our Brother, the Heroic President, Commander Hugo Chávez, and in recent times the brutal attacks against the Bolivarian People, against our Brother President Nicolás Maduro.
How many elections have there been in Venezuela, cleanly won, but since the Yankee stooges lose, then the US does not recognize them and have gone to the extreme of inventing a stooge who is walking around everywhere, making a fool of himself, because he presents himself as President of Venezuela.
And they have tried to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro. Let us not forget that, when with those drones they were going to assassinate the whole Government, the whole General Staff of the Army and President Nicolás Maduro who was in a ceremony, and the drones were advancing, but thank God, the defensive capabilities of the Venezuelan Brothers managed to destroy the drones before they exploded over the podium.
Who condemned this crime? The Yankees did not condemn it. Why? Because they were behind that crime, they are the ones who organize those crimes in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the World. They are the biggest terrorists and criminals that exist on the Planet. There is no country on Earth that has not suffered aggression of all kinds from the Yankee Empire.
Then the coup d'état in Bolivia, a coup d'état because they did not recognize the Victory of our Brother Evo, despite all the persecution against Evo. But the Bolivian People battled on, until they managed to recover what the People had already decided before the coup d'état. And there is Bolivia doing battle, threatened, under attack by the Yankee Empire.... Just as Cuba is too, Heroic Cuba, today more besieged than ever, more under attack than ever, by the Yankee Empire and all the puppet governments it has in Latin America that have joined together in the Lima Group.
They simply do not see the coups d'état against legitimate governments, the assassination attempts in Venezuela, the criminal blockade against Cuba, against Venezuela, the aggression against Nicaragua, they do not see those as crimes, instead they applaud those crimes.
Therefore, we are part of this great battle that is being waged in Our America, which is being waged by Cuba, the Cuba of Martí, of Fidel, of Raúl, of Miguel Díaz-Canel, who tomorrow will be commemorating one more year of the Heroic Assault on the Moncada Barracks, led by Fidel and Raúl.
The blockade against Cuba is brutal, but we are fighting the battle. And Venezuela is fighting the Battle for the Dignity of the Peoples of Our America, and of course the Venezuelan People are fighting this Battle with great Dignity. Because the Battles we are fighting in Cuba, in Venezuela, in Bolivia,is the same Battle we are fighting here in Nicaragua, and these are Battles being fought by Peoples who have known how to elect Governments that firmly defend the Self-Determination, the Sovereignty, of the Peoples of Our America.
And this struggle that we are waging now is a struggle that is part of this battle. And surely, just as Cuba has managed to defeat all the Empire's aggression, just as Venezuela has managed to defeat the Empire's aggression, just as Bolivia has managed to defeat the Empire's aggression, just as the Brazilian people are now fighting for Lula's return to government, so too are we fighting here.
It is a common battle of the Peoples who are also integrated in ALBA, because we know that in the face of the Empire there is no room for negotiation or understanding. Those who have illusions on that score are simply forgetting the history of their own Peoples, who have suffered the most brutal aggression and humiliation at the hands of the Empire.
What more than the Brother Mexican People, whose Territory was taken away from them and who are simply being held with a gun to their heads. President Trump said it with all clarity, he said it with total clarity How many outrages did he not utter, openly disrespecting the dignity of Mexico's People, and then there was no Government in Mexico that stood up for its People!
How much aggression by the Empire there has been against the Argentine People. And the best proof, for those who have illusions thinking that the Empire has some rationality, let the Argentine Sistersand Brothers remember how the Empire, which was committed in the OAS to defend any Latin American country attacked by extraterritorial powers, when the British, in order to consolidate their colonialist, imperialist policy, allied with the Yankees. What for? To crush the Resistance of the Argentine People who were fighting the Battle for the Malvinas.
No one should have any illusions that with the Yankee Government or with the British Government there is any possibility of negotiation, because, simply put, the Argentine People have said very clearly: The Malvinas are not negotiable! The Malvinas belong to Argentina, the Malvinas belong to Latin America and the Caribbean! And they are not negotiable!
So these are complex times, because there are people who have the illusion that the Yankee Government has changed somehow. The Presidents may change, they may have different ways of communicating, but those who are in charge are the owners of the military industry, Big Capital, those who want to continue exercising a world domination that is no longer possible, because there are other Powers that are emerging in the World. And the Consciousness is also growing in the Latin American and Caribbean Peoples, in the Peoples of Africa, of Asia, where the position in favor of respect for the Sovereignty of Peoples is becoming clearer and more forceful.
But the Yankee does not understand, and he does not understand because he thinks he owns the World. The Yankee has believed the Superman story, he thinks he is Superman, but here Sandino taught him that he was not Superman and defeated them. And in Vietnam they were taught that they were not Superman and they suffered an enormous defeat at the hands of the Vietnamese people. And with Cuba they have believed they were Superman, and the Cuban people have been able to defeat them for more than 60 years. And in Venezuela they thought they were Superman, committing all kinds of crimes, and the Bolivarian People, the People of Chávez, the People of Bolívar, have also known how to defeat them.
And we will continue to defeat them, with Dignity, with Firmness, with Conscience, with Courage, convinced, as I reminded you in Dario's Poem, about the exchange between the bull with the ox, when the bull is scared because it is going to die. Some have said that we should not mess with the Yankee, because the Yankee is terrible and can inflict barbarities on us, but he has done so already and he continues to do so.
And when the bull complained because he was going out to confront the bullfighter and there he was going to be wounded with the sword and die, and the bull said to the ox, "what could be more terrible than death?" And the ox answered: Impotence! And the bull said to the ox: "But I am going to die and that is the most terrible thing that can happen, what could be more terrible than that," he said to the ox. And the ox replied: "The most terrible thing is the yoke", and no yoke is accepted by the Peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean!
Long Live Latin American and Caribbean Unity, defending with Dignity our Second Independence! And let us go forward with these New Victories!
Remarks by Compañera Rosario during Citizen Verification Day
July 25th 2021
How are you, compañeros? Well, we are verifying ourselves, we have verified ourselves, just like hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans, full of Hope, of Dignity, with a Spirit of Sovereignty, with a Spirit of Liberty, of Fraternity, of Solidarity.
We have verified ourselves, because we are preparing for Sovereign and Free Elections. We have verified ourselves, because we Nicaraguan Families, know that these Elections allow us to decide our Future.
We want a Future of Peace, just like the Paths we were traveling until 2018, before hatred and terrorism attacked us and tried to destroy us. But they could not, nor will they!
We want a Future of Concord, of Family Values, of Community, and above all a Future in which to continue building Prosperity. Because we Families want to prosper, we Families want to progress, and that is what we are sure Nicaraguans will decide, all of us will decide: To overcome Poverty, to fight against Poverty, and to progress and prosper. It is also our Right, our Right as a Combative People, as a Great People, as a Heroic People, as a Glorious People.
Our Right is to work with Security, Stability and Peace. Our Right is to advance in Prosperity. Our Right is to live in Tranquility and Joy, that Joy that we see in the faces here today... The youths, the young women, happy, content, secure, and above all Dignified, very Dignified, very Strong. That is our spirit, of great Nicaraguans, of good Nicaraguans, of Nicaraguans who have always known how to resist and to overcome imperial aggression in all circumstances.
Here we are, with the Right to Life, with the Right to Light, with the Right to Truth, with the Right, as we said, to Prosper. To Work and Prosper, that is what we all want. To continue fighting the Battles against Poverty, to prosper, to progress based on our Nicaraguan Values, by the Grace of God. As Nicaraguan Families, by the Grace of God.... As a Great People !
Darío, Zeledón, Sandino, all our Ancestors left us the Right, they left us the Legacy, to make our way with that Glorious History, creating a new History, for a New Time, the Time that we all, not only want, but deserve. Times of Justice, to live in Justice, to live in Peace, to live with Dignity, and to live working, studying and prospering. That is what we all want, and we are sure that hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans (tomorrow no doubt the Supreme Electoral Council will give us the number) are checking to vote for a Future Free of Poverty.
A Future of Advancement, a Future of Joy, a Future of Hope, a Future of Progress for All, without exclusion, without discrimination, a Future of Unity, that is what we want, and that is what God, we are sure, endows on this Nicaragua of Blessings, Blessings of the Father: Prosperity! Because we are prosperous in Consciousness, prosperous in Thought, and prospering steadily more, step by step. In spite of what was taken from us by the criminal terrorist coup. Al of us are prospering...! Prospering, because we are determined to overcome Poverty, and to achieve Victories, Victories for all Nicaraguans!
Forward, Compañer@s, Always Further On, that Future of Glories and Triumphs is ours! Thank you, Compañer@s.