Address of President Comandante Daniel Ortega during the Celebration of the 41 Anniversary of the Naval Force of the Army of Nicaragua
August 13th 2021
Daniel's address
Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Beloved Families, who are fighting for Peace, fighting for Life, fighting for Education, for Health, fighting to develop Productive Activities, in every part of our Territory, from the communities along the Coco River, from Cabo Gracias a Dios, Waspam.
Then navigating from there along the Coco River, and passing all the way to San Carlos through all the communities that you, Beloved Brothers and Sisters of the Navy, protect and watch over, and that is about protecting and taking care of the Security, the Right to Life of all the Nicaraguan Families that live in every one of these Territories, no matter how distant they may be.
And in all those Communities the length of the Caribbean Coast, ensuring in the first place the Sovereignty that is fundamental so that all the work under development there can be carried out, especially in relation to Fishing; thousands of Nicaraguan Brothers of the Indigenous Peoples, others who have migrated there from the Pacific, dedicate themselves to Fishing Activities along that ample Territory facing the Caribbean Sea.
And then, Nicaragua's San Juan River, which is also a source of life, a source of work, because there too the inhabitants feed themselves by fishing, and also marketing the fish they catch.
All these areas I am mentioning are also a source of Tourist Activities, because they are places that are visited by Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, who go exploring the Coco River, they explore the Caribbean Coast, they explores the San Juan River, they discover the other part of Nicaragua that is flesh of our flesh, discover that we are a single Homeland, we are a single Unity.
And in that journey, throughout the length and breadth of our Territory, we arrive at the Pacific Coast, an unquestionably more developed Zone, with a lot of Fishing activity, with many Families multiplying many Economic and Productive Activities, and then sometimes also multiplying them throughout the national Territory, in all the small villages, in every hamlet.
There is no place in our Country where there is no School. There is no place in our Country where there is not a Health Post, a Health Center. There are no Territories or Areas in our Country where there is not a Hospital, and constantly criss-crossing our Territory, every day, more Roads, more Highways, no longer of paving blocks, no longer of asphalt, but of concrete, like the Highways that have been built especially in the Territories that go towards the Caribbean, because they are zones where it heavy rainfall, and it has been more than demonstrated that asphalt does not resist heavy rain, while concrete yes, gives more security, even though the investment is a little bigger.
Well, but for that we have the Workers of our different Institutions with Compañeros leading them, like our Brother General Mojica, Minister of Construction, there giving the lead; that is, he is not a Minister that stays in his Office, but a Minister that we see every day supervising works, inaugurating works, touring our Country to guarantee that Nicaragua's Families, that Nicaragua's People can count every day with better and better road communications.
Likewise, the effort we are also making in the marine aspect and which is accompanied by the Navy; in other words, all the activities carried out in the Ports; both those of the Pacific and those of the Caribbean, these activities that are always accompanied by the Navy, given security by the Navy.
And all this, all this effort, thank God, is achieving the best and greatest results. Why? Because the Economy has been activated, it has been strengthening by the activities Small Producers, Medium Producers, and Large Producers too. All of them producing for Life, producing for Peace, producing for Stability.
Here we do not produce for confrontation and hatred; here we produce so that we understand once and for all that we have to live as Brothers and Sisters, and living as Brothers and Sisters means respecting the Laws, respecting what our Constitution establishes, what our Regulations establish, whereby, respecting the Laws naturally we achieve greater security, better conditions, so that the Coffee Producers, the Cattle Ranchers, the Rice Growers, the Bean and Corn Producers, the Artisans, everyone feels more secure to produce; producing for Peace, producing for Life, producing for the Stability of our Country, guaranteeing food for Nicaragua's Families and also for the Central American Sisters and Brothers and from other Regions that need this food that we produce here, and that we then place in the International Market.
I was saying that the important thing here is that all this has a fundamental basis: Respect for the Constitution and the Laws, respect and defense of National Integrity and Sovereignty. Whoever deviates from that Path, then, simply becomes an enemy of Nicaraguans who want to work in Peace.
Those who conspire to serve the interests of the interventionists, of the imperialists, are simply separating themselves from Nicaragua, ceasing to be Nicaraguan, denying their Identity and Nationality, denying it to themselves because if they go begging to the aggressors on their knees to attack our Country, then they are not Nicaraguan.
Throughout our History, from the Caciques who defended our Lands, when the occupation of the Colonizers came, manipulating the Cross and beheading with their swords, since that time our ancestors defended their Lands. And so on and so forth, we have a long journey in the history of our country, where Nicaraguans continue defending their land, defending their Nation.
And those who cease to be Nicaraguans, "vendepatrias", "peleles" as our General Sandino called them, they simply sold their souls to the devil for a few cents.
Because the imperialist practice is a practice that has nothing Christian about it, it is a practice that has nothing Humanistic about it, nothing in common with Solidarity.
You see, here we are commemorating the 41st Anniversary of the Naval Force, but this Naval Force has not lent itself out as an instrument of the "Imperialists of the Earth", as our General Sandino called them, to invade Brother and Sister Peoples who are thousands and thousands of kilometers away from this Continent.
But they will go all that way in order to invade Heroic Peoples like Vietnam, to invade Iraq, to invade Afghanistan. What good did their invasion of Afghanistan do them? What good did the number of deaths in Afghanistan do them? Today what we see is that they are being made to leave, they are being expelled from Afghanistan. That is what we see.
How long they have been there occupying by force, installing military bases, bombing, murdering entire families! How many years! And what good did it do them? And why? Because any People, no matter how small they are in terms of population, no matter how small they are in terms of Economy, no matter how small they are, they are their own Defense Forces, they are always much more powerful and much stronger than the invaders.
In the long run, there has been no imperialist invasion that can be sustained forever, the Peoples have defeated them, and here in Nicaragua the Nicaraguan People have defeated them, and in Cuba the People have defeated them, and continue to defeat them.
A few days ago we commemorated the 42nd Anniversary of the Air Force, but what was the purpose of the Air Force? In fact, for humanitarian tasks, like those of the Naval Force as well, humanitarian tasks to safeguard National Sovereignty, to accompany the Productive Activities of the Nicaraguan Families.
Here it does not even occur to us that the Air Force has among its objectives in the very long term, because we have every right to think in the very long term, in terms of strengthening the Air Force, in terms of strengthening the Naval Force, strengthening them for what? To protect and defend Nicaraguan Families, to protect and defend our Sovereignty, but not to lend ourselves to invade our Brother and Sister Peoples, turning the Forces that lend themselves to this type of aggression into cannon fodder for the Imperialists of the Earth.
Thinking in the long term of the Air Force, we do need more air resources, of course we need them, as we also need more naval resources beyond those we have managed to incorporate, modern naval resources like the ones we have, which already give us greater capacity, we do need more naval resources, and we need more air resources, because it has been more than demonstrated that the Naval Force, the Air Force, are decisive arms to protect our country, are decisive forces to protect the population in the most isolated areas where there are no roads and when there are hurricanes, when there are floods, the only means available to help the population are the naval means, entering through the rivers or penetrating the coasts towards the communities in the Caribbean, and by air.
We have seen this very clearly in difficult moments due to the damage caused by hurricanes in our country. Of course, the population is also participating, and the police are doing their job, unquestionably, they are forces that work together in these tasks, but we are clear that the Air Force has very specific activities, because it has to reach the most isolated places to save the population.
And I was telling you that, thinking in the very long term, it does not occur to us to consider, it does not cross our minds, that we might develop such a powerful Air Force, that our Air Force is going to possess atomic bombs, what for? To go and launch them against whom...?
We are in the Month of August and it was in the Month of August, in the first days, that the Imperialists of the Earth, let us say after all, the United States of America, they are the only ones in the World, not even Hitler did it, Hitler was not lacking in desire, unquestionably, he was their son, son of the Empire, he was not lacking in the desire to have the Atomic Bomb to launch it, but they beat him to it. And they did not use the Atomic Bomb to drop it on the Japanese troops who were still resisting and would not surrender... No. They looked for two towns, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No! They targeted two populations, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two populations, civilian populations.
No one can deny it! Who can deny it? Who dares to deny that the Yankee bombers, by order of the Empire, went to drop those atomic bombs to murder two entire towns: Hiroshima and Nagasaki? There were no Japanese troops there, there was no Japanese military base there, they were in other places, and that meant the death of thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands, those who died at the moment of the brutal explosions of those atomic bombs and those who died later over the years, and continue to die, victims of the long-term damage caused by radiation; the children who managed to survive, died after a few years, victims of radiation.
And that makes a huge difference between the moral quality of our Army, of our Air Force, of our Navy, that we are not here to be strong so as to go and destroy Peoples. We say, we do want to be strong, but in order to defend the Sovereignty of the Country, to be strong to defend our Population, so that it can have Peace and Security in its productive activities and not be a victim of terrorism which is fed, in all parts of the World, it is fed by the Imperialists of the Earth.
They are the main promoters of terrorism, including the terrorism that blew up the Twin Towers there in New York, where Bin Laden appeared as the mastermind. And Bin Laden, it is more than demonstrated, was an Agent of the Yankee Intelligence, he was an instrument of the Policy that the Yankees practiced against Brother and Sister Peoples in other Regions of the Earth.
In other words, those terrorists who blew up the Twin Towers are children of the U.S. Empire, and they are now asking for the investigation to be properly lifted, because they have a secret file where they do not give all the information on how they set up those operations, who were involved in those operations, which countries, totally allied with the United States of America, instruments of the United States of America, where the United States of America even has military bases, were involved in those actions and have kept them concealed. But there is pressure on the United States right now, that they open up and they reveal those secrets.
Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Beloved Families; Compañera Rosario; Beloved Brother, Commander in Chief of the Nicaraguan Army, Army General Julio César Avilés Castillo; Beloved Brother, Director General of the Police, First Commissioner Francisco Javier Díaz Madriz; Beloved Brother, Major General Bayardo Ramón Rodríguez Ruiz, Chief of the General Staff of the Nicaraguan Army; Beloved Brother, Major General Marvin Elías Corrales Rodríguez, Inspector General of the Nicaraguan Army.
Beloved Minister of Defense of the Republic of Nicaragua, Compañera Rosa Adelina Barahona Castro; Beloved Brother, Comrade Rear Admiral Ángel Eugenio Fonseca Donaire, Chief of the Naval Force of the Nicaraguan Army... Our respect, Compañero, our Congratulations for the work you are doing under the mandate of General Avilés; Beloved Brothers and Sisters, Members of the Cabinet of Government, Directors of Autonomous Entities; Corps of Generals and Superior Officers; Members of the Military Council of the Army of Nicaragua.
Mayors of the Municipalities of Corinto, Bluefields, Corn Island; Special Guests; Comrades, Brothers, former Chiefs of the Naval Force in Honorable Retirement; Beloved Brother and Sister Military Defense Attachés, Naval, Air, Deputy, and Chiefs of Military Missions accredited in the Republic of Nicaragua.
Beloved Brother and Sister Officers of the Navy in the Honorable Condition of Retirement; Beloved Brothers and Sisters Relatives of our Heroes, of our Martyrs, of the Brothers and Sisters who have died in the line of duty, because they are all Heroes and Martyrs; that is, it is not necessary to die in combat, but a Comrade in the line of duty may die or may be lost, like our Brothers who are still lost, who are still missing, and well, their disappearance occurs in the line of duty.
Beloved Brother and Sister Chiefs, Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Sailors of the Navy; Representative Block of the Navy, Air Force and Land Force; Special Guests. And our Greetings, our Recognition to the decorated Companions, and what a good surprise, among the decorated a Compañera. To her our Recognition, representing the Nicaraguan Woman in the Navy.
I was telling you that we have to defend Nicaragua with the Laws, with the Constitution, and to enforce the Laws and the Constitution with the Institutions in charge of applying the Laws and the Constitution.
Those who commit crimes, who lend themselves to launder money and then hide the evidence of money laundering in a newspaper, hide the evidence of money laundering there, that is where it has been found; well, I am not the one who is going to judge them, it is up to the Police to investigate further, it is up to the Prosecutor's Office, it is up to the Judiciary.
They said that they had run out of paper and that is why they could not publish their newspaper, but today the Prosecutor's Office, the Police, the Attorney General's Office arrived there and found large quantities of paper. And when you lie in that way, when you slander the State, you are committing a crime. In any part of the world this is a crime; in the United States people who slander, who defame, go to jail; in Europe people who slander and defame go to jail. Never mind slandering, defaming your country.
And after all, well, this is what is going to be investigated and is being investigated, really how much of the paper that they have imported tax free over many years, how much of this paper they have dedicated to the Newspaper, and how much they have dedicated it to other business. Remembering that the Newspaper itself is another business, because the Newspaper is not given away, and if somebody wants to place an Advertisement they have to pay for it; therefore, the Newspaper is a business that should pay Taxes.... Indeed it should pay Taxes, if it is a business! Who says that people placing Advertisements in a Newspaper, do not pay to do so...?
Let's see if that Newspaper would be willing to print all the Voting Ballots, all the Electoral Documentation for free, based on all the benefit it has received by not paying Taxes for so many years, while profiting making other uses of a good part of that imported paper, because every day the Newspaper has had less and less circulation, so then what do they use all that paper for? Of course, if they have other activities that are purely commercial, then that is a crime, they are crimes!
Not to mention all those others who are being investigated. And people question... just because some of them were not firing bullets in April 2018; or it is said, that because some of them did not set fire to Citizens who were murdered and tortured, to the Policemen who were tortured and then burned alive, with the applause and encouragement even of some Priests who are sons of the Devil, because they are not sons of God.... Those priests are sons of the devil!
The fact that they did not provoke arson? But who dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It was not the President of the United States who went to drop the bombs, nor was it the Minister of Defense, nor was it the Chief of the Army, it was the Soldiers, the Air Force Officers who were charged with the Mission of that act of brutal terrorism.
And who should be sanctioned and punished, because these are crimes against humanity with no statute of limitations, and that crime committed by the Yankees in the month of August, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, remains open to prosecution They can perfectly well be taken to the Criminal Court. Possibly those who dropped the bombs, many of them will already be dead, but it is the American State that has to answer for that crime, and there is no statute of limitations on that.
So here, those who are being investigated are the ones who were in charge of financing, organizing, seeking the resources, seeking the support of the Yankees, and directing the crimes that were committed in April 2018.
Remember, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, how those people, when during the National Dialogue talks, were asked: Let's see, who's in agreement with lifting of the roadblocks? The government representatives and the producers who accompanied the government delegation and the transport owners who accompanied the government delegation raised their hands. This is on the record because it was shown live on TV, because the opposition even asked us for it. And when the question was asked: Who's against lifting of the roadblocks? Then they raised their hands, those criminals, those murderers. That is really why they are Terrorists, they are Terrorists!
Of course, the traitors, the sellouts say that they are not Terrorists; some traitors and sellouts who at some point when they had a lot of authority said that there were going to be no posts here in Nicaragua to hang the rich. That is what they said. Now they come out saying that these gentlemen are not terrorists. What did the another one of them say back then? That he was going to cut off the hands of the landowners, the farmers, he was the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock; now he is writing criticizing what is happening now, defending the terrorists.
We never went to those extremes of menacing all the rich, all the capitalists with the gallows. It never occurred to me to say that, nor did it occur to me to say that we were going to cut off the hands of the big landowners. But they said it, and there it is engraved for all History.
That language feeds terrorism, that is why it is not strange that now these traitors come to the defense of terrorists who are being prosecuted or who are being investigated. Ah well, because they have surnames from families of ancestry! Because they are from notable families and rich families! Or because they have been working with big bankers, bankers of wealthy Families! Whoever commits a crime has to be investigated and then has to be judged, and punished according to the Law.
Here we are already, let it be clear, here we have now reached a stage where we cannot continue approving Amnesties and Pardons, because it would be to turn us also into Terrorists, and criminals; there is no room for this, everything has had its time, everything has had its stage.
In the 80's, in that ferocious war, with more than 50,000 dead, after how many pardons, after how many amnesties, and well, in the end we managed to stabilize the country, even via changes of government, working to stabilize the country. And then when we took over the Government again we had a Miracle, because we achieved National Unity and we achieved levels of growth that were the admiration of Latin American Governments, the admiration of the International Organizations, which could not explain how we were able to create an Alliance here, between Workers, Business and the Government, they could not explain it. And so it was from 2007 until April 2018.
Who buried the dagger into the Nation? Who sank the dagger into the Nicaraguan people? Those who were very happy making money, when our Government promoted the Alliance, when the Alliance was established even in the Constitution, back when they spoke with much Respect of the Government, of the fruits that this Alliance gave in the Economic and Social Order, giving work to the people, and also much wealth to the rich, being yes, always clear, that the Population, that our Families have their normal aspirations, they want to live well, to have their modest house, to have employment, to have their food ensured.
But what Savage Capitalism wants is more and more money every day at any cost, and so they cared little at that time about the nation's economic growth that benefited them, because they wanted to consume everything and so they served as an instrument for the Yankee, and they made alliances with the Priests, sons of the Devil, and that wave of terror began.
And we were there enduring the wave of terror, and the opposition were demanding that the police should not be allowed out, and we put up with it! When the logical thing to do was for the police to go out immediately to bring order, and with a spirit of enormous flexibility, but also running the risk that the criminals would multiply the crimes they were already committing. They were emboldened to attack the Police Stations, in Masaya, in the towns next to Rio San Juan, Morrito, everywhere they were already launching attacks. They were emboldened!
They thought that the People were defeated, and they did not understand that we were simply giving them a chance to dismantle the blockades and reestablish peace. And they did not do so. So we had to resort to Law and Order, as the Yankees say. We had to resort to Law and Order to reestablish Security.
Then came an Amnesty, but it was not enough, they continued conspiring in spite of the Amnesty, and, managed by the Yankees who are enemies of the world's Peoples, they were already aiming to launch another wave of terrorism against these Elections, so as to discredit the Elections.
In fact, there are many North Americans who are Friends of the world's Peoples, who write to us, who send us Solidarity, and to those North American Brothers and Sisters we say: Thank you, you honor the North American People, while the others dishonor the North American People.
Heroes like Brian Willson... Bear in mind that Brian Willson came from the United States Army, yes, a War Veteran, and when he saw what those wars meant, where they sent the American Youth to murder Citizens in other Peoples of the World, then Brian rebelled.
Then he began to fight for Peace, and to fight for Peace in Nicaragua in those times of war in Nicaragua, and in El Salvador. And in those struggles Brian did not go to burn down any Police or Yankee Army barracks, having the capacity to do so, a military man with experience in wars and everything, he did not do it. He went to make a peaceful protest in front of a Military Base from where the weapons for Nicaragua, for the "Contra" and for El Salvador came from. And what was his protest there, with other North American War Veterans? Well, sitting on the railway tracks to stop the train from passing.
But Imperialism has no Soul, nor does it have a Heart, it simply has interests, ambition, arrogance. And when they get a report from the place where Brian and the other comrades are lying on the rails and the train is advancing, and from the train they report to the Base that they are lying there, what do they do? Because the natural thing to do was to stop the train and to get off and remove them from the railway line, move them aside. But what did they tell them? Set the train at them! And they set the train at them. And Brian Willson lost both his legs.
You have seen Brian here, he is living in Nicaragua; Brian, a true Hero, whom we salute on this Anniversary.... Brian Willson, Brother of Nicaragua, a Military Man truly made of Honor! An American Military Man made of Honor, of Dignity, of Glory!
And this day is also a birthday. The General had his birthday on the 11th, we are going to congratulate the General on his birthday, which is always close to these dates we celebrate, today is the birthday of the Navy and the Air Force. My mother also had her birthday these days. General Diaz also had his birthday on August 3; well, congratulations Paquito, General Diaz, congratulations too. I was telling you that my mother had her birthday on August 8, she would be 113 years old now, because she lived to be 97 years old.
And on a day like today, Comandante Fidel was born, a Revolutionary for whom it was not enough to make the Revolution in Cuba, he could have stayed there in Cuba with the Revolution, but he was in solidarity with the struggles of our Peoples, sharing solidarity in a truly extraordinary way.
I was remembering when he visited us in 1980, he went to Bluefields and sailed the area there for a while in a boat of the Naval Force at that time, of the Naval Force that was just recently formed. Maybe he was on the famous DABUR in which I was able to visit the area back then, because the Navy was just being formed, as the General explained how it was being formed.
And on a day like today, our brother Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez was also born. Tomás and Fidel were almost close in age. Tomas, a Symbol of Dignity, Courage and Love for the Nation, Love for the People, with enormous Courage and an immense Heart. Just like Fidel's.
Fidel, an enormous Courage and an immense Heart, and Fidel had already demonstrated it years before when the earthquake took place here in Managua. Because Somoza was governing, you see, Fidel could have said, how am I going to send aid to Nicaragua, if Somoza was the one who trained mercenaries on the Caribbean Coast and then saw them off when they sailed to invade Playa Giron, and that was when Somoza said to the Cuban mercenaries: "Bring me a hair from Fidel's beard".
And when Fidel was here, I remember, on the Anniversary I remembered that anecdote, Fidel said: "Well, here I am for the People of Nicaragua, but with a full beard for you Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters". A noble man, Fidel, who when the earthquake struck did not hesitate to send aid to Nicaragua, and Cuban aid came in for the people who were affected, for the families who were affected by the earthquake.
And today, with Fidel, with Raul, with President Diaz-Canel, at this time when the blockade against the Brother People of Cuba has brutally intensified, we say to you: "We are with you, and we are with you, with our hearts, with our conscience, Cuban Brothers, Revolutionary Brothers, we are with you, and we know that you will emerge victorious from this onslaught that Imperialism is launching, and that your Victory is our Victory, and that our Victory is your Victory, Revolutionary Brothers and Sisters of Cuba".
Long Live the 41st Anniversary of the Nicaraguan Navy!
Long Live the Families of all the Brothers who have passed through the Nicaraguan Navy and who are currently in the Nicaraguan Navy. All of them have been a strength in the development of the Nicaraguan Naval Force; all our affection, all our Love for the Families of all of you, Beloved Brothers and Sisters.
And our commitment to continue supporting and seeking resources that God will provide, God will provide, God helps us as He has always helped us to multiply the loaves, to improve in all aspects the conditions of the Navy, the Air Force, the entire Nicaraguan Army, of all the Nicaraguan Institutions.
As we have managed to implement in these days in August, the salary increase, really a miracle, because 5% starting in August and 3% that had been approved this year, we are talking about 8%; that is to say, an increase that says a lot about the commitment we have with the People, with the Workers who deserve that, and much more. And that is why we are fighting for the Peace of our Nation.
Long Live the Army of Nicaragua on its 42nd Anniversary! Long Live Nicaragua, Blessed and Forever Free! And may Christ and God always accompany us on this road we have been traveling towards the Promised Land, which is one of Happiness, Work and Peace!