Message from the President-Comandante Daniel
in the Act on the Historic Triumph of Nicaragua in the International Court of Justice
April 21, 2022
Good afternoon, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, Families of this Blessed Nation, this Free Nation, of Diriangén, of Darío, of Sandino, of Andrés Castro and José Dolores Estrada, that is, covering also the history of Zeledón.
It was in the month of April that the first confrontation by our Original Peoples took place, led by Cacique Nicarao and Cacique Diriangén. Already 499 years ago, that exchange has lasted for 500 years, first it was a duel, the duel of the thought of the Cacique Nicarao with the Conqueror, with those questions of his which disarmed the Conquerors. And then there was the fight with Diriangén.
In these days of April, almost 500 years ago, that first rebellion of our Native Peoples against those who carried out expansionist policies in the World at that time.
It was Europe, the Europeans, making wars among themselves continuously, and then, setting out to find how to occupy, to subjugate, to enslave, our Sisters and Brothers in Africa, in Asia, and here to annihilate, in Canada, in the United States, what they call “Democracy” was carried out by murdering the owners of those Lands. Those who came from Europe did not bring Peace, they did not bring Respect, instead they brought Blood, bloodied our Lands, which belonged then and belong now to our Peoples.
Today in the small hours of the morning we had a tremor, which was like a cannon shot to wake up the whole of Nicaragua. That was at 1:40 in the morning, it was approaching 2 in the morning, that is, we were already an hour away from the Sentence being handed down at the International Court of Justice there in The Hague.
And we just saw, Sisters and Brothers, at the beginning, when we started this activity, they they are the Judges, the Judges of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, just when they were there ready to read their statement on the claims that the Nicaraguan People had re-submitted before the Court, there, in that very moment, as they were sitting there, for our part here we were woken up, the shaking woke us up and we were all awake, alert, and next, at that very moment, came the Judgment of the Court.
We watched the Judges there, at the moment when they were already beginning to read the Sentence, a clear Sentence, irrefutable, really irrefutable!, with the power of Justice; a shattering Sentence, yes, shattering! It's David in front of Goliath, throwing the Sentence with the sling.
Nicaragua is well know, when this type of dispute occurs, for resorting to the International Court of Justice, and abiding by what the Court says. And what this Sentence handed down today by the Court does is tell the Authorities in power in Colombia, to those who hold power, a power that they call “democratic”, but one that we all know is really a Power that is based on drug trafficking.
That is why it is well known into what they have converted Colombia, those who imposed themselves on that country, who have bloodied that country with thousand upon thousand of dead, murdered, every day teachers, journalists, social leaders, fighters who were in the guerrilla and who embraced Peace are murdered there in Colombia, it is a much repeated story, and also that country is the largest producer of drugs.
One might think that the North American and European leaders, who have even incorporated Colombia into NATO, have done so because in that way they are protecting the country that produces the narcotics that are marketed and consumed in the United States and in Europe. They are the big consumers, because they are the ones who have the money, the capital, to pay for the drug at a good price.
I say all this, because we know that it is a huge truth, and meanwhile the reaction today of the President of Colombia, instead of saying "let's comply", since they have not wanted to comply with the Ruling, the Sentence of the Court, what he did was to insult, to attack Nicaragua, and doubling down so as not to move from their positions.
What makes their defiance so remarkable? Because there they are defying the Highest Authority that the Peoples of the World have to solve this type of problem, which is the International Court of Justice in The Hague. And they are behaving the same way of those who are their great protectors, of those who have bases installed there in Colombia: the leaders of the United States.
And who governs the United States? The arms manufacturers, they are the ones who rule the United States... the big armaments manufacturers! There those who note that the Democratic Party or Republican Party are nothing more than political manifestations that ultimately when they arrive in government answer to the arms manufacturers, who set out to do business with the self-same United States of America, and also selling armaments to whoever wants to buy them.
And they end up in the hands of United States citizens who for whatever reason, as a manifestation of what US culture and democracy are, grab an AK rifle or an M16 rifle, or grab a pistol, a revolver, and go out and start killing there in the street, every day that happens in the United States. Or in schools, boys, young people who see a gun in their house, take it and start shooting in the school and murdering students, and parents rushing there in desperation. We see these scenes every day.
What lessons can the United States give us about security, if they cannot give security even to their own people? We see how the U.S. authorities, when it comes to bringing order as they call it, there do repress the Afro-descendant population and kill them quietly there. They have recently murdered another Afro-descendant person, they already had him under control and still they shot him. The same with immigrants.
In other words, no one closed the door on them when they came to invade those lands. No one closed the doors to the English, the French, the Italians, the Europeans who came to invade those lands which did not belong to them and began murdering the indigenous populations who were the ones who lived there and were the owners of those lands.
From then on, it has been a country that made and developed in the midst of what is really a permanent bloodbath, against its own People, against the Original Peoples, and then too against immigrants, and then the slaves there in the United States, and then too the Afro-Descendant population denied civil rights. And we see how they close the doors now on other people, the very ones who came to those lands to steal them from their owners, they now come and close the doors on those people who want to reach the United States from our Latin American or Caribbean Countries, or from Africa or Asia.
Ah, of course, if they are European, they enter without problem, they open the door to the rich, to the rich countries, to the capitalist countries, and they close the door on the immigrants who arrive from countries that they themselves have impoverished, plundered and invaded. How many crimes have been committed in the name of the defense of Freedom and Democracy, by the United States... How many crimes!
I was telling you that this news really is news that fills us with pride, because it is one more battle in favor of Peace. All these battles are in favor of Peace, because there we have had comrades who we have lost, while patrolling in those waters, comrades of the armed forces, while Colombia moves its navy, its warships in waters that have not belonged to them since 2012.
Here I was watching news from the BBC Mundo channel, where they clearly talk about recognizing Nicaragua's Right that the Colombian state has ignored. And we hope that the words, the expressions of the President of Colombia, remain merely words and that he does not go on to try to violate what is a Right that has been recognized since 2012, recognized by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In other words, we see them showing the same behavior of their owners, because as regards the United States Government, likewise, we cannot forget that Historic Ruling where the demand we presented aimed at putting an end to the war, to the terrorism that the Yankee leaders practiced in Nicaragua throughout that the 1980s, from 1979 when the Revolution triumphed, until the 90s.
Terrorist practices that caused more than 50,000 victims here in our country, and that caused damage to the country's infrastructure, schools, health posts, construction machinery that was destroyed, our sea ports mined.
We went to court and asked the Court to make a ruling, because we were being openly assaulted by the United States Government. Its President, then-President Ronald Reagan, said it very clearly, and defended it, even resorted, as he indeed did, to drug traffickers, to fuel the war against the Nicaraguan people.
And Nicaragua wanted Peace, so we went to Court and a Sentence was handed down by the Court in which the Court condemned the United States, and said: “Stop all these activities of aggression against Nicaragua, terrorist activities, and compensate Nicaragua!” That was the mandate of the Judge, of that Judge who was installed there with the support of the World Community. Well, to date they have not complied, rather what they are doing is continuing with what they call Sanctions, which are nothing more than aggression against the Peoples of the World.
We are one more people of those who suffer aggression from the United States of America, which is distributing sanctions on all sides, that is, aggression on all sides, simply based on force; that is, its reason lies in using force.
But we are sure that the time will come when that Judgment will also be complied with, it will be fulfilled; someday changes will take place in the United States that will give rise to a new global reality, a new world reality where these failings will finally be recognized.
And from what the Colombian government has said so far, we totally doubt that they are willing to comply with the Ruling. Yes, on behalf of our people we demand that you comply with the ruling, that you take steps to respect international law and to respect Peace.
We are confident that the People of Colombia, which is a sister People, just as are the United States People, like the Peoples of Europe, we have nothing against their Peoples, on the contrary we hold encounters with their Peoples, but we have a system in which Governments hold attitudes that do not respect the Law, and act in the World with the use of force and they don't care that it shows they are breaking Agreements, Treaties contained in international bodies, that they themselves signed, but then, behave as if those treaties did not exist.
We would like to congratulate on behalf of us all and the Nicaraguan people and the Nicaraguan Families for this great victory in favor of Peace.
The army is going to continue patrolling in those territories, 75,000 kilometers that Nicaragua managed to recover in November 2012 when the Ruling was given. And there they have been patrolling, and there the Armed Naval Force is active and our Police comrades are active along our Coastal Areas, because we have to fight drug trafficking and organized crime. And we are going to continue doing so, even though we know Colombia has a very powerful army, but here we have faced and our People have faced much more powerful armies.
I was telling you how Nicarao and Diriangén faced a powerful Army at that time, who came with the Cross and the Sword; then, General José Dolores Estrada and Andrés faced a force that came from the United States commanded by the expansionist and racist, William Walker, and having among them in their high command Colonel Byron Cole who came from the wars in the United States. They were defeated!
Then, when the American troops come, they land in our country, they were going against the Nicaraguans who defended the Nation and our Sovereignty against the Yankee invader, there Zeledón gave battle, in front of a powerful enemy he gave battle, and defended the Honor, the Pride of being Nicaraguan, with his very life Zeledón defended it. And then came Sandino who faced that powerful army of the United States.
That is, when the Yankee troops came Zeledón did not run away, Zeledón said: I await you here! And he waited for them. Like Sandino, when the Yankee troops landed and the Yankee Colonels told Sandino to surrender, to surrender his weapons, Sandino said no, and faced that powerful army which used aviation against the Nicaraguan people, because they bombed the city of Ocotal where General Sandino's troops were fighting with the Yankee Troops, combined with the sell-out collaborators. And there they dropped their bombs.
But Sandino and his Army defending National Sovereignty did not back down, but instead stood firm on the battlefield, and were an inspiration to the Peoples of the World. In the end, the Yankees were defeated, the first defeat of the Yankee troops in Our America.
In other words, their objective was to assassinate Sandino, to destroy the Crazy Little Army, as Gabriela Mistral called the Army defending our National Sovereignty. But they couldn't, and they suffered casualties, and so it wasn't easy for the US to go on suffering more casualties occupying a country like Nicaragua and facing an army of Peasants and Workers led by Sandino.
In the end they had to withdraw from Nicaragua, that is, they did not achieve their objective, and they have that in their history there, in the United States it is part of their history, that they did not achieve the objective of annihilating or of making General Sandino surrender. No, they couldn't!
They called him a brigand, they called him a murderer, how could they not disparage Sandino and how they attacked him with all the artillery they had at their disposal, with reinforcements arriving from the United States. It was a challenge for them to destroy Sandino... And they couldn't! They couldn't do so! They had to retreat.
Then Sandino, who was fighting for Peace, when the Yankees withdrew, he said: Well, now we are going to talk about Peace and sign Peace Agreements. And it was in those circumstances that in a cowardly way, they resorted to a traitor, a Judas, a Cain, Somoza, who was a Cain because he embraced Sandino and told him that they were Brothers; President Sacasa received Sandino, and then came the ambush, when they captured him and assassinated him.
You see, those are the practices of imperialism and those are the children of Imperialism, the Somozas, the Pinochets, the Batistas, yes, they are the children of Imperialism, the sell-out collaborators, indeed, they are the children of Imperialism.
We will continue working, as we have been working, but now with more encouragement, with more joy, facing all the difficulties that have to be faced, but moving forward... moving forward, building; moving forward, serving the Nicaraguan people.
Congratulations from our People, to our Brother Dr. Carlos Argüello, who is there in Geneva, he was present there, you saw him in the Session at the moment when they are reading the Sentence, and he was at the front.
And our recognition, without question, to the support team that he has there, the lawyers who accompany him, who have remained firm, and also to the work team that has accompanied him here, a team that has constantly coordinated by General Avilés, since the Army coordinates it, General Avilés coordinates that team.
And there too we have colleagues from INETER, and who have to do with hydrological studies, who have to do with sea ports, that is, it is team work... MARENA, the Foreign Ministry, here is Chancellor Denis too, that is, specialists who, coordinating under the leadership of Doctor Carlos Argüello, prepare the information that is then presented to the Court. Dr. Argüello comes here, meets with the team and the team has already worked on proposed items.
INPESCA is also part of the team, let's see, who are we missing there, General? There is MARENA, INPESCA, Chancellery, INETER. Why so? Because we have to work with assuredness in relation to the data, the evidence, the documentation so as to be able to present it to the Court.
You have to document everything and that is a job requiring a lot of preparation, a lot of care, a lot of responsibility, a lot of time. Such that there is much work that this team does at all hours, because Dr. Argüello needs information, so we have to quickly look for that information and convene the work team to prepare the information; and that is how all the documentation that Nicaragua has been presenting in all the cases we have begun and brought before the International Court of Justice is built up.
So, we congratulate all these colleagues and their families, because they are colleagues who after their work do not return home, but continue working. And we congratulate too our People, who know and have learned how to face a thousand adversities, and we are always moving forward.
We know that the way ahead is always full of obstacles, the best example is the one we have in the veneration of Holy Week... Whom do we venerate? We venerate Christ. How terrible the martyrdom of Christ! And how they slandered him, how they defamed him, and how the false Priests, yes, the false Priests whom he called “whited sepulchres”, he called those false Priests “whited sepulchres”, who are the same people who are always looking for how to cause harm.
And they are the Judases, they are the Cains, the ones who ended up celebrating the martyrdom of Christ, applauded the kiss of Judas, those who went along, as Christ was being martyred and taken to Calvary, torturing him in the midst of the uproar driven by the pharisees, and then on the Cross... How terrible!
But Christ rose again. And that is something the Peoples have, the Peoples even in the greatest difficulties resurrect themselves. The Nicaraguan People has been resurrected after terrible wars, after earthquakes, Managua twice devastated, and look, here Managua is now, thanks be to God who gives strength to this People, thanks be to Christ who is an example for all of us, and for this People.
We can say, Brothers and Sisters, that we thank Christ for accompanying this People, such that today we are celebrating this Sentence of the International Court of Justice, where Justice for Peace shines through.
Thank you, Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, and long live our Blessed, Always Free Nicaragua, Christian, Socialist, full of Solidarity, full of Love for our Neighbors, and Defender, to the very last consequences, of Peace.
Long live Peace!
Long live Peace!
And Long live Peace!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice-President of Nicaragua, after the Activity Celebrating
the Historic Triumph of Nicaragua at the International Court of Justice
April 21, 2022
Good afternoon, good evening, Beloved Families. Every time I hear or sing, every time we all sing the lyrics and music of our National Anthem, I wonder: How many countries in the World praise Peace in their National Anthems? Because our Song is as a country that has suffered so much the dire, terrible consequences of attacks, of aggression.
Our country has a Hymn that sings to Peace: Peace shines beautiful in your Sky... And we talk about Glory, and we talk about the fact that the Beloved Nation, Our Nation, is no longer confronted or stained with the Blood of Brothers, and one feels full of Hope, of Dignity, more and more Dignity, and of Glory.
At noon today, I spoke in the midst of the Joy of this Historic Victory of the People of Nicaragua, this New Historic Victory, and I forgot to mention, in the early morning when we felt the earthquake, when we had to communicate to Families, always, every time there is an earthquake we felt, indeed, that we are also a Country full of volcanoes.
And the strength of the volcanoes is enormous...! It can produce earthquakes, produce alarm, sometimes it produces incidents, catastrophes like those we have suffered here in Managua. But there is also a Force, and it is a Force, an immense Force, and all Nicaraguans have that Force: the Force to defend Peace. The strength to live in Peace. The strength to assume Peace.
Peace is an immense challenge. It is much easier to destroy than to build. And that is why days like today are ones on which to celebrate that Strength we have in our Nicaragua, which is of Peace, which also has to do with our Faith, with our Christian Experiences, with our Solidarity of Sisterhood and Brotherhood... It has to do with our values!
Peace is a synthesis of those Values representing Nationality, Identity, Culture, and which make us profoundly Wise, Serene, when choosing our Paths: the Paths of Peace, Peace as a Path, Hope as a Guide.
We have lived so long, that we know that it is in Peace that we find not only the possibilities to create a Future, but also to live in Peace, which is what we all want, so as to Prosper... Work, Study, Thrive!
A big day today, in the midst of the tremors, of the memories. And well, what does one know after all? This is Life, Life that reflects our Strength in different ways : The Strength of our Volcanoes, the Strength of our Nature, the Strength of our People expressed in these Victories, which as our Comandante Daniel says, are Victories of Harmony, Peace, and Strength, Infinite Strength that God gives us to all of us Nicaraguans, to transcend, to overcome, to fight, and to conquer.
A Big Embrace full of Joy, of Recognition, of Pride, of National Dignity, to all our Brothers and Sisters, to all Nicaraguan Families. And we know that the Way lies Always Further On, and to go Further On, Life needs to be strengthened, and Life is indeed strengthened, it is strengthened by means of Peace and Love.
Life does not get stronger with Hatred and lack of Peace nor does it take hold, it weakens. Therefore, we can live Good Days every day, working to strengthen Peace such that it benefits us all, filling us all with more Strength to continue working, moving forward, prospering.
We give infinite thanks to the Heavenly Father, to Christ Jesus, and to all those Values of our Faith, which guide us, comfort us, and tell us: This is the Way! Thank you, Compañeros and Compañeras