Aldo Díaz Lacayo, distinguished historian, diplomat, educator and veteran revolutionary guerrilla fighter died over the weekend aged 86. Aldo was 20 when he supported preparations for Rigoberto López Perez to finally deliver justice on September 21st 1956 to Anastasio Somoza for the murder of Augusto C Sandino, his followers and so many other Nicaraguans.
Aldo was a close friend of one of Sandino's officers Ramón Raudales who organized many actions against the Somoza family dictatorship prior to his death in combat in 1958.
A few years later, fighting alongside Carlos Fonseca Amador, Aldo survived the armed action at El Chaparral in 1959 when a group of about 60 Central American and Cuban guerrillas were ambushed by forces of the Honduran and Nicaraguan armies. Aldo and Carlos Fonseca both survived and later managed to reach Cuba.
After Carlos Fonseca and his comrades founded the Sandinista Front for National Liberation in 1961, Aldo collaborated with that revolutionary organization which he came to perceive as one not just for national liberation but for the regional emancipation of the Greater Latin American and Caribbean Nation envisaged by Simón Bolívar, José Martí and Augusto C. Sandino.
From 1978 onwards Aldo undertook a series of important diplomatic assignments for the FSLN and Nicaragua in El Salvador, Mexico, Venezuela and Chile. He played a key role in the peace negotiations begun in 1983 in the framework of the Contadora Group which led to the Esquipulas peace process and ultimately to peace not just in Nicaragua but throughout Central America.
With his example of genuine solidarity, fraternal humility and unquestionable intellectual achievement, Aldo Díaz Lacayo helped inspire outstanding Sandinista revolutionary thinkers and writers like Orlando Nuñez Soto, Carlos Fonseca Terán, writers like Carlos Midence and Miguel Ayerdis and their academic colleagues , broadcasting professionals like William Grigsby Vado and Alberto Mora and many others.
Aldo was a committed revolutionary, a highly accomplished diplomat, a brilliant intellectual and academic but also a great educator always ready to share his hugely extensive experience and knowledge with younger people and colleagues.
He shared that gift as an educator with Nicaragua's Chancellor of Dignity, Fr. Miguel d'Escoto, and also his unbreakable commitment to Peace. Aldo once explained, “In Latin America, the culture of Peace was born along with Independence. It is not new at all. Simon Bolivar’s great concern was Peace.”
Thank you. Aldo, for teaching us so selflessly over so many years. We know you are with us now and always, as our beloved General of Free Women and Men Augusto C. Sandino, always said, “Siempre Más Allá” – Always Further On...
Stephen Sefton
Estelí, Nicaragua
May 28th 2022