XXV Graduation Ceremony for Officers
of the "Major General José Dolores Estrada Vado"
Center for Higher Military Studies
December 11th 2020
Daniel's Address
Beloved brothers and sisters, compañeras and compañeros, all the officers graduating today, Do you solemnly swear before God, the Fatherland, our National Heroes and on your Honor, to respect and obey the Constitution and Laws, to defend at the cost of your own Life, if necessary, the Rights and Liberties of the People and the Independence, Self-Determination, Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity of our Nation, as well as to serve the Nation with Honor and Loyalty, to obey the orders issued by the Superior Command, to respect the Laws and Regulations that govern the Military Career and Life, and to faithfully and conscientiously fulfill the Duties of the Positions that are conferred upon you and the Missions that your Commands designate to you?
Graduating officers : "Yes, we swear!"
If you do so, may the Nation, the People, reward you, and if not, may they call you to account.
Sacred Oath, before God, before the Families, before all the People of Nicaragua. And today, December 11, 2020, this Graduation of the Academy of the Center for Higher Military Studies "Major General José Dolores Estrada Vado", is dedicated to General Benjamin Zeledón.
There is continuity... Who did General José Dolores Estrada face, with Andrés throwing the stone against the invaders? He confronted the invaders, the expansionists of the northern Empire, the slave owners. He confronted them. Those who had dared to impose a yankee President here in Nicaragua, William Walker, that yankee President, imposed and recognized by the U.S. Government of the time, was defeated by the Nicaraguan people, led by General José Dolores Estrada.
Who did General Benjamin Zeledon confront and defeat? He faced and defeated, yes, he defeated them, because he did not surrender, and he fell defending the Sovereignty of the Nation against the troops of the US Army, who offered to spare his life if he surrendered, and like him, later, General Sandino would also say: I'm not selling out, nor surrendering, ever! And that is the Victory, the Dignity of the People prevailed. And so goes the long journey of our History, Nicaragua trying to develop, trying to stabilize, and the American rulers trying to take over our Territory. And there are those who ask themselves, why this appetite, this ambition, this fixation of the yankee Empire on Nicaragua? Nicaragua is located in a strategic point.
Ever since the Spanish colonizers arrived in Nicaragua, when they found the San Juan River and then the Great Lake of Nicaragua, and then they found that small piece of land that had to be traveled in the Isthmus of Rivas, they said: Here is the way to unite the Atlantic and the Pacific. They were coming from the Atlantic, and they were looking for the straits of the passage, believing that they had reached the Indies, they never imagined that this Continent was here, and they were looking for the way across.
And the English also said: Here is the passage; and the English began to dispute control of Nicaragua with the Spanish, and the English began invading the territory controlled by the Spanish, along the San Juan River. There the expeditions came, with officers and English soldiers.
England, which had been a great Empire and still had that strength, disputed with the Spanish Empire the Territory that had been stolen from our Peoples by the Spanish invaders; even, Admirals recognized as great strategists, such as Admiral Nelson, also went up the San Juan River trying to take the position of El Castillo which was dominated by the Spanish, and from there penetrate Lake Nicaragua and take possession of Nicaragua, and defeat the Spanish. But Nelson also failed in that attempt, he managed to go up the river, he even managed to climb the hill going to El Castillo, but he could not take it.
And the United States was already beginning to develop in the midst of its wars, internal wars in the United States, between the North and the South, and the South defending slavery, and Walker was coming from the South, and Byron Cole, the Colonel, was coming from the South too, but in other circumstances, seeking to take our countries so as to then to try advancing further North, to take all of Central America, and then to go over the United States itself. And they were defeated.
Central America united then, because they knew that if they took over Nicaragua then they would take over Central America, and then they would try to take over Mexico, and continue with their adventure on towards the United States.
And that yankee, Walker, was recognized at that time by the Government of the United States. When he took office, he was accompanied by the Ambassador of the United States, yes, representatives of the Empire, the Ambassadors, and, recognized by the Ambassador of the United States back then; but then, the Nicaraguan People, the Peoples of Central America, united, and managed to defeat the yankee invader.
And that explains the name of the School, in honor of the First General, and Andrés the First Sergeant. They were distinguished for their leadership in combat, for their Heroism and Courage, General José Dolores Estrada and Andrés, throwing the stone, defeating the Yankees. And that's where our roots are, that's where our roots come from; of course, our roots come from a little further back, they come from the Resistance, the struggle that our ancestors waged, under totally unequal conditions.
Diriangén and Nicarao fought, confronting the invaders in totally unequal struggle. But the invaders also manipulated the Sign of the Cross, and combined the Sword with the Cross to subdue the Peoples of our ancestors. We come from there, from those ancestors, but mixed together in the Mestizaje.
And so, from there comes the struggle, the struggle that you carry in your veins, the struggle for the Homeland, the struggle for Dignity, and that fight is not struggle merely for the sake of struggle, because we Nicaraguans want Peace. We Nicaraguans have always wanted peace, we have never harmed any country, we have never harmed the United States of America. But why do the yankees, and some foreign, European powers, feel that they have the right to treat us as if we were their colony?
And notice the continuity, then Sandino too, who is, as the compañero said in his address, the living representation of the maximum historical representation of what our History is, the history of defense of Dignity, of Peace, of Sovereignty, who managed to defeat the yankees, the yankees had to retreat.
The yankees then came back, from the yankee Embassy, connected to Washington and with the yankee officers of the yankee army, the crime against Sandino was hatched. A cowardly behavior, because Sandino, in the end, had decided to risk everything for Peace; but, of course, one of our General Sandino's conditions had already been fulfilled: the yankee troops had to withdraw from Nicaragua. And the yankee troops had already withdrawn.
So Sandino took the risk of coming from down the mountains to Managua to negotiate for Peace, and it was a death trap, typical of cowards, typical of murderers, yes, Sandino's murderers are in the North, they are still in the North, because they wanted to kill Sandino, and they killed him after inviting him to a dinner.
This must have immediately reminded Sandino, once he was already captured and realized he was going to be shot, then he must have been reminded of the last supper of Christ. Sandino experienced the last supper here in the Presidential House, in La Loma, where the Army High Command now is, invited by the president, to a dinner there, and right then that night when Sandino left came the ambush, the crime organized by the yankees, and Somoza executed the crime and the assassination of Sandino.
That's what they wanted, to assassinate Sandino and impose an instrument of theirs, someone who would kneel down to them, someone who was already born surrendered to the yankee Empire, someone who was already born sold to the Yankee Empire for 30 silver coins, just as Judas sold Christ for 30 silver coins. And that is why they strengthened Somoza and his army.
We cannot forget, even more so in these times, that the yankees armed, trained, taught methods of torture, put all their abilities into training the intelligence services here, to confront the followers of Sandino who continued the struggle after the assassination of our General.
The struggle continued, and already on the eve, when there was little time left for the Victory and the battle was bloody, and many brothers fighting the battle in unequal conditions fell in combat, raising Sandino's Red-Black Flag to defend the Blue-White Flag of the Fatherland that was humiliated, that was dragged, then, on December 11, a day like today, of the year 1978, today 42 years ago and today he has been paid homage, homage paid to a Hero of the Nation and of the Peoples, to a brother of Spanish origin, who came here not with the attitude of the conquerors, nor with the mentality of the imperialists, but who came here as a priest to work for the poor, to work for the peasants.
This is what Father Gaspar García Laviana dedicated himself to in all the southern zone of our country, from Granada to the municipalities of the department of Rivas. Gaspar went around all those places in his missionary work, preaching the Gospel of Christ, defending the poor. Because the Gospel of Christ is clear, when it says: It will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And that remains a great truth, the rich, the capitalists, at the service of the Empire, at the service of the yankees, continue to enrich themselves at the expense of the Peoples, at the expense of hunger, at the expense of poverty, at the expense of the exploitation of the Peoples.
And when Gaspar fell, how much joy there was for Somoza, a servant of the yankees, and Somoza's newspaper, which was called Novedades, with the headline: "The Communist Priest falls, and goes to hell". That was the headline. They thought that with the fall in combat of Gaspar the people would become demoralized, the peasants would start crying, and it was at that moment that the peasants, the people, the combatants of the Sandinista Front, said: This is not the moment to shed tears, because then Gaspar would condemn us. It is time to continue fighting, following in Gaspar's footsteps.
And when in this Plaza the People entered victoriously on July 20, 1979, here too entered victoriously the Cacique Diriangén, the Cacique Nicarao, here entered victoriously José Dolores Estrada and Andrés Castro, here entered victoriously Benjamín Zeledón, here entered victoriously Sandino, here entered victoriously Gaspar García Laviana, Here Carlos Fonseca entered victoriously, here entered victoriously all the Heroes and Martyrs of this Heroic People, of this Fighting People, and here entered victoriously, protected by the red and black flag of Sandino, entered victoriously, entered made clean, the Blue and White Flag of the Nation.
That is where this Army comes from, from that long History, in which we could lay out everything done by the descendants of our indigenous ancestors, right up until the most recent times when the struggle has continued. And the struggle continues not because we want to confront the yankees, not because we do not agree with the barbarities committed right there in the United States; but because we do not agree with the barbarities committed by the United States and the European powers against all the peoples of the World.
In Asia, in Africa, in Latin America they have committed crimes against humanity, but who calls them to account, who can punishes them, if they are a great power; then, the World becomes a World where the "law of the strongest" is imposed and not the Law that is established in the United Nations, where all the Countries sign it, all have signed it, but the great powers do not comply with it.
The great powers, just because they are military powers, and too since they are economic powers, and since they have the nuclear weapons, then the great powers do not comply, and impose on the world the "law of the strongest". That is what they impose on the world, and they try to impose on our Latin America and the Caribbean the "law of the strongest". And where it does not work out for them, then they resort to military coups.
We have already seen what happened in Bolivia, that is fresh in our minds; so many military coups, we could spend all night here recounting the history of the military coups in Latin America and the Caribbean, but we have the coup in Bolivia fresh in our minds, and the complicity of the international organizations. And of course the yankees were in on the plot, leading the plot, directing the OAS, not all the countries of the OAS, much less all the Peoples since there are governments that take positions supposedly in the name of their Peoples, but where their Peoples in fact repudiate the positions taken by their governments who simply follow the orders of the yankees.
They are servile Governments with no dignity who recognized the coup d'état there in Bolivia, then they recognized the Government that imposed the coup d'état, and had everything planned so as not to allow a new election, so they were dragging things out, dragging things out, until finally they could no longer, because Bolivia's People are a brave People, a fighting People, a People with conscience, and they remembered very well the whole period of the Government of our Brother Evo Morales.
How the Bolivian economy grew in that time! But it grew not only to favor big business and the rich, rater it grew, and although it brought profits to big business, that is true, it brought profits for the rich, but first it spread those profits among the People, to the poor, to the peasants.
Where Bolivia was ranked among the poorest countries of our Latin America, along with Haiti, with Nicaragua, with Honduras, among the most impoverished countries of Latin America, suddenly Bolivia started a period of economic growth, why? Because it knew how to use the resources, the wealth that Bolivia has. Bolivia has gas and it has a lot of mineral wealth, and the capacity and experience of a people to produce, to work, and that gave Bolivia impressive growth, surpassing that of other governments.
And a process, in that stage, very similar to our own, where we achieved a surge in growth, from 2007 to 2016 we had growth, and here the business class did well, but the People won too, the workers won, farmers won. But the great powers the US, are always with the problem that they want to put governments in place, and where there is a Government that was not put in place by them, they do not like it anymore, why? Because the US has a totally expansionist, imperialist policy, and they continue to act as a hegemonic power. They do not realize that the world has changed, that it is no longer possible for a single hegemonic power to run the world, because now there are different formations have taken shape, some stronger, others less strong.
Even here in Latin America, ALBA was able to take shape. The anniversary of the ALBA is coming on December 14th when Fidel and Chávez founded the ALBA. That anniversary is coming. Then came CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
In all of Latin America it was a good moment, and we were all there, progressive Governments, revolutionary Governments, right-wing Governments? We were all there! But then came conspiracy and then came the coups d'état, and then came the persecutions. And countries like Brazil, where Lula was President, we already know that history, but Lula is still there and the Brazilian people, always fighting; the Argentine people are also fighting; the Mexican people are fighting.
In other words, new spaces have opened up in Latin America; we have a Latin America where not all governments say "yes sir" to the yankees. No, they do not see the yankee as the master of their Peoples. There are governments that want, as we do, good relations with the United States, respectful relations. But also for them to stop conspiring, as they conspire in the embassies, the ambassadors, to find a way to bring together all the terrorists, the coup plotters, those who pulled out fingernails and brutally murdered and burned in April 2018.
They are feeding them again, and they are seeking to unite them, offering them resources, for what? So that in the next elections that we will have here in 2021, then they can put, because that is what they always aspire to, a President at their service, on his knees to imperialist politics. That is what they like, that is what they are looking for, all over the world, not only in Nicaragua.
But the Peoples are rebellious and in the end they decide, and the best example, I repeat, is in Bolivia. When everything seemed lost and months passed and there were no new elections, and Evo was there in Argentina, because they wanted to assassinate him, and the People were being persecuted there in Bolivia, they were putting them in prison, they were torturing them; but then, they could not resist the pressure of the People, and the election came, and they could not in spite of their millions and their campaigns, they could not defeat the Bolivian People, and the Bolivian People voted in favor of the People.
They have to understand, the United States must understand that even the image that they have tried to sell, that they are the perfect Democracy, has long since totally failed, not only in the World, but before the American People themselves. How can we not remember the struggles in the United States and the crimes committed against the civil rights fighters, for women's right to vote, for the women's right to work.
How many persecutions, how many crimes, for the right of workers to an eight hour day, because they work 14, 20 hours! Crimes were committed against the workers who were protesting, and then some were killed in moments of repression, because they were marching; and then those workers were tried, and then those Workers were hanged, simply for demanding that the hours of exploitation be reduced.
That is why the Heroes of Chicago are commemorated, because it was in Chicago that great battle, May Day is commemorated, and we commemorate it here as Workers' Day. It was precisely in the United States, the so-called Democracy, where the Workers fought so that they would not be treated like slaves.
Not to mention the struggle of the black population, fighting for their rights, because the children of the blacks could not go to a white school, they could not sit together wit whites on a bus, but there was a corner for the blacks on the bus, where they let them get on the bus, on other buses they didn't even let them get on. And all of this was totally legal in the different states of the United States, where they did not allow a young black man who had managed to pass his secondary school, his "high school" as they say there, to enter university.
Where there were bars, restaurants, only for whites, and a black man couldn't go in there, they would kick him out. And I'm talking about black Americans, because they were the children of immigrants from Africa, their grandparents had come from Africa, their parents had already been born in the United States, they too had been born in the United States, they had and still have American citizenship, and even then their civil rights were not recognized. They suffered that level of repressive brutality.
There we have seen how they murdered, in full view of the world, not just one, but tens, hundreds of black people. If it is the land of the Ku Klux Klan, and the Ku Klux Klan has not disappeared, it is there alive in the United States, the fascists have not disappeared, they are there alive in the United States and they are marching with the insignia of the Nazis and they are vindicating Hitler, and they are also armed, because they allow them to be armed, they are committing crimes. There are no human rights that count! Human rights are violated there every day.
Not to mention the attitude against Central American, African, and Asian immigrants, the barbarities that are said against our peoples.
In other words, we are facing a country that has been unmasked before the world, and where the American People themselves have had to fight, American youth opposing the war in Vietnam, the American population also defending the immigrants. Of course, there is a percentage of the US population that is totally racist, that cannot tolerate anyone at all with brown skin, because for them that person should be dead. Racism in the United States goes to such extremes.
And the last thing about American democracy is that they want to give classes in democracy all over the world, they want to decide how elections should be all over the world, they want to decide which party should win all over the world. Let's see them and let them see themselves in their own mirror. There they are fighting and accusing each other of fraud.
Fraud in the United States! And not from now on, in several elections these accusations of fraud have come out, and that they have an electoral system where the People's vote is not valid, because the People vote, but it is useless for a Candidate to have a majority of votes, if later in each State the party Delegates can decide to elect the candidate who had fewer popular votes.
What kind of democracy is that? What would happen if we said, well, we're going to follow the example of the United States which is the perfect Democracy, and we're going to make Constitutional Reforms, what for? To establish a model like that of the United States. Well, the people are going to vote, but the one who has more votes is not going to win, but the one who has more votes of the different party Delegates in each Department of Nicaragua, is going to win.
How would they react here, how would the Europeans react, and how would the Yankees themselves react? By criticizing us, and telling us that we are consolidating dictatorship and tyranny in Nicaragua. That is what they would say. Where a tyranny really exists, a dictatorship of economic power, of military power, is in the United States.
There they are still, time is running out, there is still no final declaration saying who has won the votes in the different States; the current President is claiming fraud, and some state governors are backing the accusation of fraud, accusing that no one knows where all the votes came from.
All this in the United States of America! Simply what we are seeing there is hypocrisy, double standards, we are seeing what is an attitude, as we would say here, of people with no shame. They have no shame!
With what authority are they claiming in other countries that there must be democratic elections? With what authority? Let them first establish a true Democracy in the United States, because their Democracy does not exist, neither in electoral or political terms, nor in economic or social terms. Because we now see how the American population suffers from hunger, unemployment, one part with employment, but another part unemployed, before the pandemic arrived, and with the pandemic the situation is even worse for the American people.
There is poverty there, in the United States there is poverty, there is misery; of course, the misery cannot be seen because what one sees generally are the large buildings there, everything that is the mirror of consumption in the United States. But there is misery there.
I cannot fail to recall that Rubén Darío, on his way back from Europe, passed through New York, and when he passed through New York he was surprised and said: "Fifty-story houses!" In other words, Dario was astonished to see those great buildings, logically there are now much larger buildings than in those years.
Colored servants, because all the employees there were black, the domestic servants were black. Because of the discrimination against black people didn't give them any other kind of work, they didn't allow them any other kind of work. At that time there was still no progress in Civil Rights, when Dario passed through there. And Dario would say: 50-story houses, colored servitude, and what is sad, my God, there are those who die of cold and pain, pain, pain? And he begins to describe the pain there in New York, what he saw! Because one imagines that in America there is no poverty... Of course there's poverty! Of course there's misery!
And then there are a lot of jobs that are not done by American citizens any more and that's why they need immigration, the immigrants. In other words, the immigrant is needed in the United States. What happens is that when they already have plenty of employment and they have filled the quota for immigrants to work in activities where American citizens do not work, then they close the doors and want to expel them; or after they have worked there for many years, they want to expel them.
Beloved brothers and sisters, beloved compañeros and compañeras, beloved young people, from this History we come, our parents come, our grandparents come, our great-great-great-grandparents come, from all that historical journey, from the arrival of the conquerors until today.
And this Army that was born in the heat of the Revolutionary Triumph, that was forged, this Army was forged as steel is forged; steel is made in the forge, with fire, and with blows from the hammer the steel bars were forged, the swords were forged. This Army has been forged, because this is how the history of our country has been forged, and we have an enormous stronghold, enormous wealth, which is not of gold, because we have a wealth that is far more valuable than gold, namely the conscience of feeling proud to be Nicaraguans, feeling proud to be the bearers, the heirs of this heroic history.
That we will continue defending Peace, of course, because we want Peace, and we have always fought for Peace, even in the hardest moments of War. The 80's were a hard period of war, hard, but in the end we sought Peace and we achieved Peace. And while we have had a Peace marked by some acts of aggression, some crimes by those groups that always try to organize themselves, nurtured by the United States, overall we have had Peace under different governments for the first time in the history of our country, under different governments, note, without coups d'état.
From 1990, when the Peace Accords and disarmament in our country ended, until 2000, 10 years, to 2006, 16 years, then the elections of November 2006, when we returned to the government through the electoral process, 15 years plus 16, 31 years of peace. But above all, in that period from 2007 to 2016, the miracle took place in Nicaragua, of agreement between the different economic forces and social forces, a huge National Alliance, and where nobody talked about confrontation or war, until finally the conspirators came, nurtured by the United States, and provoked that bloodbath in April 2018.
Since then, it has been hard, but we have managed now to restore peace, and we have also managed, in the midst of very complex conditions such as the pandemic, and then the hurricanes, to stabilize the economy, recovering the economy, and achieving growth rates, while other countries are in very difficult conditions despite having much stronger economies than ours. And this is the effort of our entire People, who want to work, who want work, who want Peace and who want Stability.
Beloved sons and daughters, beloved sisters and brothers, beloved General Julio César Avilés, beloved brothers and sisters of the General Staff of the Army, beloved Chief of the Academy "José Dolores Estrada", beloved families, this is Task Force of Youth, of our country's Youth, which is not formed for Evil, but for Good, to reach out to the People, offering their hand to the Workers, reaching out to them, just like they did to the Miskito Communities that were in the Keys and the Islands, now when the hurricanes were coming and they didn't want to leave their homes, and the Naval Force went there reaching out to them, rescuing women, men, children. The same goes for the Police, as well as the different organizations and institutions, where, naturally, the Army plays a very important role in the measures addressing these natural phenomena.
So, this is an army that is there to serve the people, to accompany the people defending their work, in the defense of productive activities, in the protection of small, medium, and large producers, there is no difference; for the coffee crops for example, where they unite with the producers, the army, the police, in the activities of the cattle ranch; that is, protecting rural workers so they can work with security, so that they are not assaulted, so that they are not robbed, so that they are not assassinated.
That is their work, but they are also young people forged with all the steel of our history, with all the strength, the steel, the firmness of our heroes, with all the steel, the strength and firmness of General Benjamin Zeledón, to whom today they have dedicated this graduation.
So we congratulate you who have concluded this new stage of your life, we congratulate your Families who accompany you tonight, and we say to the People of Nicaragua: "Here are your children serving the People of Nicaragua, and defending the Sovereignty, Peace and Stability of the Nation, with all the firmness, all the force and all the conviction that is necessary, as our Heroes and Martyrs demonstrated".
Long live the Nicaraguan Army!
Long live the "Major General José Dolores Estrada Vado" Center for Higher Military Studies in this, the Center's 25th Officers Graduation
Long live Nicaragua, Blessed and Always Free!
Good night, beloved Nicaraguan sisters and brothers.