President Comandante Daniel Ortega in the Tribute to Commemorate the Birth and Transit to Immortality of Nicaragua’s National Hero, General Benjamin Zeledon.
October 4th 2019
Beloved Nicaraguan sisters and brothers; beloved Nicaraguan Families... Zeledón, Benjamín Zeledón, today October 4th 2019 is the 107th anniversary of your Transit to Immortality.
Beloved sister; Rosario, Vice President of the Republic; General Julio César Avilés, Commander in Chief of the Army; much loved brother Gustavo Porras, President of the National Assembly; much loved brother Francisco Díaz, First Commissioner of the National Police; much loved brothers Bayardo Ramón Rodríguez Ruiz and Marvin Elías Corrales Rodríguez of the Army of Nicaragua, and brothers Ramón Avellán and Adolfo Marenco, General Commissioners of the National Police.
Youth. Youth, boys, girls, who are the Present and Future of Zeledón.
Beloved brothers and sisters, beloved comrades, Zeledón himself traced the guiding thread of the defeated yankee expansionism led by (William) Walker. He stated it explicitly, mentioning by name Byron Cole, who led the pro-slavery forces that had landed in Nicaragua, when Walker had already named himself President. Zeledón called it : the Defeat of Expansionism. The defeat of U.S. Imperialism fought back then in our homeland, and then later he, Zeledón, confronted the Yankee troops.
And history repeats itself, because who brought Walker here? Who appealed to the Invader? Nicaraguan politicians who had no concept of Homeland, no sense of Dignity, of Dignity for Nicaragua’s citizens. The self-same people, independently of their partisan banners, because Walker and Byron Cole were brought by them and also brought by them were those who invaded Nicaragua after giving Zelaya an ultimatum. Of course they gave the ultimatum to Zelaya with the blessing and the applause and complicity of those very traitors.
Zeledón rose up against what was the Yankee intervention after the U.S. government, through its representative, Secretary of State Philander Knox, sent the famous Knox Note to Zelaya. Zeledón did not accept that. He could not accept it. He said it clearly, expressed it clearly, and he rebelled against this violation of Nicaragua's sovereignty, and he said as much to the traitors, the traitors who had promoted and encouraged the coup against Zelaya. Then when Zeledón rose up in defense of Nicaragua and was defeating the army of traitors and quislings, to avoid defeat, the traitors appeal to the Yankee troops, and the Yankee troops began to disembark in the port of Corinto.
Zeledón knew he was now facing an unequal struggle, because that was when the Yankee troops who were the determining, strategic force confronting the patriots led by Zeledón, that was when they joined forces, with the troops of the quislings.
He knew he had no alternative but to fight on in those totally unequal conditions. He was so convinced of his fate that he wrote as much to his family, his wife, his children, and made it known to Nicaragua’s people. So he, along with other heroic Nicaraguans, because we cannot forget that with Zeledón there fought Nicaraguans who neither surrendered nor sold out and they too gave up their lives.
And when Zeledón and his men were resisting the traitors’ forces, the gringo troops arrived with all their might, with their cannons, with their machine guns. And then, already wounded, Zeledón was murdered; already wounded at a checkpoint where troops of the traitors communicated with the command of the North American troops, of the Yankee troops, who, just as with Sandino, decided to murder him, with one senior Yankee officer recommending he be hanged.
History repeats itself later with Sandino. Sandino, a boy at the time, remembered Zeledón. And Sandino, still a boy, had his conscience awakened when they dragged Zeledón's corpse through the streets, showing it off as a trophy. Sandino remembered that and expressed his rejection, his condemnation of the traitors and the Yankee troops that had invaded our territory.
History repeats itself. Because Zeledón was murdered by malevolent Nicaraguan traitors in the service of Yankee troops. After the fighting in El Coyotepe, Zeledón was already wounded and those who murdered him were the misbegotten children of Nicaragua. And with Sandino, after Sandino expelled the Yankee troops, who executed the order to assassinate Sandino? Also a misbegotten Nicaraguan : Somoza, who ambushed Sandino following a the dinner offered by the then President, with the Peace Agreement already signed.
Peace had been signed! But they don't respect Agreements, although they talk about Dialogue. They have always been like that. They talk about Dialogue, they sign Agreements, and in the end they don't recognize the Agreements. Why? Because the Empire and the traitors are children of the devil, they are children of Cain. They cannot be believed at all!
And History is repeating itself again. We see the parade of traitors, how their journeys to the US increased and their financing, so that they are traveling continuously to ask to for more aggression against the Nicaraguan People. And they do it quietly, and they take photos there with representatives of the U.S. Government, and they insist on showing the photos here, boasting that they are the ones chosen by the Yankee to be the future President of Nicaragua, or to be the future Government of Nicaragua.
And the financing comes from the U.S. people's taxes. I don't know to whom they will render accounts, those people in the United States who organize these campaigns to portray our country as one in which there is neither Peace nor Stability. That is the image they are selling. If a crime is committed here, it is immediately attributed to the government, to the authorities, when Nicaragua is the safest country with the lowest homicide rate here in the region. But the manipulation is crude and full of fury, full of evil.
What does this tell us? That history keeps repeating itself. The difference now, is that after July 19th 1979, passing through the 17 years in which the Sandinistas were out of government, on July 19th 1979, here, in the heart of the majority of Nicaraguans, in the majority of rural families and urban workers, of youth, of professional people, there has taken root a new Consciousness. At long last, Nicaragua after 1979 has a people full of awareness and love for their Homeland.
Of course, the traitors did not disappear, and the Empire is also feeding them, sending them resources through programs they say they are programs to promote Culture, to promote Education ... In fact they are Programs to promote hatred! And, in addition, a good part of those programs resources are channelled through some NGOs... Tremendous business! Why? Because what they receive that's meant to be food for the people, they send to the markets, where they sell it. Non-governmental organizations of every kind, of every political and religious allegiance, send resources to the markets, but they want exemptions for everything, and that has to be reviewed very well, it has to be controlled very well.
If food does arrive here for people who need food, like the food packages that the Sandinista Youth are delivering to people, well, that has to be verified, you have to certify it, because the way they have been working so far is simply to say "the aid is food". Or, for example, vehicles or household appliances and other items, or medicines, or medical equipment that also end up in the markets.
We have to review all that, because, on the one hand they are not paying taxes. It is the general feeling, a culture among the wealthier classes, not to want to pay taxes, always with the excuse of tax exemptions and then they also abuse those non-governmental organizations to try to destabilize, to sow confusion, to poison the hearts of our Youth, and of our People.
And on this day when all our People, when I say all our People, I speak of those who truly feel Nicaraguan and act like Nicaraguans because they love Nicaragua and are against any outrage, like the so-called Sanctions, which they impose on the economies of our Peoples.
In other words, when a People acts with dignity, then the aggression starts, the so-called sanctions or misnamed sanctions, which primarily affect the very poorest and do nothing more than cause unemployment. Who laid off thousands of Workers last year? They were fired by the big business companies that called for a coup and also threatened their workers with dismissal if they didn't go to the opposition marches. And that's why, under threat, those workers went on those marches.
When the opposition couldn't get what they wanted, nor will they ever, then what did they do? Why did they do such enormous damage to the economy? They committed a crime! A crime causing the death of Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, a crime causing enormous damage to the Nicaraguan economy. If anyone should be taken before an International Criminal Court somewhere, it should be the criminals who promoted those crimes!
And we are working, we are gathering documentation, because they shouldn’t think they can be calm and happy while they continue trying to harm the People even more, even daring to want to bring prosecutions against the People, accuse the People. We are working to document events well, just as we documented in the 1980s our lawsuit against a U.S. government that seemed invincible, We documented events well: the murdered, the wounded, the mutilated, the disabled, the bridges blown up, the fuel depots set on fire, the schools destroyed, the buildings destroyed. That is to say, the destruction of everything that was in place and everything projected for the benefit of the people, we documented all of that.
And once we had good documentation we went with all that data, all those figures, all that evidence, we went to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. And when we told our friends, friendly Peoples or friendly Governments, that we were going to take this step, there was skepticism, because it was felt the Yankees could not be beaten in the Court.
I remember Father Miguel D´Escoto, with all his optimism, with all his stength, saying: “We’ll win! We will win!” And we went to the Court, and we accused the entity responsible for those crimes, although of course there was co-responsibility involving the Nicaraguans who had collaborated, but the greatest responsibility lay in the terrorist policy of the U.S. government. This is how we accused them in the Court, because they promoted terrorism, financed terrorism against Nicaragua, even to the point where they didn't mind dealing with drugs traffickers to finance the war against Nicaragua.
Then the Court condemned the United States and ordered them to stop all the acts of terrorism they were committing against Nicaragua; and it ordered them to indemnify Nicaragua and that debt is still pending. One day, of course, yes, one day the United States will have to pay the debt it has pending with Nicaragua!
Therefore, we have to strengthen the legal and juridical area in order to fight this battle, such that this will allow the malevolent Nicaraguans who adopt these attitudes of betrayal of their People, of betrayal of their Homeland, to come to their senses. Because always, always, and we know this very well, the biggest problem is in the expansionist and interventionist policy of the United States.
This afternoon I am going to read here some paragraphs of the Letter of the Bishop of León, back in the year 1912, mind you, Bishop of León, in the year 1912, Simeón Pereira and Castellón. He was an extraordinary person, in that time of obscurantism, an extraordinary Bishop who had an immense Love for Nicaragua. He had been born in Estelí, and ended up being Bishop of León.
Under Zelaya's government they clashed, because Zelaya's government was a government that pushed for laicism with great force, and they clashed. But that didn't cause him, it didn't lead the Bishop to appeal for sanctions against Nicaragua. He did not seek that. It did not lead the Bishop to lose his roots as a Nicaraguan, and his Dignity as a Nicaraguan.
The Bishop was very upset with Zelaya, as were a good part of the clergy, because the Liberal Revolution had a violent difference with the clergy, and above all with the Nicaraguan bishops. Zelaya sent him here and there, but the bishop never said: "I am going to ask the Yankees to come and invade Nicaragua", to oust Zelaya.
He was of the opinion, and he said so, he wrote so, as is stated in this Letter, that the problems of Nicaragua, and he was not speaking only of Nicaragua, but also of the Latin American peoples, we should solve the problems ourselves and the United States should not be interfering, intervening in the way they did, invading in the way they did, overthrowing governments in the way they did and as they continue to do.
I am going to read, what is a long Letter, one that he wrote in a difficult situation, with the Country occupied by Yankee troops, Yankee troops causing destruction, in collusion with the traitors. And what was his main resort? Well, surely he resorted every day asking Christ, asking God for the Yankee troops to leave. But he looked for a way to get through to the United States, because it was clear to him that the root of the problem was in American politics, nurtured by local traitors and quislings.
So he sends this Letter to a Reverend, a Cardinal, to His Eminence Cardinal James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, United States of America; that is, he addresses the Catholic Archbishop in Baltimore, who is a Cardinal, and tells him that he wants him to take his message to Congress, to the media in the United States, so that these abuses cease, that is all he has left as a remedy.
So he sends the Cardinal the letter. It is a long letter, I am going to read some paragraphs. He was writing to him from the Episcopal Palace of León, Nicaragua, Central America, in the year 1912, remember. He begins by saying:
"Most Eminent Sir and Most Dear Brother:
For many days misgivings have kept us from writing to you to implore your benevolence such that you may take an interest in the matters that we will present to your higher feelings..."
So he is appealing to someone who can make the North American clergy aware, who can make the North American congress people aware, and the North American government.
And he says: "Regrettable errors have put our Homeland, Nicaragua, under special circumstances that deprive it of much of of its autonomy, putting it at the discretion of foreign control".
What are the regrettable mistakes? The same as those Nicaraguans who invited Walker and Byron Cole, one of the political parties; there were Democrats and Legitimists, Conservatives and Liberals; at that time. Well, those who brought in Walker were the Liberals who were in their conflict with the Conservatives. And then in the case of Zeledón, back then in the time the Bishop was living, who brings the Yankee troops? The Conservatives, see for yourselves!
That is why he says: "Regrettable errors have placed our Homeland, Nicaragua, under special circumstances that deprive it of much of of its autonomy, putting it at the discretion of foreign control.
“And your great People, dearest brother, has made our little People feel the weight of its millions and its men; and your strong Homeland has subjected our weak Homeland to the force of its battleships, its powerful cannon while the treasure of the bankers of the North are strengthened by the daily and annihilating extraction of our exhausted coffers, by means of burdensome loans, unjust treaties, and unequal contracts".
Said by a Catholic Bishop, mind, in the year 1912. A Catholic Bishop who had been persecuted in those days by Zelaya’s Government, in which Love of the Homeland, Love of the People, Love of Sovereignty, of Dignity, weigh more than the discomfort he feels, with good reason, because Zelaya had expelled him, sent him to Granada and later to San Juan, he went to various places; and he left the Country and then returned. But he did not go looking for the Yankees to come and intervene in Nicaragua.
At the end of the day, it was a problem between Nicaraguans, provoked by two political parties, Liberals and Conservatives, that’s how those two wars originated. Ah! but the Yankees intervened.... What did the Yankees have to do here!
And in another paragraph, the bishop’s letter says: "We therefore require your invaluable cooperation to ensure in an effective way that the conditions created in Nicaragua by its relations with your country cease". So he continues asking the Cardinal to speak with the high representatives of the US Congress so the atrocities and violence cease.
He adds: "Far from any political considerations we have always tried to address our differences at a higher level (speaking of the political differences being lived through or having been experienced at that moment), observing always, along with our priests, a strict neutrality; we know our duties as Prelate and Pastor and it has been our determination to be, today and always, a father to everyone without distinction of social class, political party or special interests; nothing has in the least way changed our standard of conduct, neither flattery, nor threats; those of us who have behaved in this way; who are conscious of what we are and what we should aspire to be, can well on this occasion pledge on our honor as priest and citizen, promising that, upon the liberation of Nicaragua from the intimidating presence of US weapons, the most absolute Peace and strictest order will reign among their fellow citizens, being Nicaraguans, whatever calls may be made on the Government of the Republic, provided that the rights and guarantees of those governed are respected.”
He is telling them clearly that it is Nicaraguans who have to reach understanding with each other and seek that stability. And he begins to speak to them about intervention:
"Intervention. You cannot imagine, Most Eminent Sir, how hard this word is. You live in a powerful and free People. You have not suffered the deep breakdown that has lacerated the soul of our Brothers Nouel and Mercier!
You have not felt the double pain of this bishop and citizen on hearing the echo of steel-edged army boots resounding under the naves of your churches. You have not wept with pain to see the banner of the conquering power flying in the spires of your Cathedral while the crossed labarum of Christ is lowered...".
Because the Yankees raised their flags, everywhere they placed the US flag, wherever there were high places it was there the Yankees placed their Flag.
"You have never seen on the ground where you were born, some foreign banner rise high above your own country’s flag; never has the venerated land where the ashes of your dead rest been trodden under foot… Because here they disrespected even the Cemeteries, disturbing in them the blessed Peace of the sepulchres; you have not seen a sanctuary turned into barracks".
They even converted the sanctuaries into barracks, the Yankee troops. We have also seen, in recent times, how the coup plotters turned the sanctuaries into barracks. So you can see, it's no accident.
"You have not seen the sanctuary turned into a barracks and the altar where the Eucharistic bread is distributed turned into a mess table for a gang of soldiers!”
In just the same way as the 2018 coup plotters took the churches and turned them into barracks, where there were weapons, bombs, and where they disguised themselves, and where they kidnapped and tortured people in those churches.
He continues to speak to the Cardinal, saying, with much tact :
"These considerations, Most Eminent Brother, may excuse my phrases if they upset your national feeling; forgive us: We speak to you from the heart, with all its vehemence, with all its pain, with all sincerity; we speak to you our brother without our language being one of sanitized formalism, on the contrary, we open up our heart, showing you our wounds in the intimate confidence of finding in you the remedy it needs".
In other words, he is speaking in Truth, the same Truth for which Christ died.
"For all these reasons, we still believe that it is advantageous to reach an understanding between our Homeland and the American Nation.”
And we too hold that position; when the Revolution triumphed we said: We want to have good relations with the United States. After the Revolution was victorious in '79, that September we went to Washington. We went to the White House and we met there with President Carter, because we wanted good relations with the United States, respect, good relations based respect, because when they are based on submission they are no longer good relations.
At that time the Bishop said: "But let this always be on the basis of equity and mutual interests".
Look carefully at that.
"For all these reasons, we still believe that it is advantageous to reach an understanding.”
We make these words of the Bishop our own right now, and we say so to the United States, we say so to its government.
“For all that, in spite of all that has happened, of all the damage caused, we still believe it is advantageous that there should be an understanding between our Homeland and the American Nation; but that this should always be on the basis of equity and mutual interests; that it should not affect in anything our religion, our freedom, our autonomy, our language; nor try to deprecate our race, noble and audacious by our Iberian ancestry, irreducible and vigorous by our indigenous heritage, capable of every effort, every heroism and whose record in the glorious history of America, fills it with prestige assigning it, for its Past, a preferential place among the first civilizations and reserving for it, in years to come, an enviable and brilliant Future".
The Sun that doesn’t set! The Sun that doesn’t set! He is seeing that: the Sun that doesn’t set! A Bishop is saying it, take note, an exceptional Bishop! And his words are valid.
"I will not finish, Eminent Brother, my already long letter, without showing you that the feeling of suspicion and distrust on the part of the American Nations towards the United States... “
When he speaks of the American Nations he is speaking of all America and of the distrust that in those years already, 1912, the American nations have of the United States. He is saying it very clearly.
"...without showing you that the feeling of suspicion and distrust on the part of the American nations towards the United States is due more than anything else to the calculated and opportunist policy it has sometimes applied among our weak political nationalities, when it has almost always been among the main factors necessary for a sincere understanding: the diplomatic and consular agents of the United States, have not on all occasions been strict servants of their Government, but rather allies behaving in a way inappropriate to their posts. Or despite the limits of their mission, they take part in other countries' affairs, when, with respect to these countries’ internal differences, they should be strictly neutral".
And here now we see the same, how calmly the ambassadors of the Yankee embassy, of the European embassies, now too of Latin American embassies, how they interfere! How they lack diplomatic ethics! How they launch themselves to give their opinion on the internal affairs of Nicaragua!
Washington does that, and if the Yankee government can do it, then the Nicaraguan government has the right to as well. But the Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States cannot be getting involved in party political conflicts in the United States.
Our Ambassador there cannot condemn the US Government for crimes committed in the United States itself against children, against adults, against the elderly. He just can’t! It is a basic principle of what is the duty of a diplomat.
Our Ambassador to the United States cannot be meddling right now, giving opinions on what the President of the United States says, that now they are mounting a coup d'état, that they want to oust him him with a coup d'état. Or for example the Nicaraguan Ambassador in Ecuador might want to get involved there, because the Ecuadoran government does get involved, interfering in Nicaragua, condemning Nicaragua. Our Ambassador cannot do that there, but here we can. It is our duty to condemn the State of Siege decreed by the government and the president of Ecuador against the Ecuadorian people, simply because they are protesting against laws that were passed there.
And the Bishop continues: "Strive, then, Most Eminent Brother, not only for Nicaragua, but for all the American peoples who suffer the intervention of your homeland...".
He is speaking as if he were living now in the Present: Interventions against Venezuela, against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, wanting to overthrow the legitimate president, Nicolás Maduro; interventions against Cuba, the sister Republic of Cuba, trying to overthrow a legitimate government, headed by President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Comrade Commander Raúl Castro, Head of the Party.
So we see clearly how they deal out blows everywhere, taking swipes at Central America too, over the migration issue, insulting our Peoples. How they have insulted our Peoples, simply because we don't have white skin and all the prototype that Hitler made clear about the perfect race. And unfortunately there is a racist current governing the United States, which curses first of all the Mesoamericans, our Mexican sisters and brothers, Guatemalan sisters and brothers, Salvadorans, Hondurans, everyone! All the evils are here, they say. And those who are migrants, children, adults, are called terrorists, drug traffickers, criminals. They criminalize them!
"Strive then, Most Eminent Brother, not only for Nicaragua, but for all the American peoples who suffer the intervention of your homeland, to open now a period of reparation and justice; that the predominance of force cease now; that the serene action of law prevails, and that before it, stand equal as nations, our weak peoples and your powerful people, who do not need easy conquests to be great...".
It's like saying to the bully: What do you gain from kicking a child if you already know you're bigger?
"(On the contrary, they discredit and harm those peoples), but it makes itself greater the greater the respect it has for the rights of others and for the freedom of other peoples, since your people has always prided itself on preserving and guaranteeing its own.”
And the Bishop of León, Simeón Pereira y Castellón signed this Letter in 1912.
These arguments he makes are current, as if he were seeing what is happening right now in Our America; and how a powerful nation like the United States instead of seeking how to earn the respect of our Peoples, of our Latin American and Caribbean governments by means of respectful treatment... with aggression, with intervention, with threats, with sanctions, what respect is going to be gained? As much as some people may humiliate themselves, deep down I don't think they are happy being made to abase themselves in front of those who force them to do so.
What an extraordinary letter! But in the world in which we live, I do not rule out that this Letter may surely reach some of the traitors who are watching us, listening to us on television. And they may be watching and listening to us so as to hurl curses at us, but also to see where we are heading, where we are going, so that they can go there too with their evil. They must be saying: "Surely this priest was a communist". Yes, because they will say he was a communist. Yes, some people will most likely say he was a communist.
So now it’s going to turn out that the Bishop of León, Simeón Pereira y Castellón was a communist, in the year 1912 when the October Revolution had not yet triumphed with Lenin at the head. Note too how the bishop establishes there the principle of respect for the rights of others that was later uttered by Benito Juárez, that great Mexican forebear : "Peace is respect for the rights of others".
Here the Bishop is also saying it, and I wish our Bishops would be so inspired, that our Bishops would be so inspired, I wish! I wish! I wish in the sense of God willing. God willing, yes, I wish, God willing! I wish our Bishops were so inspired and could at least say: We want Peace! We don't want sanctions, we don't want aggression against the Nicaraguan people, because the people suffer.
But no! None of that! None of that! At least when they issue their communiqués, which are signed by all of them, they never say themselves, they never speak as this bishop spoke at the time and continues speaking now, because this is the Living Word, this is Living Thought, this is Living Blood, like that of Zeledón, like that of Sandino, like Andrés Castro, like Diriangén, nourishing the Consciousness and the Heart of the Nicaraguan People.
We are going to conclude this Tribute to General Benjamin Zeledon, I am going to ask you to repeat and all the families that are also listening on the radio or watching on television, that we repeat:
Hail to you Nicaragua! On your soil
the voices of the cannon no longer roar,
nor stained with the blood of brothers
flies your glorious dual-colored flag.
May beautiful Peace blaze across your sky,
and nothing blemish your undying glory,
may Labor be your well-earned laurel
and Honor your triumphant standard!
Long live Nicaragua!
Long live Zeledon!
Long live Sandino!
Declarations of Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua, after the Tribute to General Benjamin Zeledon
October 4, 2019
Good evening, Compañeras and Compañeros, Dear Families, Worthy People, Brave, Strong, Proud; People strongly Conscious of Life, gathering our Energies in a Victorious Sheaf, Let's Go Forward, building the Future we deserve!
The size of the challenge that we face every day makes us grow, lifts us up, because we know that History proves us right. We have lived hard times, very hard! That most beautiful Letter that is a Declaration of Love to Nicaragua, from the Bishop of León, 107 Years ago, teaches us so much.
History has been repeated tirelessly in these countries of Our America, unfortunately, not patio, not backyard, but for the Americans it is their backyard. Unfortunately. However, on Our American and Caribbean Continent, Honor, Fighting Capacity, and Victories, have risen, continue to rise up, and show that we demand Respect and demand our inalienable Right to Live in Peace, to Work and Prosper, creating Well-being, Joy, and Happiness for the Families of these Lands.
But as we said, implacable History repeats itself, but also implacable History repeats itself in the Courage, the Nobility of the Peoples, in this case of the Nicaraguan People.
How we have been moved by each one of the Glorious and Victorious, Living Words of that Message which is the Message of a Bishop who loved, who loves Nicaragua, the Message of a Bishop who strengthens all of us with Faith and Hope? Worthy Representative of the Nicaraguan People!
As he says, on the one hand, Ecclesial Authority, and on the other hand, Citizen, but Love for Nicaragua weighed in his Word, in his Conscience, in his demand, in his demand for something basic, elementary: Respect! Respect for our Peoples, Respect for our Rights, Respect for our Freedoms, and it is beautiful and inspiring to listen to those Messages that recognize what we are, and what we deserve.
Unfortunately also, when we say that History repeats itself, we have to recognize that, unfortunately, I repeat, traitors are a plague that is there. They are termites that reproduce, fungi, bacteria that reproduce. But the Soul of our Peoples is greater. Bigger than any termites! Those insects are not the same as the Soul and the Human Dimension of Courage and Greatness that our Peoples have and in particular the Nicaraguan People: Heroic Heritage that lives on in us!
Our Ways are full of that Fire, product of Love, Flames of Love to Nicaragua that exalt us; and the termites... History will leave them behind, others may appear, but our greatness is greater. Therefore, to remember Zeledón is to live, to remember Sandino is to live, to remember that Historical and Heroic Patrimony is to live, and Love for the Homeland is stronger than hatred.
There are different ways to go down in history, in a mediocre, mean, pitiful way, because there we can see it. We find those Testimonies of Love, and we also find those creepy-crawlies passing through Sacred Territories like this Nicaraguan Homeland, Christian Homeland and Solidarity!
So, today we feel exalted, stronger and stronger, because we know that we measure up to the demands of history, and precisely because we are a people of great faith and spiritual strength, we advance, with the capacity to win, at all times. And, we are sure that the paragraphs that will describe the circumstances and the moments that we have lived as a People, in the History of the 40 Years of Revolution and in recent History, that those brilliant paragraphs will be taken up again in the Future as an example of the Capacity of Struggle and of Triumphs, of Courage, of Dignity, of Honor and Glory of the Nicaraguans!
One's heart grows when one listens, learns, and then revives and lives our capacity to face all challenges, with trust in God, and knowing that Hope always reigns. And well, the Heart also does not cease to feel pain in front of the Human Beings who are not capable of loving themselves, nor of loving their People.
The truth, as we said a few days ago, is that if we go to the History Books we see that the surnames are the same? The traitors are the same! I said the other day: They don't steal it. They inherit it! But they do steal and inherit that germ, that gene, treacherous and vendepatria. They are the same!
But this people is no longer the same. This People, as our Comandante Daniel said, has grown in Consciousness, and this People wants Peace.... We want peace! We want to live with Affection, we want to live with Joy, to live as a Family! We have grown, we have learned. And well, the traitors still aim their darts at the Heart of the People, but the People do not die, the People always win.
We People always win because our Proposals are not slogans, they are not photographs with funcionaries of Empire... No ! No ! We work, we have Proposals, and we have a Program and several Christian Programs, of Loving our Neighbor, of Understanding, incorporating of the Rights of All, for the Good of All. That is the difference.
On the one hand, selfishness, insensibility, comfort and the desire to continue appropriating the Rights of others, plundering others. And on the other side, the Proposal of Families as Protagonists, the Protagonism of the Workers, of Rural People ; all that we this Good People of Nicaragua are , to Advance, to Overcome, to Triumph, for Love of Jesus Christ who is our King.
Thank you, Compañer@s. As we told you, we have the Moral, Spiritual Force to continue advancing among all circumstances, to continue advancing, building Peace and Good! Rights for All, Human Rights, Rights that are Political, that are Social, that are Economic, for All. But above all, recognizing that we are all worthwhile, and that it is inconceivable that at this point there are people who pretend to be vainly asking to submit their People, as 100 years ago, or more than 100 years ago. And they are proud and defiant because they believe that by asking for aggressionsagainst the Nicaraguan people they are going to be recognized today or tomorrow. It's absurd!
This People will always win from Faith and Trust in God our Lord, and above all the certainty that Love is stronger than hatred! Thank you, Companions.