President Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
at the handover of Russian Buses to Public Transport Cooperatives
January 31, 2023
Introductory remarks of Amaru Ramírez
Director of IRTRAMMA
Good afternoon, Commander Daniel, President of the Republic of Nicaragua; Compañera Rosario Murillo, Vice President; brother and sister bus operators of the country's main municipalities who will be receiving their buses on this beautiful afternoon.
Joining us at the Presidium this afternoon are compañero Danilo Sánchez, General Director of URECOTRACO; compañera Deyanira Arauz Úbeda, Urban Bus operator from Matagalpa; compañera Adela Cruz Pereira, from Chinandega's transport system; compañero Juan Carlos Reyes, President of the COBUL Cooperative and of León Urban Transport, and compañero Yessenia Martínez Masís, from Tipitapa Urban Transport.
We are also accompanied by 150 leading bus operators that today receive these buses for the urban transport services of the country's main municipalities.
We are also accompanied by 28 Presidents of Managua's Urban Transport Cooperatives, and compañero Vladimir Berezhnoi, representative of the GAZ Factory, which provides technical support to the entire fleet of Russian buses in our country.
Address by Daniel
Good afternoon, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, families of this Land of Darío and Sandino; of Diriangén, of Nicarao, of our heroic Caciques; of Andrés Castro and of General José Dolores Estrada, of Benjamín Zeledón; and of Carlos, of Tomás, of Colonel Santos López, who gave continuity to the struggle of General Sandino, such that Sandino’s flag arose once more, the flag of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
Beloved compañeras and compañeros from the public transport sector, our compañero already introduced you all. And here we are joined by another Nicaraguan, a Russian, but a Nicaraguan by now since he has been working with you for many years, you know him well... he's been working here for six years now! Doing what? Guaranteeing the maintenance of the buses that have come from Russia; ensuring that we always have transport in the best conditions to meet the demands of the population, adults, young people, children, students, families, workers. So, here we give our recognition to our brother Vladimir Berezhnoi, representative of the GAZ Factory.
We also greet the beloved Ambassador of the Russian Federation, as well as all the Staff of the Russian Embassy who are always fully involved when we are working on these Projects to bring transport resources, to renew the vehicle fleet, to improve the quality of transport more and more.
Here I have a brief history of passenger transportation. When the Revolution triumphed, well, we know, we young people were then transported in those buses, buses that were coming to the country already used, with effort they were brought by the bus operators, used buses that usually came from the United States and those were the buses that transported the population.
We traveled to school in those buses, small buses that of curse did not provide the best conditions, but with the effort of the bus owners and the drivers themselves, they provided a basic service to the population here, not to the entire population, but to a part of the population. And well, there too went the driver's assistant, an assistant always went with the driver.
When the Revolution triumphed, we found public transport really in deplorable conditions, where it depended on the efforts of the bus operators and some business people. I remember Solís Transport, which was the most well known one that when I was a boy, Solís Transport, was run by a businessman who brought buses to the country and put them into operation here in Managua; and back then out in the departments there was very little public transport.
In 1980, note, just a year after the Triumph of the Revolution, we made an effort to invest 8.8 million dollars and managed to bring 210 DINA buses, from Mexico, manufactured in Mexico. Also in 1980 we managed to invest and bring 100 Pegasus buses from Spain. And how different the streets of Managua looked with those new buses with the DINA and the Pegasus, the Spanish buses.
We brought 250 Mercedes Benz buses from Brazil, when it was already almost a luxury to buy Mercedes Benz buses, but we had to bring all that could be brought, so as to invest for the benefit of the population.
In 1983, from Argentina, 3 million dollars were invested there and 60 Mercedes Benz buses were brought.
Along with the previous buses from Brazil, the 250 Mercedes Benz buses, there the investment came to US$10,200,000.
In 1985 we brought 250 ROBUR minibuses, from the German Democratic Republic, when at the time the President was Erich Honecker, a great friend of Nicaragua, very generous to our People, and to Nicaragua. These small buses were intended for the mini-routes, and who was driving them? They were driven by the young veterans who had been demobilized from Military Service and who were bus operators; so they were given the opportunity to have employment and a livelihood. They operated in rural areas.
In 1989, with an investment of 3 million dollars we brought 60 Isuzu buses, from Japan.
So you can see, this was a sustained effort, which meant incorporating into the transport service, between 1979 or 1980 and 1989, 930 new, brand new units, none were already used, all of them were new, new buses. When we were accustomed to having already used buses here.
Then, we left the Government, yes, and we went on to wage the struggle, with the People, with the workers, to defend the conquests of the Revolution, because we already knew what neoliberal policies meant, and it was a neoliberal government that took over in 1990.
And there were three such governments that followed, you see, three governments all with the backing of the Yankees. The Yankee rulers told each one of those three governments they were going to give them millions and millions and millions, for transport, for roads... They talked about millions and millions! And if they were were ever given over, we don't know what was done with them. Or rather we know that they were handed out among themselves.
The truth is that there were three governments, the government headed by Doña Violeta, and that Government carried out a Program we had already committed to before leaving office, which was an order for another 50 Pegasus buses, assembled in Guatemala. So when Mrs. Chamorro took office, that purchase arrived, but the purchase was not made by her government, since we had already made that order, which was an investment of US$2.5 million.
Then, the Government of Dr. Alemán took office and no investment appeared for importing new vehicles.
Then the Government of Ing. Enrique Bolaños came and they reached an agreement with the government of Japan, which donated 50 buses and in 2007 when we took over the government we received those buses. These buses, to tell the truth, were not ordered by us, they were ordered by the government of Ing. Bolaños and they were to serve the route between Granada and Managua, 50 buses.
So really during that period what they arranged, what they really invested was nothing, because Mrs. Chamorro handed over the buses that we had already ordered, which were being assembled in Guatemala with an investment of US$2.5 million.
Then Ing. Bolaños made a request to Japan and Japan made a donation of 50 buses, which, as we then had taken office. we, the People as President, received the buses from Japan and of course we appreciated that donation from the government of Japan.
Then came this new phase, this phase of Reconciliation, of Unity, of Peace, of Understanding between all sectors of the country, from the poorest to the richest, all united. And the economy was growing. And employment was growing. And Peace prevailed, because in order for there to be a growing economy there has to be Peace. If there is no Peace, there is no possibility the economy will grow.
Once in Government, the first thing we did was to bring from the Russian Federation, agree with the government of the Russian Federation, and 380 buses arrived in Managua in 2009.
In 2012 we then had another 170 buses manufactured by the Russian Federation.
In 2012, after a visit we made to Mexico, with President Felipe Calderón, he approved a loan, financed through CABEI, for 350 Mexican DINA buses.
In 2021, too, we had a new agreement for 250 Russian-made KAVZ buses to expand Managua's transport fleet.
And you can see, now starting this year 2023, 153 buses from the Russian Federation entered, the model is called Peace... Peace, that is what we want in the world, Peace! Well, we now have 150 at the moment and another 150 are on the way, so we will have a total, starting the year, remember, of 300 new Peace model buses from Russia
In the 16 years of neoliberal government, the bus operators, organized, as they had long been organized, because they were well organized in the period of the Revolutionary Government, from '79 to '90, the bus companies were well organized, and with the strength that the Revolution left them, by means of the bus companies that they managed to develop, and with the facilities they managed to defend, because they wanted to take them away, the private business sector wanted to steal them. Remember the struggles you had and we had fighting alongside the bus operators to defend that right for the bus companies to keep their facilities.
And during those 16 years of neoliberal government, the bus operators imported, using their own efforts and resources, approximately 950 buses for the different modes of public transport: inter-municipal, urban, collective and interurban, most of them buses already used.
But we have to recognize, we must indeed recognize the effort of the bus operators, because it cost them blood to bring in that used transport, it cost blood to the bus operators, but they did it and met the demands the population had and which the governments that we had in those 16 years did not cover. But the bus operators did respond by bringing in buses, from the bus units of US schools that were then being withdrawn from circulation; and a few new buses as well.
Today, beloved Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, beloved families, we are handing over, here to our bus operator compañeras and compañeros, to León we are handing over 60 buses; for Chinandega, 30 buses; for Tipitapa, 20 buses; for Estelí, 10 buses; for Matagalpa, 10 buses; for Masaya, buses; for Juigalpa, 5 buses, and for Jinotepe, 5 buses.
Thank God, really, thank God, and thanks to the Heroism of our People, because it is always good to point out that when there are events of war, destabilization, attempted coups, Peace breaks down, and if Peace breaks down then comes instability.
Everything was going well here, remember, we were all getting along well, but the Empire was always there conspiring, the imperialists of the Earth conspiring and threatening the business people who had made that Great Alliance with us; they threatened they were going to apply sanctions to bankrupt them and that all the business they did via the United States, all the money they had in US banks was going to be lost.
That led the business people to surrender and join the plan of violence, terror, death, burning of buses, hijacking of buses, torture, murder and burning of young people, adults, women, police officers. Indeed, a number of deaths were caused in April.
And it was feared that Peace was not going to be recovered, but you see, the Nicaraguan people have known how, after that difficult moment, of violence, of aggression, of death, of pain, the Nicaraguan People have managed to rescue Peace, and that's why we see everything that is now being done in the country, so much!
You bus operators, are the ones who can best see everything that is being built, everything that is being done by way of housing programs, highways, roads, health care, hospitals, schools... You are watching it happen! Your children are participating in all the initiatives of Technical Training and Specialized Training, in productive activities. This is how thousands of young people are participating across our country.
And you can see the contrast, right now here in Nicaragua we are at Peace, thank God we are at Peace, thank God who gives this People strength to always go forward, defending Peace. While in a Brotherly People, Peru, they have sown terror and death there, simply because the People decided to elect a President of peasant origin, a teacher of peasant origin, who does not wear a baseball cap, rather he wears a small sombrero, a small sombrero is what Pedro wears. A humble man, but he was elected!
Then they set out in the Congress looking for a way to overthrow him, and he was trying to reach agreements there, even dismissing compañeras and compañeros from the same Movement, from the very Party that had led him to the Presidency, because the Congress ordered their dismissal.
That's just class hatred, they can't bear to see a peasant, a worker, a humble teacher occupying the Presidency, for them that's unacceptable and they started making war, war and more war against him, until they carried out a coup d'état, and President Pedro, yes, Pedro is his name, President Pedro Castillo, a teacher from the countryside, a rural teacher, you may have seen the photo of him, he's a simple, humble person, they have him in jail, they have him imprisoned!
But the people have risen up and have been fighting every day, the peasants, the workers, the teachers, all in the struggle. More than 60 people have already been murdered in the streets, and what are the Yankees saying, what are the Europeans saying? Nothing, as if nothing is happening, there is no condemnation of the crimes that are being committed against that People, there is no condemnation! There are no human rights institutions speaking out in favor of that People who are being murdered.
But despite the fact that bullets are raining down on them, they are still fighting and are demanding that the Congress be dissolved, because the Congress was the body that carried out the coup d'état, along with the military, against President Pedro Castillo, legitimate President of the our sister Republic of Peru.
And from Nicaragua we express our solidarity to the Peruvian People who are struggling so he can occupy the Presidency again, because he was elected, but the Congress decided to dismiss him with the complicity of the military, and that's why they managed to put him in prison, so there he is, in prison.
So then, our Solidarity with the Peruvian People, our Solidarity with the legitimate President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, and from this Latin and Caribbean America that today seeks more and more understanding, more rapprochement, more Unity, we cry:
Freedom for Pedro Castillo!
Pedro Castillo to the Presidency!
Long live the unity of the Peruvian People!
And so, beloved brothers and sisters, we have concluded this event, it is the first delivery of new buses of the year and we are not going to stop just with these 150, more will come, until we have the entire urban and interurban bus fleet completely renovated, new, because the People deserve good public transport, and you bus operators well know how to give that service to the Nicaraguan People.
Long live the bus operators of Nicaragua!
Long live Peace!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
after Delivery of Russian Buses to Collective Transport Cooperatives
January 31, 2023
Good evening, beloved families. We are in a very special place. In this same place we struggled, day by day, in Victorious April, because the People fought and won in April. Because they could not prevail, nor will they...!
Because Nicaragua wants and has Peace. Because Nicaragua wants and has a Path to Development with Social Justice, Fraternity, Solidarity, Family Values, Community. Because Nicaragua wants and has Harmony, Work and Peace. Because here God has blessed us with a Free, Sovereign Nation and a Heroic and Glorious People who defend every inch of their Land, because we have indeed defended this Sacred Land, where we deserve to live in Peace.
In this same place every day we gathered to sing, and to reject with all our strength, the aggression, the destruction, the hatred, the evil, the perversion, the greed, and the servitude, the servile spirit of a few, bad, wicked, evil Nicaraguans, who betrayed their Nation.
Here we used to gather, and here and everywhere today we are gathered in every home, with every Family, gathered together, praising the Heavenly Father, because we have Peace and Well Being. Because we believe that only with Peace can we be all right. Because we know and believe that Peace is Security, it is Stability, it is Prosperity.
So, from this Place that is Sacred, from this place that was a meeting point, a meeting place for those of us who fought in a thousand ways, of those of us who struggled then, and as we continue to fight and fight today, to defend, preserve, restore, as we have in fact restored, Peace. And Peace is restored because it is the will of the Nicaraguan People, who believe in the Mandate of the Heavenly Father and of Jesus Christ Our Lord, who tells us: That we must love each other, that we must be Neighborly, live like Brothers, and that we must build and defend Peace every day.
So we are proud of this event which ratifies once again the commitment of this Government of the People as President to move forward, to continue advancing. That is the commitment, that is the aspiration, that is the dream and that is the Right that Nicaraguan Families have, the Heroic People of this Nicaragua of Darío and Sandino.
Let's Move Onward, Everyone Together, as a People who have known how to Triumph, as a People who Overcomes!
Nicaragua Has Peace!
Nicaragua Deserves Peace!
Against Peace, They Could Not Prevail, Nor Will They!
Hatred Never Again!
Thank you, Compañer@s.
Long live Nicaragua, Blessed and Always Free!