President-Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
commemorating the 37th Anniversary of the Historic Judgment of The Hague
June 27th 2023
Address by Rosario
Sandino Lives On, 37 years after the Historic Victory, one more, because we have always overcome... One more! 37 Years after that great Victory, Sandino Lives On and the Fight Continues!
We are gathered here, paying tribute to the Heroic People of Darío and Sandino.
Victories are possible because the strength of the People expresses itself, supporting them, turning challenges into Triumphs.
Today we want to recognize Dr. Carlos Argüello Gómez, who has defended the Sovereignty of Nicaragua in international organizations, in the International Court of Justice; who continues to defend the Sovereignty of Nicaragua in all its complexities, to recognize him as a Son of this Heroic People, a Son of our General of Free Women and Men, with the Augusto Sandino Order, the Highest Decoration awarded by the People and the Revolutionary State of our Nicaragua.
"Presidential Agreement No. 103-2023
The President of the Republic of Nicaragua, Commander Daniel Ortega Saavedra, considering :
That Dr. Carlos Argüello Gómez has defended the Sovereignty of our Nicaragua with Great Sandinista and Revolutionary Spirit;
That his Intelligence and Love for Nicaragua has been decisive in representing the Courage and Heroism of the Anti-Imperialist Struggles of the People and the Revolutionary State of Nicaragua, fighting Victorious Battles in International Organizations and in the International Court of Justice;
That as Nicaragua's Representative before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, together with the Chancellor of Dignity, Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockman, 37 years ago today, they achieved the Historic Sentence that condemned the United States of America, Yankee Imperialism, at the ICJ for the aggressions and the human and material costs of their wars against Nicaragua;
That Doctor Carlos Argüello Gómez works with the Institutions of the Revolutionary State of our Blessed and Always Free Nicaragua to continue demanding Justice, Reparation and Peace, as an Inalienable Right of our People and of our Nicaragua;
That as a continuation of the Commission that has demanded and won against the United States the Right to Compensation for all the damages that throughout history it has caused and continues to cause to Nicaragua and to the Nicaraguan people, Dr. Carlos Argüello is an authentic Revolutionary and Son of the General of Free Men and Women, Augusto Sandino;
Therefore, the President of the Republic, Commander Daniel, agrees :
To award the Order Augusto C. Sandino in its Highest Degree, Battle of San Jacinto, to Dr. Carlos Argüello Gómez, Extraordinary Defender of our National Sovereignty before International Organizations.
To recognize with this Highest Decoration of the Nicaraguan State, his permanent work, in Loyalty, Fidelity and Respect for our People, our History and our Future.
This Agreement takes effect as of this date and is to be published in the Official Journal, La Gaceta.
Given in the City of Managua, in the House of Government, Republic of Nicaragua, on June 27, 2023. 37 Years after that epic event."
How many countries, how many Peoples can say that they have overcome the United States in every scenario? I think we have the privilege, but also the duty, to continue overcoming them. Go ahead...!
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Address by Dr. Carlos Argüello
Compañero President, Compañera Vice President, Army General Julio C. Avilés, First Commissioner of the National Police, President of the National Assembly, Vice President of the Supreme Court, President of the Supreme Electoral Council, Compañer@s, members of the Cabinet and Authorities of Nicaragua.
Frankly, I had some brief words written, but after listening to that Decree it has left me frankly speechless; that is, speaking formally, I have to say that for me it is a great honor to receive this Order for the work carried out in the field of Law in Defense of National Sovereignty. It is particularly significant and exciting for me to receive this Order bearing the name of the greatest Defender of National Sovereignty, the General of Free Men and Women, Augusto Sandino. I receive it as a Nicaraguan with great pride.
I would like to take advantage of these moments to remember the terrible circumstances that led us to file the lawsuit before the International Court, against the United States, and that we commemorate today. I make this reminder, especially for the new generations who did not live through these events in the flesh and whose representatives I see here in this room.
The first words that Nicaragua in this case, through my person as an Agent, the first words that I pronounced before the 15 Judges of the International Court of Justice, when this case began, the first words were the following, and I'm going to quote:
"Mr. President and Members of the Court, on the night of October 10, 1983, the main port of Nicaragua was attacked by sea and air, five oil storage tanks containing several million gallons of gasoline and diesel, representing a substantial amount of Nicaragua's fuel reserves, were destroyed.
112 inhabitants of the Port, including children and the elderly were injured, the entire port citizenry of about 20,000 people, had to be evacuated as the flames burned for several days. Firefighters with rudimentary equipment soaked the fuel tanks with water for days, to fortunately successfully avoid an explosion that would have demolished the Port.
A few days after this savage act", and I continue to quote, "which endangered the lives of thousands of people, the President of the United States was asked in a press interview, if he thought that this type of activities was justified. The President replied, I believe in the right of a country, when it believes its interests are best served, to engage in covert activities." This Statement and I keep quoting, this amazing Statement affirms in the crudest form, the Doctrine that Might makes right.
"Nicaragua maintains that not only morally, but also legally, opposing Principles govern the world, the Principle proposed by Religion and by Law, that Law makes force." End of the quotation of those preliminary words.
I emphasize these words, because this commemoration that is being made today of the Sentence, signifies precisely that Nicaragua continues to trust in the force of law in its actions and International Relations.
37 years ago, the Court proved Nicaragua right and reaffirmed the Fundamental Principles of Coexistence and International Law that Nicaragua defended and claimed in its Lawsuit. The content of this Historic Sentence resonates to this day, and is cited all over the world.
Finally, I want to remind you that among my valuable belongings I keep a photo of the meeting I had with Comandante Ortega and Father Miguel dEscoto 39 years ago, in which they despatched me and gave me the last instructions before my departure to the Netherlands to file the Lawsuit.
The Order I receive today will be saved and displayed along with that, for me, unforgettable image. I conclude with my deepest gratitude to Comandante Daniel Ortega and Compañera Rosario Murillo, for their leadership and their tireless work.
Thank you very much.
Address by Daniel
Mission Accomplished, Carlos! Mission accomplished! And you continue to fulfill new missions.
The Court has undoubtedly been a reference point in the battle for Independence, for the Sovereignty of Nicaragua. Faced with the recourse of great Powers to the use of force, we have defended ourselves with the Force of Law, with the Force of Reason, and we achieved that Great Victory, and with the systematic work that our brother Carlos has continued to conduct in the Court, we have achieved Victories that seemed missions that truly were impossible .
Just as we were talking about going to court to sue the United States, even fraternal Peoples, friendly Peoples were telling us: That's a lost cause. You're not going to make progress even there in the Court. Likewise, the other Great Battles that have to do with the defense of our Natural Resources, of our Territory, and that Great Victory that has meant the recovery of Nicaragua's Caribbean Sea.
They had us up against the wall, they wouldn't let us advance out into the Caribbean Sea, in our own coastal areas, because there were the warships, belonging to those whose country is full of Yankee military bases. And the Court ruled and recognized Nicaragua's Sovereign Right in almost 90,000 square kilometers.
A territory that was ours but over which we did not exercise Sovereignty because it was usurped following transactions made by the Empires, the Yankee Empire, the English Empire, who had mader a deal over what was not theirs. And we managed to recover it too. A great accomplishment! These are real feats!
Today we commemorate this Anniversary of the Judgment of the International Court of Justice of The Hague, a Judgment that shook the foundations of the Imperialists, rattled them, shook them, exposed them as terrorists, as criminals, because the Court's Judgment told them very clearly, to suspend terrorist actions against the Nicaraguan people, and today on this Anniversary of the Court's Historic Ruling, we are also commemorating the 44th Anniversary of the Tactical Retreat from Managua.
On a day like today, June 27, 1979, the Tactical Retreat had already been organized by this time, it had to be organized, because one could not go haphazardly, but it was a Plan that was carefully worked out, well prepared, with staggered departures of the Combatants from Managua and their rearguard, adults, children, young people, and at 7 p.m. the displacement began.
In those days Managua had been bombed by the Yankees, because the planes Somoza had were given to him by the Yankees, the pilots Somoza had, were trained by the Yankees. The Yankee presidents said that the Somozas were their children, they said so because they were people who were completely subject to the mandate of the Yankees.
And it was that heroic day of the Tactical Retreat beginning at 7 o'clock at night and evacuating the City at about 11 o'clock that night, already heading towards Masaya, and this Tactical Retreat was just one more step towards Victory, which should be understood as a defeat... No! It was simply a tactical move within a strategy whereby that force had to be preserved, and with that force then to overcome the resistance that the National Guard had there in Masaya and in the department of Carazo, barracks that had not yet fallen, but they began to fall one after another, thanks to the forces that arrived in the Tactical Retreat.
And there this force gained strength and also became a determining Force, already when the march on Managua came, accompanying the march on Managua, where the guerrilla columns converged from the different areas of our country.
A historic date in the battle for the Liberation of Nicaragua, a historic date in the battle we had to wage after the Triumph against the open, direct aggression of the Yankee Empire, where as Carlos reminded us, President Reagan, yes, President Reagan regarded as little what they had done there in Corinto.
And it was not merely an attack, it was a war that lasted for almost 10 years and that caused thousands of deaths, thousands of disabled, leaving thousands of orphans, one that bled the economy of this country, one that stopped the development of highways, of hydroelectric generating plants, of schools, because everything that was being built in the central area of our Country, to expand communication routes, to provide schools, hospitals, all that was the target of Yankee aggression.
And they launched their attacks, with the weapons the Yankees gave them, to destroy schools, and where we wanted to build a school or a road, they came to destroy the machinery, the equipment that was being used to build roads or to build schools. And they destroyed the equipment and murdered the workers.
Terrorism! Terrorism! The Yankee state is a terrorist state, the most terrorist state, which has launched aggressions, invasions everywhere, sowing death all over the world. That is to say, the Yankee state is the most developed expression of the imperialisms of the Earth.
Because we cannot forget the European imperialisms when they invaded our lands, when they invaded Africa, Asia, when they developed with their civilizing capacities the slave trade Yes, it was them! The "democrats”, the humanists, those who respected human rights were the ones who promoted and organized and turned into a commodity millions of human beings who were transported from one continent to another by sea.
And after Nazism, which was no more than an expression of capitalism, the most developed expression of capitalism in Europe, that is what Nazism was. Then the Yankee Empire appeared, the only one which, and I will not tire of repeating it, and we must not forget it, is the only World Power possessing atomic weapons, which has dropped atomic bombs on unarmed peoples, more than 250,000 victims in two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where there were no Japanese troops. They were just two cities, it was simply a matter of sowing terror, and by means of terror to seek the surrender of Japan. That is, horrendous crimes from those who today present themselves as the great “defenders” of human rights.
And this judgment of the Court is about a stage in the history of Nicaragua, in which we were victims of imperialist aggression, that is, we did not present the whole account to them there, because the debt is long, it is big. The debt that the United States owes to Nicaragua, and to the Peoples of the World, is a debt that means thousands and thousands and millions of dead, thousands and thousands and millions of tortured.
There has really been no Power, throughout history, more criminal than the American Power. And we know that it's not the American people, it's the interests that prevail there, as they prevail and have prevailed in other Empires, and they constantly make a great scene, presenting themselves as the Great Defenders of Human Rights, but they don't even protect children in the United States, they don't even protect youth in the United States.
Crimes are committed every day in the United States, in schools, on the streets, in neighborhoods. And there, who guarantees the Human Rights of American Society? There is none, there is none. Who guarantees the Human Rights of American youth so that they do not find themselves falling into the consumption of drugs, which causes death, which destroys?
They have the power to prevent this, but it is also part of a business, it is part of a business where high officials of the Yankee Government are involved, where local authorities are involved, authorities located in border areas are involved. Because otherwise, how are we going to explain that drugs enter the United States if it is not with complicity?
We cannot forget how members of the US Army, during the war in Vietnam, occupied war planes and transport planes, when they had to make trips from Vietnam to the United States, to their military bases in the United States, they came with the planes loaded with drugs. That is, the American Army, being a carrier, distributor and dealer of drugs.
And we Nicaraguans challenge the United States, we challenge it to comply with what International law mandates, to start by complying with this Sentence of the International Court of Justice in The Hague that has ordered them to compensate Nicaragua... Comply! Comply!
Let them comply, and then, well, you may start to believe that the United States is going to rectify and start respecting International Organizations, because so far they have just used International Organizations to attack Peoples, to defame Peoples, to invade Peoples, to blockade Peoples.
Fraternal Peoples, like Cuba, blockaded for 60 years; fraternal Peoples like Venezuela with a brutal blockade and assassination attempts, against our brother President Nicolás Maduro.
The coup d'état in Bolivia, because there was a progressive government, the coup d'état took place, but there the government that had been deposed is ruling again, although in conditions where there is the latent threat of a coup d'état taking place again.
The coup d'état in Peru, they have the president of Peru imprisoned there, a humble teacher who became a candidate for President, got to the Presidency, and then, simply because he was a man of humble origin, they disrespected him, and in the end, they have him imprisoned. They have him in jail!
And what do the human rights organizations of the Yankees, of the Europeans, say about these situations? What do they say? Nothing! It's as if nothing's happening, nothing's happening there.
To cap it all, Lula had won the elections, had set off for some visits, and all of a sudden came the coup attempt, from whom? Well, from the right-wing, fascist forces, which received the backing of the United States and European governments. Throughout Latin America, these situations are there and there is the threat.
In Ecuador, the same. They provoke instability seeking how to dominate our countries.
I challenge the United States, which hurls thousands of accusations at us, making statements in the organizations that they dominate, statements where they defame us, slander us, I challenge them to go to Court, that they accuse us there in Court of the Hague, so that they justify why they are mounting blockades and aggressions against Nicaragua. And we would go to court to accuse the United States so that they can make good, insofar as possible, the damage they have done to Nicaragua from Walker to these times, in which they sanction, threaten and promote coups d'état, like the one they promoted here in 2018, in April 2018.
That is to say, if instead of launching aggressions, they were to use the mechanisms enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, there would not be so many tragedies and so many problems in the world; but the truth is that, the Charter of the United Nations is nothing more than a Letter of Intent, there you have it, a Letter of Intent.
We are in the United Nations, of course, because it is a point of contact at least for exchange, to join forces, to confront imperialist aggression as far as possible. Because the United Nations system is not democratic, and the best proof of that is how many times the majority of the Countries in the United Nations have voted, year after year they have voted to lift the blockade on Cuba, the overwhelming majority. And what happens? Nothing! Nothing!
That is why the United Nations is nothing more than a piece of paper there, one that is not respected, one that is not fulfilled, and where if a great power decides to launch an aggression against another People, as they have done in Iraq, as they have done in Afghanistan, as they have done in a number of countries, in Libya, well, in that case the United Nations simply cannot prevent it.
We know already that the Yankees do not believe in law, they do not believe in the Force of Law, they only believe in the force of guns, in the force of artillery, in the force of atomic bombs. That's the only thing they believe in. And they cannot come to understand that the world is changing, that the United States People themselves are changing and that the time will come when the United States will have to be a People with a Government representating what the self-same Laws of the United States say that are not fulfilled, the self-same Constitution of the United States that is not fulfilled.
And the day will come, of course the day will come, it seems something difficult, distant, just as it seemed an impossible mission to win the battle against the Yankees there in the Court, Carlos, it seemed like an impossible battle when we met with Fr. d'Escoto; because, on the other hand, you mentioned how, talking with other friends, they said: There is nothing doing there, nothing doing, you're on a loser there, things don't work like that there, as we say “from the get-go”.
And you see, the battle began in 1984, then came '85, '86, '87, and many people said: That's it, there's nothing for it, because the Yankees said they're not going to accept. And the Court came out with the Sentence on June 27th, 37 years ago, it comes out with the Sentence, to the shame of the great power, to the pain of the United States People, because the United States people must surely be hurt that the Yankee Government submits and the Yankee Government submits, that successive Yankee governments submit the United States to these defeats. Why? Because this was, and is, a great Victory!
And just as General Estrada and Andrés faced and then managed to defeat the filibusters, just as Diriangén and Nicarao faced and out the conquistadors to flight, just as Zeledón faced the invaders, just as Sandino defeated them, because they did not achieve their objective, which was to finish off the Army in Defense of National Sovereignty, and they could not, so they had no choice but to withdraw, just as in the end the Sandinista Front managed to defeat the Government that the Yankees had left here in our Country, to all these Victories is added this Great Victory, a victory marking the face of the Yankee government every day.
And we have the duty, the obligation, to continue demanding that this sentence be complied with in short order, and that they have to compensate Nicaragua. The day will come when they will have to compensate Nicaragua, the day will come when Nicaraguans will have the satisfaction of seeing a United States Government that will be something new, something different, one that will recognize a Sentence that has to do with the United States own laws, with the same commitments that they have with the United Nations.
This is one more victory for the People of Nicaragua, and today on this 37th Anniversary we pay tribute to the People, because at the forefront of the battles have been Compañeros, like Carlos, like Father d'Escoto, and with them the Nicaraguan people have been fighting the battle. Therefore, this is a victory of the Nicaraguan People, with the wise leadership of Carlos Argüello, of Father d'Escoto, who achieved this, along with everyone who helped make the way, who managed to come out with this result.
This says a great deal, Nicaraguan Brothers and sisters, Nicaraguan families, it says a lot that even when the enemy is powerful, when that enemy is not waging a just battle, but is waging a battle to dominate, to oppress and to enslave, in the end, it is the Peoples who achieve Victory. And here Nicaragua, in the midst of all these difficult, adverse conditions, well, Nicaragua is, as an Argentine Brother who was here in 2022 rightly said, he says: It's a Revolution that's alive, and because it's a living Revolution, it gives Life to the Nicaraguan People!
Sandino Lives On, the Struggle Continues!
Long Live Nicaragua, Blessed, in Solidarity and always at Peace!
Remarks by Compañera Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua,
after the Act of Commemoration on the 37th Anniversary of the Historic Hague Judgment
June 27th 2023
Good evening. Days like today make us give thanks to God from one's very Soul, because we have lived to see it and He has given us so much; to see 37 Years on from that Historic Triumph how the Nicaraguan People have continued making their way, creating New Victories every day with their Heroic Struggles.
Today we commemorate, we celebrate so many events, The Tactical Retreat is an Epic and too that Historic Feat in The Hague. As well as so many other things!
This is a Brave, Formidable People, one to be Valued, one which fills us all with pride.
We have never given up here. Even in those very harsh conditions imposed by imperialism, here people kept making their way. And We pulled through. And We are going forward, creating the New Times that God gives us, to work, to prosper, in Security, with Stability, transcending evil, perversity, hatred. Transcending, always knowing how to Go Further On, to Go Forward!
Every day is one to thank God, for so much Triumph of the Nicaraguan Spirit, and of Love... Christian Love, Love between us, Love in the Family and Love for the Nation, the Blessed Nation, Blessed every day, and Always Sovereign, Always Free!
So, with this Pride that fills our Soul, we say: Always Further On, in the Patriotic, Loving, Spiritual, deeply Spiritual Legacy of our National Heroes; Heroes who at all times knew how to put their Love for the Nation first, striving to Overcome. That is our Legacy: Striving to Overcome, knowing that evil, perversion, hatred will not pass!
A warm embrace, Compañeras and Compañeros. Thank you.