Act in Commemoration of the 47th Anniversary
of the Transit to Immortality of Comandante Carlos Fonseca Amador,
Comandante in Chief of the Sandinista Popular Revolution
November 8, 2023
Address by Darling Ríos
National Secretary of the Sandinista Youth
Good evening also to our Nicaraguan families. Today, on the 47th Anniversary of the Transit to Immortality of the Father of the Sandinista Popular Revolution, Comandante Carlos, the July 19th Sandinista Youth, offers its commitment.
The Revolutionary Commitment of the July 19th Sandinista Youth, united for a Nicaragua, blessed and always free.
A Sandinista Youth building the Future, an heir to Peace, following in the footsteps of the Light and Truth of our Commander Carlos Fonseca Amador, namely Nation and Revolution, we firmly commit ourselves today, tomorrow and always, with the Spirit of the Revolution in our hearts, to continue defending and protecting the greatest treasure that Nicaraguan Families have, which is Peace.
We are a generation that inherits responsibly, continuing the legacy of courage and commitment of our Heroes and Martyrs, the legacy left to us by our General Sandino, our Comandante Carlos, it is the legacy transmitted to us by our Comandante Daniel, our Compañera Rosario.
Today, November 8th, the day that Comandante Carlos transcended to Immortality, the July 19th Sandinista Youth commit ourselves, through education we will continue his Great Dream: "And also, teach them to read”, but beyond teaching people to read, to show young people that the route of Education is also the route to the Future, to Peace and Prosperity.
We will continue, with great pride and dedication, to promote our Culture, our Identity, who we are, what defines us as Nicaraguans, to preserve and share for future generations our history of struggle and defense of our Sovereignty.
You taught us to love our Mother Earth, our forests, and today we are committed to protecting and preserving our natural resources from the mountains that saw you born, we will continue forward in every corner of our nation.
In the area of communication we are committed to continue promoting your message of Love, of the defense of our Sovereignty, rejecting any form of interventionism promoted by Imperialism, and ensuring that Nicaragua remains Free, carrying high the feeling of Revolutionary Unity and celebrating every day the Victories of our People.
In sport and in the practice of a healthy life, we continue to fulfill your great dream of a Nicaragua that triumphs, highlighting our athletes and accompanying them with Love and Joy for every young person, the pride of our country, in their constant search to cover our nation with glory.
Solidarity programs and Love for families, will always be and are for this Sandinista Youth, the sign of the feeling of Sister and Brotherhood among Nicaraguans, permanently accompanying the children, our elderly and our People.
Today, the Sandinista Youth, this Nicaraguan Youth, commit ourselves to continue promoting Love of our neighbor and the defense of Peace and National Sovereignty, hand in hand with Comandante Daniel and Compañera Rosario Murillo.
Comandante Carlos, here are your children, living up to your legacy of Love and Well-being for your People.
Long live Comandante Carlos!
Long live the Sandinista National Liberation Front!
Long live Comandante Daniel Ortega!
Long live Compañera Rosario
And long live the July 19th Sandinista Youth!
Address by Daniel
6.15, evening already, already nightfall, and we’re gathered here with the People, because this meeting is being seen all over the Country, all over Nicaragua, from North to South, from South to North, from East to West, from the Coco River to the River San Juan. And this, thanks to the fact that we have a Nation, and we have that Nation because we have been able to defend our Sovereignty. Without Sovereignty there can be no Nation!
Today we commemorate and pay homage to the father of our Revolution, Comandante Carlos, Tayacán Victor over Death, Carlos. And Carlos gave his life fighting for Sovereignty, because he wanted a Nation, and he wanted a Nation so that we could have Peace; National Sovereignty in order to achieve Peace, which is what we are defending and will continue to defend, even when we are threatened, even when sanctions are applied to us that are nothing more than aggression, sanctions applied by the Yankee Empire, sanctions applied by European Empires, not by their Peoples, let's not confuse Peoples with Governments, Governments that also exploit their own Peoples, oppress their own Peoples.
These are the moments when we have to cry out, as Darío cried out, cry out in the world for peace. Today, more than ever in the history of Humanity, the World demands, insists on Peace, it is being demanded in the cities of the United States, where people are marching; in Europe’s cities where the roots of the current Empires are, the British Empire, parent of the US Empire; the German Empire, parent of the Nazi Empire.
The battle that humanity is waging today is a battle of Life or Death, for all of humanity. On the one hand there are the Peoples in favor of Peace, even in Israel, in Israel the People have marched, crying out for Peace; of course, with pain too, because Israel has had victims of what is the sinister plan they have launched, a sinister plan for war that the Empires have launched.
At a time when those Empires are weakening, at a time when alternatives are emerging in the World, from Peoples, great powers, such as the People's Republic of China, such as the Russian Federation, such as the Peoples grouped in the BRICS countries, Peoples of Africa, Arab Peoples. When awareness has been awakening in the world that it is necessary to put an end to empires, they have unleashed this macabre plan.
And the one responsible for this macabre plan, the one who is at the forefront of this criminal plan, is US imperialism, it is the US ruling class, it is the major US corporations, the arms manufacturers in the United States who are doing huge business, and they care little about the blood that is being spilled.
At a time when the Prime Minister of Israel is weakening and there were large marches for the tyrannical measures that he was taking there in Israel, without taking into account the People, and with the Israeli people marching in the streets to condemn him, calling for his resignation, is the moment when the Yankee Empire puts into action the plan that it had already been articulating. It had been articulating and developing it with the Nazi forces of Ukraine opposed to the Russian Federation.
Just as the Nazi forces in Ukraine, despite the billions and billions that European countries have put into armaments, as well as the United States itself, have not managed to defeat the Russian Federation. There is the first front, there, the battle against Nazism began in this new stage, the Russian Federation faced the Nazis of Ukraine, but it was not advancing, despite everything they have sent to them, the weapons also in what is now an all out war.
That is to say, the war is no longer just between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, the war is now between the United States, Britain, Germany, all the European Countries arming Ukraine more and more every day, because they want to defeat the Russian Federation, because they know that the Russian Federation is going to achieve Victory and will put an end to Fascism in Ukraine.
So, given their weak situation in Ukraine, while they continue to approve even more money and armaments, and they continue to place long-range weapons in Ukraine, which may well lead to the Russian Federation using long-range weapons as well, and we already know what that means.
Even so, while the United States and the Europeans are arming the Ukrainians more and more every day, and by their support make themselves accomplices of the crimes, but they are also the strategists who are there with all their intelligence forces directing operations in Ukraine. These operations that are now directed by the intelligence agencies of the imperialist countries, the United States and Europe.
They know very well that by supplying weapons and directing the war, giving information to the Ukrainians about how to strike the Russian Federation, that already makes them a co-belligerent, and gives the Russian Federation the right to fight also those who are arming the Ukrainians. The Europeans know this well, they know it very well.
So in the face of this situation, and in the face of the deterioration that the Netanyahu government has been suffering and continues to suffer, because they are demanding of him why he did not protect the People of Israel? How did the Hamas fighters manage to enter? How did they manage to get in if Israel was supposed to be a fortress, where no one could enter? They are demanding that from the President, asking where is the security, that how could that happen? Where is the security, if they managed to get in and strike such a blow?
Of course, we share the pain of the Families who have suffered losses in Israel, but one ends up wondering whether it might not be the imperialist plan given the weakness they have in the war in Ukraine, given their involvement in that war in Ukraine. Faced with the risk of a total defeat there in Ukraine or a confrontation with them now, then why not invent some Trojan Horse, since this has already happened in other times, why not leave open their defenses so that the Palestinian forces in Gaza which defend, with every right, their right to have a State, a Nation, why not open Gaza for them.
That is to say, they seem to weaken, appear to weaken so that the Palestinians might enter, strike as they did and then comes the great offensive where they all join in, committing horrendous crimes. It is terrible that a child dies in Israel. But the fact that the countries that call themselves civilized and democratic continue to fuel this brutal, bestial war of the State of Israel, of the government of Israel, which is no more than the government of the United States, is simply part of a strategy: because it was in theirs interest to open another front where they could join in, where all the forces that are also involved in Ukraine could work together.
So there are two fronts where, on the one hand, this new wave of Nazism of the developed, capitalist countries is, that even at this moment, if we pay attention, we are in the year 2023, but back in the years of the last century, in the first days of August, already ending the Second World War, the greatest crime that has been committed in all the history of the planet was committed: the United States of America dropped two atomic bombs on two unarmed towns in Japan, and there in a single blow more than 250,000 citizens were killed. That must not be forgotten, it cannot be forgotten because it is the greatest crime that has been committed against humanity in its entire history.
It cannot be forgotten! Because suddenly we say: How terrible what is happening right now in Ukraine, or what is happening due to the war in the Palestinian territories. Of course it's terrible and we have to condemn it! But let's not forget that those who threw the first stone in the history of Humanity provoking massive crimes, where there are children with skin disintegrated by radiation, because radiation is torture; that is, they murdered those people by torturing them, and those who managed to survive then suffering from a thousand diseases, skin cancer and everything else.
So we cannot forget that the United States of America is the greatest criminal in the history of mankind. And if we add to this the extermination of the native Peoples back in the United States, how they were exterminated. And the other great powers also did the same, in Asia, in Africa, in Latin America, the European Powers, as well as trafficking in slaves.
So, we are really facing a war where Nazism or Neo-Nazism, led by the United States of America and by NATO’s member European countries, have raised the flag of Neo-Nazism. But also, it looks as though they see the opportunity, that it is time also to bring these bloodbaths to the Latin American and Caribbean Region, because they have always felt they own these lands, we already know the history and how there has been Resistance, how there have been Revolutions, how we are still struggling to build a solid Latin American and Caribbean bloc, one that is not subordinate to Yankee imperialist policy.
So on the one hand, if we look closely, on the one hand, they are coming and trying to activate new conflicts with nations that have shown solidarity, firstly with the Peoples of Our America,but also with the US People themselves; and now the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and our Venezuelan brothers and sisters have rightfully called for a Referendum that has to do with a territory that the British stole from them, just as the British had occupied the entire Caribbean Coast here, they stole it, and so, the British, the Gringos, the Europeans, were stealing territory.
And in the case of Venezuela, even the territory now in dispute, where the international organizations told them to negotiate to reach an Agreement, the rulers of Guyana are already granting territory to US companies, Guyana which is a People of Solidarity, a brave People, but the Government conspires with the Yankees now to give them oil concessions in territories that do not belong to Guyana, territories that have belonged to Venezuela, that were part of Greater Colombia, liberated by Simón Bolívar.
But the thing is that the US accompanies these contracts already, with the deployment of US warships to the area; that is, they are looking for how to open another front there, while also trying to destabilize the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. And from here we say to the Bolivarian People, to the Venezuelan people, I say to Nicolás: The presentation that you made yesterday was an extraordinary exhibition, where it is very clear, it is the same story as ours, the British deciding with the Gringos how to divide these lands. The same story! Along with other experts, Nicolás gave a lot of details.
And what do we say to our brother Nicolás Maduro, who is fighting the battle of Bolívar, fighting the battle of Chávez? What do we say to the Venezuelan people? Count on our solidarity at all times!
I have here a compendium compiled by our brother Aldo Díaz, of the Fundamental Works of Comandante Carlos. What does Carlos say there? What does Carlos say here in these Fundamental Works? I was browsing them again, and Carlos reminds us again, because this history should not be forgotten so that it does not repeat itself.
And it says there: “Walker was proclaimed Head of State of Nicaragua, being greeted for that reason by the Representative of the Yankee Government John Wheeler, and recognized as such by the President of the United States, Franklin Pierce. Among the measures taken by Walker is the enactment of slavery in Nicaragua, which had already been abolished by the Central American Government of 1822”, a year after Independence and which Walker being President, recognized by the Yankee Government issued.
"The Decree that reinstates slavery, while demonstrating how the United States intend to regenerate society in Nicaragua, placing it at the forefront of the Southern States of the Union in the so-called irremediable conflict between slave labor and free labor. The policy of this act, says Walker, is to preserve and consists in pointing out for the southern states the only means other than Revolution that makes it possible to preserve the present social organization.” In other words, slavery.
I mean, he's teaching the lesson to the southern states of the United States who were the ones that defended slavery, they were in wars there too, and Walker came from the South, so he comes along and documents why slavery is good.
Then Carlos talks here about the Heroism of the Central American Peoples who united against Walker. Notice, here the Central American Unity was given to defeat Walker. And right there Carlos comes and reminds us, he says: "In the Nicaraguan towns of Rivas, Masaya and San Jacinto, poets composed patriotic songs at that time, like the one that follows, by the poet Juan Iribarren, fragment of a long song whose stanzas vibrated to the beat of the Marseillaise:
War to the death on those vile ingrates!
War on the Yankee thirsty for robbery!
May they receive a severe punishment
for their perfidy, their horrible treachery!”
This is what the Poet said, and this is how we feel too, in the face of the crimes that the Yankee Empire has committed against humanity, and that they are still committing at this moment.
Carlos was also always with Dario and there he remembers when he notes, "It is obvious that the Monroe Doctrine is more vital in the situation of the Panama Canal and the Caribbean area than anywhere else.” That is, the Monroe Doctrine, the Gringos, the Empire seeing the importance of this area because of the Canal; that is, they were not looking for gold here, nor were they coming to look for another type of wealth, it was the golden Canal, because the Canal is a strategic resource, and the two points were Panama or Nicaragua.
Carlos says here: The aggressive flight of the Yankee eagle, the threat hanging over our Peoples, made Rubén Darío, poet of Nicaragua, poet of Latin America, cry out in his poetry collection “Songs of Life and Hope, with the following verses, “The Swans” :
“Will we be handed over to the fierce barbarians?
Will so many millions of women and men speak English?
Are there no noble nobles or brave knights anymore?
Will we stay quiet now so as to cry only later?”
Darío was reacting to the policy of domination that the United States was establishing in the Americas already, which they meant for themselves as US Americans.
We are going to leave Carlos' book there, but it is important to bear in mind, to listen to what Carlos wrote and how Carlos thought.
Now let's go here now and see... Today is the 8th, the 7th of November, that is to say a day like yesterday, in the year 1957, our brother Carlos was in Moscow's Red Square, at the celebrations saluting the 40th Anniversary of the Triumph of the October Revolution.
He went there with a delegation of Young People of Socialist Ideas, the Sandinista Front did not exist yet, naturally, but the idea, the feeling did exist; there were very few young people integrated at that time, of course, to these initiatives, because just for traveling there they put Carlos in prison, because he went to that Conference. They put him in jail. And it goes without saying that they used to kill anyone who actually protested.
It was the time of the Somoza government imposed by the Yankees, whom Roosevelt called when he was asked how is it possible that he is supporting that government of criminals. And Roosevelt said, "They are sons of bitches, but they are our sons of bitches”; that's what Roosevelt, the President of the United States, said.
Well, Carlos had been invited because he belonged to a Socialist Party youth group. Then, when the Sandinista Front was organizing and growing, the Socialist Party was also integrating into the Front, or a good part of the Socialist Party.
Then we have this amazing story of Comandante Francisco Rivera “El Zorro”,
Always Present! Always Present! Always Present! Three times with "El Zorro" Estelí was taken, and as the whole National Guard was collapsing, this in the Final Offensive now, when they had to retreat and he led half the city’s People to fall back into the region around Estelí.
They regrouped and returned to the attack, but since the regime sent tanks and planes there, the Sandinista Front Forces still could not manage to make advances in other cities that were strategic, such as León. In Managua they had to retreat, on the Southern Front they were fighting hard, the National Guard also had a large force there. So, the third time in Estelí was the magic there, the third time they took over the National Guard barracks, and then they came on to the celebration here on July 20th.
Back then to Carlos and the circumstances of division, yes, how terrible division is, there was division in the Sandinista Front and there were compañeras and compañeros who made a point of trying to discredit Carlos, because he was in Cuba after being rescued from imprisonment in Costa Rica and in Cuba, Carlos was forging compañeras and compañeros, there were a lot of compañeros who formed themselves, preparing themselves, the problem was that the conception at that moment of the struggle, had the Front totally paralyzed, the compañeras and compañeros in the mountains were totally on the defensive.
So when we started with the Insurrectionary Proposal, the first place where we talked about the Insurrectionary Proposal was over there in Cuba, with Carlos, with Pomares, there we discussed how we could not continue as we were, on the defensive, because every day there were dead compañeros, dead compañeros and compañeras in the mountains; and in the cities there was still no major insurrectionary activity, occasionally some activity, but they were killing our compañeros and compañeras in the mountains.
And in that exchange during our meetings in Cuba, back in Havana, we came to the conclusion that we had to go on the offensive. But how can we go on the offensive if we don't even have weapons, if the compañeros and compañeras who are in the mountains had few weapons, and too when the National Guard was getting closer they have no choice but to go further inside the mountains, or sometimes the Guard managed to attack them, even the organized local magistrates pursued the compañeros and compañeras in the mountains.
So, what could we do? Well, we looked at and were inspired by the traditional insurrectionary methods of the Revolutions that had triumphed in the World, well, each one with its own particularities of course, but what we concluded there is that if we wanted to have weapons, the only way was to storm the National Guard barracks with the few weapons we had at hand, and set about training compañeros and compañeras from the villages so as to take the National Guard barracks and immediately arm them. So then an armed detachment could advance to another town to take over the next barracks, and so on throughout the country, that was the Insurrectional Strategy.
But unfortunately division arose and when we started to raise this there were insults, curses, and finally, in those conditions we never started insulting the compañeros and compañeras who put out statements insulting us, accusing us of being adventurers. We set about with what we had and did so there in Cuba in the face of this problem in which there were already three Tendencies; that is, the Insurrectionary Tendency which was the new one; there was the Tendency of Prolonged People's War, which was the old one, and there was the Proletarian Tendency, which was, let's say, another new tendency that had emerged.
Back then, the Proletarian Tendency said that the Party had to be organized first, and that after the Party was organized it was necessary to start forming an armed detachment. But we thought that there were no conditions to form the Party because they were sweeping it away, it was already a Revolutionary Party, disarmed, and they were going to liquidate it. And other compañeros and compañeras simply stuck to the mountains.
I remember on the part of the inhabitants of the Pacific Cities there was simply a spectator attitude, and it was at that point that we decided to hold a meeting between the three tendencies and that we would go and meet in the mountains. And we asked Carlos to support it but not to come, since the conditions were not right for Carlos to come in, it was to put the life of that compañero at risk.
He had a serious problem with his eyesight, a very serious one, so from there he had to rely on other compañeros and compañeras to help Carlos, to move him up to those mountains; that is, he was not going to be in a position to keep his mind lucid and clear, but no, he decided to come to the meeting.
So he was coming, and on the other hand, we were too, Eduardo Contreras was there, the leader of the commando group that liberated us, he was also part of the Leadership; then we were there, the compañeros and compañeras of the Insurrectional Tendency that was already emerging, at least as a project, as a proposal, and we were seeking how to hold the meeting and make up our minds about what was the most correct thing, whether to continue with the Prolonged People’s War Tendency, to form the Party or go to the Insurrection. That was the idea.
So Carlos came, and we also entered, we entered clandestinely via San Carlos; then we were in some houses of very humble compañeros and compañeras, and I was talking to the compañeros and compañeras, who were working people, families who since daybreak were already making tortillas, to sell in the popular neighborhoods of Managua.
We found a welcome there and we asked them: And what do you know about the Front, what do you think? They would tell us: Ah, the Sandinistas are wiping out the National Guard up there in the mountains! I mean, that was the fantasy, the hope, the people believing that we were doing away with the National Guard there on the mountain. Of course, I didn't tell them that it wasn't so, of course, I couldn't tell them that; but really I was more convinced that what we were proposing was correct.
We were making contact here in Managua to organize a base for insurrections in cities, but we were also preparing to go to the meeting. Carlos had already gone out to the mountain before, fighting for Unity, do make note of this, Unity!
Meanwhile, we were getting ready here because we were going to take a different mountain route, because there were already problems, the mountains had even been practically cut off; so it was to get back in touch with the mountains and then look for the respective route until we could meet there, address these issues and made a decision that would unite us. That was the idea.
Carlos fell on November 7, it’s not clear if he was still alive and they killed him on the 8th, because they usually left them alive, as they did with Che, they left him alive to consulted and see what decision they would take.
So, he was in the Iyás region, there were other compañeros and compañeras, there was Carlos Aguero, who were waiting for him there; there was compañera Claudia Chamorro. They are Heroes who fell in the fight, Carlos Aguero, Claudia; there was also "El Zorro”, Francisco Rivera in that group, and they are the ones who received Carlos, and then there was the move to see when they could go to the central camp to hold the meeting there.
Then, always in the Iyás region and near the Iyás River, Carlos decided to send Francisco Rivera "El Zorro", for his qualities, for his experience, with other compañeros and compañeras, with Claudia herself, to do a job in a political area, and he stayed with two compañeros, Crescencio Aguilar, a peasant compañero originally from Kuskawás, and Benito Carvajal. Both of them were with Carlos.
Already at that moment they had said goodbye, Francisco Rivera had left with the compañeros that I mentioned to you, this was the 7th. And on the 7th at night, as I was telling you, we were making contact with compañeros and compañeras here in Managua, Eduardo Contreras, Comandante Marcos, Comandante Zero were also doing work here in the area; they were attending the area at that time, looking for the Asososca residential area, looking for populated areas, in Ciudad Sandino too.
He had gone out while I was going in another direction, more in the eastern neighborhoods of Managua to make contacts as well, and he had gone out with compañero Rogelio Picado and compañero Silvio Reñazco. Silvio Reñazco was a compañero originally from Masaya, I think, they had financial possibilities and both Eduardo and he had been in Germany studying, there they had met, and then Silvio joined the Sandinista Front and Eduardo too.
So the two of them, in this case Eduardo, and Silvio who was in the vehicle transporting Eduardo, accompanied by Rogelio Picado, a compañero from campesino areas, were going to make contacts with people I knew, and there they were ambushed and murdered; that is, practically the same day they ambushed Carlos, because Carlos was ambushed too, they ambushed Eduardo. We have all these casualties, these heroic deaths of brothers and sisters who were fighting for Freedom, for Peace, for the Nation, for Sovereignty.
With that, the meeting could not take place and all that was left for us was to start making contacts with the compañeros and compañeras who were in the mountains, such as Víctor Tirado: What are you doing there? They're going to kill you, we told them, if we don’t do something here. Victor came, so did Francisco Rivera, we made contact with him and he came immediately.
Then we explained to them what the strategy was, and that's when the Insurrectionary Movement in the Sandinista Front was born. The Sandinista Front proposing insurrection was born and there we immediately managed to gather a large number of Comrades who were enthusiastic about the idea, because it was a way to seek how the People would arm themselves, so that the People would fight, and so that we would not have a People who were just watching for a long time and waiting for others to come along and liberate them.
Because that's what was happening, the People learned about the casualties in the National Guard Units, and the People believed that they were being given a hard time there, and it wasn't true. So, that was another very important element, for the People be the subject of the struggle, be the subject of Victory, be the combatant subject, and not that on the one hand were the Combatants, and the People on the other hand... No! No! No! Then, that was an awakening and we started training everywhere, compañeras and compañeros, in all the Departments, in all the Municipalities.
So then, remember, this was organized for the year 1977, it was a short period, we had returned from Cuba in the year 1976, Carlos had already returned, as I told you; so there we were regrouping, we were making contacts with a lot of people, it's that people joined in with a lot of enthusiasm, without fear, without fear, there, I remember the peasants in Rivas and everywhere else.
And the Insurrectionary Offensive began, because we did it with such impetus, with such decision, that we said, We are going to succeed! In other words, we did it with that confidence, and that gave us the strength to be able to endure and return to the attack. Because we launched in October 1977, we even had a provisional government already, and we launched the assaults on the barracks, we did not achieve 100% success, but the People saw already that the Guard could be defeated, they could see it there on the edge of their town that the National Guard was paralyzed and had to retreat.
After this Insurrection of October 1977 we went to the Insurrection of September 1978, and then to the Final Offensive, until Victory. I mean, look, what we achieved '77, '78, '79, we really achieved victory in a short time.
But of course, we also cannot underestimate all the strength that the Sandinista Front had managed to forge in the previous strategy, from Bocay, then from Pancasán, then in Zinica there was a period, and then the last period.
All these were structures that were developed in the mountains, with the intention of forming the army there and then coming down to liberate the cities.
That's where Francisco Rivera was formed, that's where all the Cadres who were later at the forefront of the Insurrections were formed, that's where they were preparing themselves. That is to say, it was a great guerrilla school, in traditional terms, until we moved on to what was the Popular Struggle: The People Liberating themselves! And that is why we say now: The People-President working to sustain Liberation and sustain Peace.
I am going to conclude with the story of Francisco Rivera who was so close to Carlos, he was with Carlos there in Havana, then he was with Carlos here; so, the story of Francisco Rivera.
He speaks here about when they are already organizing to guarantee the transfer of Carlos, how the compañeros Crescencio Aguilar, Fidel Aguilar, Jacinto Hernández, had been getting together in San Antonio de Kuskawás; Edgard Munguía, “The Cat” Munguía was there; Facundo Picado “Pedrito", they were there watching how to organize to accompany Carlos, taking all the security measures.
Then they were with Carlos, and on November 5th we sent away two compañeros who were going to the River Par Par, and the three who were going to El Bote. And the other 6 stayed with him (that is, with Carlos) in Cusuli, waiting for the time of departure for Iyás.
On November 7th at 7.00 p.m., while a heavy downpour was falling, Carlos began his final march. At that moment Carlos had told Comandante Francisco Rivera, that with Claudia and other Comrades they were going to another point. Then Francisco says that he tried to convince him, that there was another compañero who had more knowledge of the area and that it was better for him stay with him, than to go with them, but Carlos said no.
"On November 7th, at 7.00 p.m., while a heavy downpour was falling, Carlos set off on his final march accompanied by the two compañeros he had obstinately chosen.” Of course, El Zorro wanted to protect him and felt that he had more knowledge of the compañeros, but Carlos decided to go with the other compañeros; Francisco says: “Carlos had been obstinate in choosing those two compañeros leaving me with the other three compañeros.”
"Before leaving, he ordered me to give Danilo, a peasant compañero, the papers that he had entrusted to me when we first met in June, and that I carried around under my shirt at that time, wrapped in plastic. And I also arranged that wrapping for the compañero, under his shirt." Because there is always the problem of rain on the mountain.
“He embraced me, (he was now saying goodbye to Carlos) and it was an embrace forever. And now that I reflect on my memories of that moment, so full of sadness, I find that it curious: seven Colleagues saying goodbye, at seven pm on a November 7th. In the rain that fell without mercy."
That is, they are all together, and at 7 o'clock at night Carlos already told them you go there, I am going to continue here... At 7 o'clock at night 7 Colleagues who are saying goodbye, and it's November 7th, worth noting... 3 times 7!
"Nor do I forget his demeanor when he left: The months-old underdeveloped beard, his thick glasses that were so necessary for his myopia, his olive-green uniform, his high boots, his 12-gauge automatic shotgun, his Browning 9-millimeter 14-shot pistol and a fragmentation grenade at his belt.” That's the armament Carlos had at that time.
"He went out at night, because although the problem with his eyesight made it difficult for him to walk in the dark, the first stretch would have to be done along a busy road, before entering the mountain through an opening.” Openings are the little paths up into the mountains, ways into the mountains. “The path where the enemy was precisely waiting for him”, that is, he took the path where the ambush was, already following his footsteps, they had already detected him, they were already following him... "The path where the enemy was precisely waiting for him, already behind his footsteps, sniffing in the air that Carlos Fonseca, who had been left for dead many other times, was in the mountains.” Because so many times they had left Carlos for dead.
"So it was that he fell in Boca de Piedra, Zinica Region, that same night of November 7th 1976, surprised by a patrol of Guards a few hours march from El Varillal, where we had said goodbye, without me being able to hear the shots due to the noise of the downpour of rain that continued to fall until dawn. He fought at a disadvantage. And another compañero known as 114 fell with him, and Danilo, the other peasant compañero, was able to escape, but later he was ambushed on another stretch of road, and they killed him too.”
"Between 9am and 11am the next day, as we were moving away from El Varillal, we heard gunshots coming from Boca de Piedra, accompanied by explosions. Maybe that was when they were killing the Peasant.” That is also where it is thought that Carlos was being killed. “I don't know. We never got to find out what happened to the documents I had placed under his shirt, if he managed to hide them while he was fleeing, or if the Guard found it on his body.
Carlos Fonseca went straight to his death, obsessed by the idea of an impossible meeting that occupied his mind, half blind, guided by a child in the rain in the enclosed night of the mountain and surrounded by the worst omens and murderous patrols, helicopters, dogs of prey, the regions strewn with the dead, the razed ranches and crops, every inch of road guarded, the National Guard camping in the chapels and the hermitages, when everyone denounced us out of fear and very few dared to collaborate.
And so he never came to the plains of the Iyás River, there the meeting never took place that preoccupied him so much and that cost him his life.”
That's how Comandante Francisco Rivera said goodbye to our brother Carlos, that's how he said farewell.
Look at what a dramatic description, what a harsh, terrible situation, but there was the Consciousness, the Love of the Nation, Love of Sovereignty, Love of Freedom, the Love of the People and the commitment to fight to achieve Freedom and with Freedom, Peace for this People. But Peace with Well-being, because there can be no Peace without Well-being, which is what we are engaged in now.
And we tell Carlos that there is a People here and there is a Youth that multiplies everywhere, a Youth that is carrying out Days of Service, of Care, of Cooperation with the People and especially to the humblest, the most impoverished, because it is the President Youth that serves the People too, the President Youth serving the People who have many needs, as we all know very well.
And with this Youth that is being forged, take a good look at this story that I have read to you, of the conditions in which Carlos then made his Transition to Immortality, I am sure that you carry that disposition, that courage, that bravery inside, you carry it in your soul, and that you are willing, if necessary, to give your very life for the Nation, for Freedom, for Sovereignty, for Nicaragua.
Carlos Fonseca is of the Fallen who live Forever!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice President of Nicaragua
after the Event in Commemoration of the 47th Anniversary
of the Transit to Immortality of Comandante Carlos Fonseca Amador
November 8, 2023
Good evening, good day, good afternoon, in these Good Times... Times of New Victories! Whenever we experience an Anniversary, a Commemoration, a Celebration, all these Times, all these Memories, all the Recollections and all the Stories join together. And we know that we are overcoming!
We go through all those periods that have been of Great Struggles, of Great Valor, of Great Heroism, of good things, of painful things, moments and times, but always the Light shines through. We are of Light. We are of Life. We are of Real, Authentic Truth. We are of Love. We are of Concord. We are of our Nation, a Free nation, a Nation building Well-being for Everyone!
And today, here, Carlos Fonseca is alive, not a remembrance, but alive, Carlos Fonseca, and this immense legacy, this enormous Responsibility that we have, all of us who are on this Plane of Life, to defend the Nation, to love our Nation, to feel Blessed, that word that bothers the devils and demons so much; to feel Blessed, Prosperous, grateful to the Father, because here we are.
So much struggle, so many compañeros and compañeras who have given their best, who have given everything, so that we can live as we do today: Calm and safe, working and thriving... Courageous! This is a Courageous People. We are all Courageous. While ee know that the whole world, as Comandante Daniel explained, is living through hard, painful times, unfortunately times of war, Times of pain, Times of imposition, of aggression.
Times when some want to revive the worst feelings, the worst experiences of humanity... of crimes, genocides. And here we are, and we see, and we say: How can we not be in Solidarity if we are a People who knows all these struggles, all this pain, but who also knows how to rise up and transcend, and win, with Conviction, with Courage, with Vigor.
Hard Times, Good Times... Life is made of struggles and we have learned that since childhood. We are a combative People and we learned to be fighters, combatants who know how to recognize each time and say, well, this is what was achieved, and that's why we feel undefeated, because we always learn and advance.
Carlos Fonseca had the genius to synthesize the historical experience of our People, of Sovereignty, the Struggle for Sovereignty, for National Dignity, and Revolutionary Theory. And I think that, in addition to his Personal Courage, his Personal Vision, this leaves us all with a great, immense, I repeat, responsibility to follow the Way, the Paths, the Roads, to go Forward, building the Present and the Future of Everyone, with Rights, with Freedom, Dignity and Fraternity! The future of everyone, who set to work, knowing that every step we take, every effort we make, is to live as we deserve.
Every day all the families know of more achievements, of more advances, which are Triumphs of the People: More houses; more roads; more bridges; more accesses; more Programs to support businesses in the countryside and the city... Everything we have, more Education, more Health!
What A Blessing...! to repeat the word that bothers the vampires so much, those bloodsuckers, who have no place here anymore. And we reiterate and repeat, Blessings are what we count, as God's People! It also bothers them that we say that we are God's People... But it's the truth!
Only aware of the Mystery and the Miracle of being a Blessed People can we always move Ahead, with the Strength of Faith, with the Strength of Love, with the Strength of all Times, of Heroic Construction, of Heroic Heritage. That's what we have. And days like today are for thanking and recognizing God, and all those who have given the best of themselves so that Nicaragua continues to be this Nation of Heroes, this Nation of Courage, Honor, Glory and Victories!
To Comandante Carlos, Comandante-in-Chief, we say: We are arriving at 45/19, and we are Nation, and we are Revolution, and we are Evolution. And here are the Youth, the Youth who feel, who vibrate, who knows that Nicaragua is their Nation, that Love for Nicaragua is a Duty, a Responsibility, and also an immense Value.
A Youth that knows it is our responsibility to defend Peace every day, that it is our Responsibility, that it is our turn to make our Way. As long as we have a Breath of Life on this Plane of Life, it's up to us to defend what we are, what we deserve, and what we yearn; to defend this Nation of Everyone, Blessed, Blessed, Blessed, Prosperous, and Always Victorious and Free!
Thank God for this Nicaragua of ours, and thanks to the Heroes and thanks to our Comandante Carlos, who left us this Paradise that we are building. We believe in Paradise out of our Christian upbringing, and we believe in Paradise as the Nation of Humanity, as we sing, when we sing The Internationale: "Arise the impoverished of the world".
Warm embraces to all Nicaragua’s families.
Thank you.