Address by President Comandante Daniel at the military parade
commemorating the 43rd Anniversary of the founding of the Army of Nicaragua
September 3rd 2022
Beloved Nicaraguans, Families of this Blessed and Free Land. On a day like today, 51 years ago, the henchmen, the assassins, of the Yankee Army here in Nicaragua, which was Somoza's Army, on September 3rd 1971, in La Tronca, Matagalpa, murdered a beloved Brother who lives in our hearts, who lives in the Songs of the People, a Peasant Leader who had managed to survive Pancasán, and later they captured him with other Compañeros and murdered them: Bernardino Díaz Ochoa, a Hero of our nation, a Peasant Hero, an indomitable fighter.
Beloved Vice President of the Republic, Comrade Rosario Murillo; beloved Commander-in-Chief of the Nicaraguan Army, Army General Julio César Avilés Castillo and his wife, Comrade Conchamarenco Salinas de Avilés; beloved Chief of the General Staff, Major General Bayardo Ramón Rodríguez Ruiz and his lady wife, Comrade Martha Elena Ruiz Sevilla; beloved Inspector General of the Army, Major General Marvin Elías Corrales Rodríguez and his lady wife, Comrade Yamileth del Socorro Moncada Valenzuela.
Beloved Minister of Defense of the Republic of Nicaragua, Compañera Rosa Adelina Barahona Castro; beloved Director General of the National Police, First Commissioner Francisco Javier Díaz Madriz; beloved Brothers, President of the National Assembly, Doctor Gustavo Porras, who is in León, we greet Gustavo there in León ; in fact, Gustavo has to visit the Departments constantly. We have to be attentive to the issue of Health Care, and he is in charge of the Health System in our Country, and that cannot be neglected.
President of the Supreme Court of Justice, Dr. Alba Luz Ramos Vanegas... Is Alba Luz here? She is attending to the law. Vice-President of the Supreme Electoral Council, Magistrate Cairo Amador; Attorney General of the Republic, Ana Julia Guido Ochoa; Attorney General of the Republic, Doctor Wendy Carolina Morales Urbina... Very good, Wendy, always disciplined, steadfast, always Courageous!
Former Vice President of the Republic, our beloved Brother, Army General in honorable condition of Retirement, Moisés Omar Halleslevens Acevedo... General, how are you?
Beloved Brothers, Corps of Generals and Senior Officers, Members of the Military Council of the Nicaraguan Army; Officers of the Nicaraguan Army in the honorable condition of Retirement; Members of the National High Command of the National Police; Ministers, Directors of Autonomous Entities; Mayors; Officials of State and Government Institutions; Representatives of Sectors and Entities.
Relatives of our General Sandino; Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps; recently promoted Officers and their beloved Families; Relatives of Officers Fallen in the Line of Duty; Members of Troops of the Military Units of the Nicaraguan Army; Women and Men of the Media, and Special Guests.
This is the 43rd Anniversary of the Nicaraguan Army, an Army already consolidated, an Army with a Strength derived from the long History that we covered yesterday and that has been forging this Army which today is a steadfast, solid, well-prepared Army, willing to assume all the tasks that the conditions of the country demand.
I speak from this place to the peasants who are there on the banks of the Coco River, who sow their crops there, who may have a few livestock, who have their economic, commercial activities. They are communities that go along the Coco River where they have Waspam as their municipal capital there, and then there is Cabo Gracias a Dios.
How much has been achieved and continues to be done in that incredible work that goes with the Highway, going in the direction of the intersections between Waspam and Bilwi; a highway not built with gravel, but one built with concrete. The bridges that are being installed along that Highway, bridges that no one could imagine ever seeing built.
The Brothers and Sisters of the Coast were marginalized Brothers and Sisters, and it was the Revolution that began to integrate them, the Revolutionary Government integrating them, in difficult conditions, because they were conditions of war after the Triumph of the Revolution.
And you can see the value of Peace... In the way that we installed a New Phase of Peace, from 2007 to 2018, Streets, Highways, Housing were multiplying; Schools, Health Posts, Health Centers, Hospitals were multiplying; support for Peasant families, training for Peasant families to raise the productivity of Basic Grains, to raise productivity in Livestock, to raise productivity in rearing swine, in all those activities of Peasant families production, was multiplying.
And that Period of Peace allowed us to build the highway to San Carlos. That highway was a dream, it was a promise of all time, and we made that highway to San Carlos a reality.
Then we started working on the highway to Pearl Lagoon, to Bluefields, all that area, one that would link up with the Pacific and allow more economic development along those areas where thousands of Peasant Families worked with great determination, and now with the highway the Programs could arrive, the supplies could arrive, and they could facilitate trade to move merchandise, products to Managua, and take products from Managua to there as well.
It is the first time in history that this area of the Caribbean has been integrated, the capital of the Autonomous Region of the Southern Caribbean for the first time in History has been joined via a highway. Before then we know very well what the route was, either by plane, with very high costs, or by the Rama River, and transport by the Rama River was also expensive, it was expensive and slow, because it meant sailing along the Rama River in order to reach Bluefields, because there were no Highways, yes, there was no Road to the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, much less were there these Roads and these gigantic Bridges that we are now building to the North Caribbean Coast.
I look at those Bridges and I find it incredible, for they are Bridges of the highest quality, Bridges of enormous length, and that naturally leads to more Life, leads to more economic activity, leads to Education, leads to Health Care, because it allows for the installation of Schools, of Health Posts, in those Communities, in those Areas where before you could not access them unless it was by very long journeys overland, or by launches, because on the Caribbean Coast there are many Municipalities, Communities that are isolated and can only be reached by river or by sea.
This is a real Revolution in transport, for the benefit of the Economy, for the benefit of Health Care, for the benefit of Education, because how can you build Schools when there were not even Roads and Highways. And I talk about the Caribbean now, because the truth is that we Nicaraguans are privileged to be taking this extraordinary step, where the construction of a large Hospital there in the Caribbean, a Hospital of the first rank, is now well advanced. And the fishing industry, encouraging fishing in those areas of the Caribbean.
And then too, if we travel now through the Central Area of our Country and the Pacific Area, you can count the Roads that have been built, that were built and some that we even inaugurated, such as the Overpass here, in the midst of the coup, in 2018. Here the work never stopped! The attempted coup d'état and the terrorism failed to stop the Spirit of Work of Nicaraguans.
Of course, there was a shock that hindered Projects that could have gone faster, because the coup promoters and their terrorism are enemies of the poor. They don't want schools for the poor, they don't want health care for the poor, they don't want food for the poor. They want everything just for themselves. But here we have a Revolutionary, Christian Practice, which is Solidarity, which is a Christian Principle, of loving one another as ourselves.
And the number of houses we have built from 2007 to date. And that we keep building. And now more thousands of Housing Units will be built with the Cooperation of the Sister People's Republic of China. And we will also continue to build thousands of homes with the resources of the Nicaraguan State, together with the Municipalities, via the Bismarck Martínez Program.
So you can see, fellow Nicaraguans who are listening to us throughout Nicaragua, what allowed us to advance so much? Peace! And why is it that they tried to destroy what we were building, why did they destroy it? Because they have always been destroyers, in the 80s they mined our Ports, destroyed oil storage centers; what happened recently in Cuba now was an accident, but here it was caused by the CIA, CIA Agents placed bombs there to cause that fire so that we ran out of oil.
You can see very well all of you, what would have happened if we had not stopped the terrorist onslaught. Nicaragua would be at war right now, destroyed, but we could not allow that to happen and order was reinstated, as it should be restored, so order was restored!
And when order was restored, when the barricades disappeared where women, children, men, police officers, and people who were not police were murdered, where they were set on fire, where they were garrotted, tortured, we could not allow those barbaric acts to continue as they had done to the applause of the oligarchy.
Because the oligarchy which until that moment had maintained a Great Alliance with the Government and with the Workers, simply, when it came to adjusting salaries so as to fund Social Security, which meant touching the pockets of the rich, of the capitalists, then they made a break and carried out already premeditated plans, giving in to pressures and threats from the Yankee Government, that if they did not break their alliance with the Sandinista Government, then Sanctions would be applied to them.
Many of these business people who turned against us after having been in alliance with us and having very good relations, were forced to do so because the Yankees threatened to freeze funds they had in the United States, and therefore destroy their companies and their businesses.
They even went to the extreme of threatening them also not to allow many of these business people's children who were studying or are studying in the United States, they were not going to allow them to continue studying and that they were going to expel them from the United States; that is to say , a totally criminal and cowardly attitude on the part of the Yankees.
But order was restored, and there it was very important the support of the Army guarding strategic points that they were trying to destroy, and they even had medicine warehouses as a target, they had them as a target to destroy them. And with the Army covering strategic points, the Police waging a heroic struggle, because one of the conditions set by that those leading, the ones who were organizing and directing the coup attempt was that the Police stayed off the streets.
So we said: Well, maybe they don't want the police to go out, perhaps they are afraid and they don't want the police to attack them, so okay, let the Police to stay in their stations. And what did they do? They started attacking the police stations every day, every day, and the Police maintained their discipline, when their Duty was to react and control those who were attacking the Police Stations, every day.
In the end, there was no choice but to tell the police that order had to be maintained, because so much crime could no longer be tolerated, the destruction of the economy could not be allowed. The coup promoters had Central America blocked, yes, because by blocking the highways here and having obstacles in the cities here, of course the transport of goods from the other Central American countries was hindered, or they were trapped there for days, for weeks, and naturally objecting with every reason to do so.
In the end there was no alternative, as Rugama said, but to fight, to impose order, according to the Law, according to the Constitution, because that is mandated by the Constitution of any country in the World. And there the Police, along with the Volunteer Police, quickly cleared the barricades and captured the criminals, or some of the criminals.
They were a tough few months! What must many Nicaraguans have thought? That now we were going backwards. But that moment, what it did was fill our people with more strength, more courage, more creativity, and we resumed our work again with even greater endeavor to recover the Economy, to stabilize productive activities and continue building Roads, continue building Highways.
And COVID came, and we didn't stop, we kept working, we kept working and the Nicaraguan economy managed to stabilize and then grow again. And today, Thank God, we have a growing Economy, where Schools, Health Posts, Maternal Shelters for Women are multiplying; there is, Entrepreneurship, with Youth everywhere involved in entrepreneurial activities.
And there is Joy in Nicaragua, of course there is Joy, this is a Country full of Joy, full of Hope, and this causes bitterness and poisons even more those who want to see Nicaragua destroyed. They are the ones who live pleading for the Yankees to destroy economic relations with Nicaragua once and for all.
But Nicaragua has economic relations with the whole world, and we have now established relations with the country that has had the fastest growing economy in the history of mankind, the People's Republic of China, and we thank the People's Republic of China for its Solidarity with the Nicaraguan People.
And of course we count also on the Solidarity of the fraternal Peoples of Venezuela, Cuba, the Peoples of ALBA; as well as the cooperation, the exchange that we have with other Countries, with other Nations throughout Our America. And too the continuous threats of the Europeans who have become an instrument of US policy.
But I want to conclude with the following Reflection“ "Let's all consider, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, and I say this to people who are in Poverty, to people who are in the middle class, to those who own good businesses, to those who have an much better economic situation, to those who have more wealth, to the big business people, to investors, I say to all of them, what would Nicaragua be without the Peace we have recovered? And the guarantee of Peace in Nicaragua has been and will be the People with all its consciousness and with its Institutions: The Nicaraguan Army and the National Police!
That is why we insist, our organization in the area of our Armed Institutions is to protect Peace in Nicaragua, to defend Peace in Nicaragua, not to attack anyone. That explains why the Army, our Armed Forces, our Police, have very good relations with the population, and the population knows that this is the way for us to defend Peace together.
And it is clear now that we have a solid army, a very well-prepared, very well-disciplined army, loyal to the nation, loyal to the People, and then too we have an Army that is a guarantee of Peace enabling Work, a guarantee of Peace enabling Education, a guarantee of Peace enabling Health, a guarantee of Peace enabling domestic and foreign investments, a guarantee of Peace enabling the development of Health Programs, Education Programs and the creation of new Schools.
We are talking about activities ensuring Life, guaranteed by the Nicaraguan Army, and therefore, Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, it is important that we value, you who know the history of our Country very well, that we value what Peace means and the meaning of those Institutions fundamental to guarantee Peace.
The Army is a fundamental Organization guaranteeing Peace, defending the Sovereignty of the Country, combating Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime, cooperating in productive activities, accompanying Peasant families in their productive activities. That is, it is an Army not mobilized for killing, but an Army mobilized to cooperate, to help and of course ensure security to the Population along with the police, so that they will not fall victim to crimes, murders, robberies.
That is the Reflection we must all make, Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters : Let us value the meaning of Peace, and let us value what these Institutions mean. Without these institutions there would be no Peace in Nicaragua!
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, beloved Comrades who are about to march right now on this 43rd Anniversary, in tribute to our People, we say to you: Thank you Brothers and Sisters, thank you Compañeros and Compañeras, thank you to your Families, thank you to your Commanders, thank you General Julio César Avilés Castillo!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice-President of Nicaragua, after the military parade
commemorating the 43rd Anniversary of the founding of the Army of Nicaragua
September 3rd 2022
Beloved Families of this Blessed Nation, this Nicaragua which Prevails as a Nation... And because Our Nation Prevails, there is Peace! And because there is Peace we can prosper, work, study, feel content in our Blessed Land, feel ourselves advancing, Brothers and Sisters, Families, making our way, making progress.
Because Our Nation Prevails, there Is Peace! And in this beautiful Parade, in this beautiful Exhibition of Ability, Strength, Cohesion and Loyalty, LOVEFORNICARAGUA, we feel deeply proud of this Army of ours which, as our Commander Daniel said, represents, together with the National Police, the Strength to defend Peace for the People and as a People. Our Families, Our People, we defend Peace!
Our Army, our Police, our Institutions, we all work around the clock, defending and consolidating Peace. Proud, content, we see the Strength of Faith, the Strength of Confidence, and the Strength in the Soul of the People, in this Army that is the People and is of the People.
I want to send a embrace again to all the Families of the Members of our Army, from the High Command to every level, and in particular to those who are now at their posts, guaranteeing our Sovereignty, Security and Peace.
A warm embrace, and our congratulations, because we really are privileged, we feel honored, grateful to God, that we have these Institutions which belong to Nicaragua's Families, that come from the Revolution, and the Revolution that triumphed in Nicaragua was made for Freedom, it was made to guarantee what we had never had before in Nicaragua: Democracy, opportunities to work, and I mean the possibility of working with every support, for the Common Good, the right to live in Peace, as one Family, striving, working with all the support of a government of the People as President, and prospering with Joy, the Joy that we celebrate always grateful to God, to God who blesses us, who guides us, and who makes all Victories possible. The God of all victories!
A warm embrace, Compañeros and Compañeras. Today is September 3rd, and we are going forward in this Month of Our Nation, and as have we said, every day is for making Our Nation. And because Our Nation prevails, there is Peace! And because there is Peace, there is Progress. And because Our Nation prevails with Peace, with Progress, there is Prosperity and Joy!
Thank you, Compañeras and Compañeros. A warm embrace.