Celebration to Commemorate the 45th Anniversary of the Founding of the Nicaraguan Army
September 2nd 2024
Address of Daniel
Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Families of the city and of the countryside, on this Glorious Day in which we are commemorating the 45th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Army, made up of the People, defending Nicaraguan Families, defending Peace, which is the greatest objective.
I congratulate General Avilés for the historical synthesis he has given us, really a historical synthesis of the process by which the Army was formed. The roots of the Army are in the struggle of our Heroes, who throughout history have always faced, fought, and given their lives defending the integrity of the Nation.
Today we are able to hold this Celebration in Times of Peace, and how much has it cost to reach this stage of Peace. Peace meaning well-being for the poorest. In Peace we can fight poverty. In Peace we can ensure Education for all Families, for the Children of Working-class Families, Rural Families, Poor Families with low incomes, but with the Government of the Sandinista Front they have the guarantee of free Education, at all Levels, from an Education whereby their children can go ahead and start at preschool level in that child's community, and then move onward, until they reach Higher Education and studies at University level.
Never in the history of our country has it been possible to bring education to so many Families, for free. And bringing Education means that for Families living in territories where we are still building roads and highways, that a School is built where they are.
And so too Communication Systems also arrive to be able to bring Technical Education, Higher Education, to the Families of the Countryside, to Families in the Communities of our Original Peoples. Free University Education, free Higher Technical Education is now available for them.
But we have also achieved something indispensable for progress to be made in these types of Education Programs, for the benefit of the humblest Families, the most impoverished Families, and that is the Health System. We have a Health System that is truly extraordinary, a Health System where Hospitals have been multiplying even in the most remote areas. Where there had never even been a Health Post, Hospitals are now being inaugurated, and Hospitals are being built in the Caribbean Coast and in other Regions of our Country.
The heavy trucks... How trucks have been captured from the narcotics traffickers! And the police immediately make sure that these trucks go for the Health Service. And in the health service, those trucks get turned into Mobile Clinics, and there are now hundreds of Mobile Clinics on the move around the country, bringing health care to poor people, to humble people, bringing care to them. And they go with the most up to date equipment, with Ultrasounds, with Mammograms, with Dental Clinics, all that goes to those impoverished Families. There in the neighborhood they park, or in the Countryside those trucks are parked, and there is free health care... Health as well as Education!
But well, we have had difficult moments, yes, even though we had managed to recover Peace, and the Country had been growing in its economy, increasing wages, multiplying employment, but only because we are a Dignified People and we do not kneel before the Imperialists of the Earth. Before Christ, before God, we do kneel.
As for confronting the Imperialists of the Earth, fighting them, yes, there has been no alternative but combat them. They are the ones who have come to invade Nicaragua at all those moments that General Avilés mentioned.
From the Europeans, to the Imperialists of the United States, invading Nicaragua, organizing Armies, financed by the United States Government to try to destroy the Victory we achieved in '79, they imposed war on us.
And of course, the Triumph laid the first stone in Nicaragua, for Peace, to build Peace, to build Freedom, to build Justice which is not on the Agenda of the Imperialists of the Earth. But the very first thing we did, at the Triumph of the Revolution, to the extent that the Institutions were then being formed, the Army, the Police, Health Care, Education, Construction Institutions, etc., we had to take another big step, and we formed an Army of Literacy, of young men and women, boys and girls, because Nicaragua was illiterate.
Out of every 100 Nicaraguans, only 40 could read or write; the other 60% were slave labor, for the capitalists, for the landowners, for the exploiters serving the Imperialists. So, our first task was education for the whole People.
And Young People with Great Spirit, with a very Generous Heart, boys, girls, 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, from High School, from University, with their Teachers too, after their Preparatory Courses, then the Battle against Illiteracy took place. And it was there that the war of the Imperialists began again, murdering Literacy teachers.
It was a Literacy Campaign that had the extraordinary support of Comandante Fidel. They had already had the experience of Literacy in Cuba, so then, as Fraternal Peoples, with Fidel, who had thrown himself fully into supporting the struggle that we were waging, and was in the combat that we were waging, immediately sent Detachments of Literacy Teachers, some of whom died. Cuban brothers and sisters died here in different circumstances.
Cuban brothers in solidarity when we fought against Somoza and who were part of the Revolutionary Detachments; also Brothers and Sisters from Latin America, Chileans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Argentinians, how many Latin American Brothers and Sisters, and also Brothers from the United States who were killed there in the war that was imposed on us in the 80s.
We were coming out of the war, a people already bleeding. The threat we posed was that we were getting literate, because we wanted to improve the conditions of the people, and because Cuba was offering us cooperation, and it was bad for them that Cuba offered us cooperation.
Cuba also gave us cooperation in Medicine, with Doctors, they helped us organize the Health System here in Nicaragua. They also gave us support in the Military Field, especially with Instructors.
One day there was an interview with Fidel, and they asked him: And why do you have military there in Nicaragua? Why don't you bring them back? So he replied that he was cooperating with Nicaragua and mentions Literacy, and that he is cooperating with the Army as well, not by sending detachments of Soldiers to join as part of the Army, but, above all, by sending Instructors because of the experience they had in the fight against the counter-revolutionary bands, because the Cuban Revolution was set up by bands of murderers, of counterrevolutionaries.
But the journalist insisted and said to him: But why don't you bring them back? Because the United States disagrees. So Fidel replied: The United States does not give me orders, and they are going to be in Nicaragua until the Nicaraguans decide, not because the Yankees demand it. I am not subordinate to the Yankees, is what Fidel replied.
And in those circumstances, mind you, of so much pain, of so much suffering, after all, came that other war. It was 10 years of war. We had practically no rest after the Triumph, because the war imposed on us by the United States Government, headed by President Ronald Reagan, continued, and they trained there in the United States, in camps in the United States, in bases that they have there, they trained people, who then were sent here to assassinate, to destroy what the Revolution was building for the People.
It was a long, terrible battle, and our Heroic Youth joined the Patriotic Military Service, so many young men who were studying, decided to join the Service, or went to areas that were war zones that needed attention and support, and there the counterrevolutionaries, financed and organized by the terror services of the United States, arrived there to murder people.
A truly Heroic People, a People in which the blood of the Heroes runs, of the Martyrs. A People that cannot betray the blood spilled throughout history to defend the Integrity, Sovereignty, the Right of Nicaraguans to decide their own destiny, to build their own Destiny.
And I was telling you that, indeed, we all know how in 2018 the United States mounted an attempt to end the Revolutionary Government, they wanted to end it, preparing, training, organizing, using Non-Governmental Organizations, organizing and using the Technology that was already being developed in those years, for what? To launch themselves against the people.
We cannot forget, we cannot forget 2018, because Nicaragua was then a Country at Peace where we managed to cohabit by Agreement between the different Economic, Social, Business and Workers Sectors, we managed to cohabit, to enjoy peace and have economic development.
I remember that people would come from other countries and ask us how we managed to make agreements with those who opposed us politically, but who were businessmen, were waelthy and wanted to do business. Well, simply looking for agreement so that they could invest, but also that those capitalists' investment should be accompanied by work for the benefit of the Community. And that gave us great stability.
But the truth is that that 2018, the year 2018 was a painful, fateful year, where all the demons gathered together, and set out to murder, to burn, not only the Schools, not only the City Halls, not only Universities, but also to burn those they identified as Sandinistas, or anyone who did not want to accompany them, just like that person they identified as a policeman. A policeman who on his way home, they grabbed him, tied him up, started torturing him, and everything they did they filmed, and they doused him with gasoline and set fire to him, burning him. These were really crimes not seen before here in Nicaragua. And the whole international context they had already prepared, was launched against the government, against the People of Nicaragua, and they thought that we were going to surrender.
We tried Dialogue, organized, unfortunately, it's true, organized by some Priests who hated us, Priests who did not practice what Christ is and his commands. They did not love their Neighbor as Christ commands: Love Your Neighbor as yourself.
No, they hated us and said so publicly, exalting those who were murdering and burning, and even told them that the person they had murdered should be thrown into a latrine. Those leading them, that is to say, became or already were, simply decomposed people and they just wanted to end the benefits that this Revolution brought for the Poor, for the People.
Well, we can't forget how they blockaded the country, putting roadblocks everywhere, and I always try to remember this, that roadblocks were everywhere, roadblocks that we could have cleared in seconds, but we preferred that an understanding was reached for them to stop blockading the country.
But they thought that because we did not react, rather they then attacked the barracks, and we were in touch with the Police, me talking to the Police Chief in Masaya, who reported to us that they are coming, they are shooting at us, they come with rifles, they come with mortars, and the Police are quartered. Hold on there! Hold on! Don't shoot! That's what they are seeking. Don't shoot!
Meanwhile, in the Dialogue, the People's Delegates, Workers, Transport Operators, Farmers, Cattle Ranchers, came to propose that the roadblocks be suspended in order to reach a settlement. And there were a few religious there, the Priest Baez, and the other one, the one from Matagalpa, terrorists, simply terrorists, who when we said: Well, let's vote. Who was in favor of the blockades being lifted? The Delegates who were with the Workers, who were with the Transport Operators, Small Businessmen who were also suffering losses, raised their hands.
And who was in favor of maintaining the roadblocks? And all the criminals who were with those Priests raised their hands, and the Priests raised their hands too. Not all of them, but Baez and the one from Matagalpa, those were not missing there and raised their hands.
This was seen by all of Nicaragua, because they had demanded that it be broadcast on television. And it was seen all over Nicaragua. Let us all remember, Nicaraguan brothers and sisters, let us remember those moments, how terrible they were! In other words, there was no Peace, no one could move freely, classes in the Schools were paralyzed.
But well, we patiently said: Ok, let them unmask themselves before the People, and the time will come when the roadblocks will have to be cleared, because already at that point people were asking why the Police were not clearing the roadblocks, people were already demanding; the Central American Transport Operators were demanding because they could not get through. Then the moment came when, well, there's nothing more to do but to clear them, and an operation was carried out that was lightning fast.
They thought that we were defeated, that's what they thought, they simply did not understand that we wanted the Nicaraguan people see is how that path was not a good one; so the People felt the damage caused by such terrorist, murderous, cowardly behavior, and the People themselves made the request, and so it was done, and order was restored, but with loss of life, with losses in the Economy. And then investments had to be made to rebuild what had been damaged; and hundreds were killed by these criminals.
But we moved on to the years 2019, 2020, 2021, and the Economy has already begun to stabilize, the Economy had begun to grow a little, and now in this year 2024 we now have a growing Country, beyond any doubt, and multiplying infrastructure works everywhere. It is enough to walk a bit around the City of Managua and see the Parks here in Managua, like that last Park inaugurated there in Las Piedrecitas.
And all the Houses, so many Houses, thousands of Houses that we are building with the collaboration of the Fraternal People and Government of the People's Republic of China. And we thank the People's Republic of China for the way they have not hesitated to help, without putting conditions of any kind, they have not hesitated, just as they have offered cooperation in Africa, they are also developing cooperation here in Latin America and in particular in Nicaragua.
How many major works are already being built, how many Houses have already been built, and new Agreements have now been signed; that is to say, we have in the People's Republic of China a Power, because it is a Power, but it is a Power that does not go around invading Countries, but has offered support to Africa, offered support to Asia, and offered support to Latin America to cooperate with the Latin American Peoples, to collaborate with the Latin American Peoples, for the Well Being of Latin America's Peoples.
And of course, the Empire does not like that, for the Yankees and for the Europeans that is bad; they see it as bad that the People's Republic of China helps these Peoples who want to be independent. Because the Yankees are accustomed, as are the Europeans, wherever they arrive among Peoples they impose their conditions.
And as General Aviles said, also on this Anniversary we cannot forget the Cooperation of the Soviet Union, in all fields. It was decisive so that we could resist, because the desire to fight may be there when they are humiliating you and they want to kill you, and for us the Soviet Union offered a generous relationship, without conditions, so thousands of Nicaraguans, young people, went to study in the Countries of the Soviet Union, studying Higher Careers, Medical Careers, Engineers, Pilots, all kinds of Specializations, for free.
The Soviet Union at that time had formed a University was based in Russia, which was the Patrice Lumumba University. You see, a Power like the Soviet Union, concerned about the Peoples hungry for work, hungry for health, hungry for education, hungry for development, so it created a University and named it after that African Hero, Patrice Lumumba, who fought for the Independence of Africa's Peoples.
And there they came from all over the world, from Developed and Developing Countries too, young people, young men and women, who came to study on scholarships. We have Compañeras and Compañeros who are now government officials, who are Ministers who trained for example as Economists in the Soviet Union, and of course they all speak Russian very well.
Likewise, the Brothers and Sister who now go to the Academies, both of the Army and the Police, who go to those Academies in Russia, they will be trained to fight crime better, and defend Peace better. And thanks be to God that we are celebrating this 45th Anniversary in Peace.
But the monster of war does not rest, on the one hand, the imperialist Powers, both from Europe and the United States, have united around Ukraine to try to defeat Russia. They have taken brutal economic measures against the Russian economy, but Russian economists have been able to find alternatives so that their economy does not collapse.
And there is this war where all the countries of the European Union are fully involved, which are Countries, none of these Nations have practiced respect for Human Beings, and I am talking about the Governments, not Europe's Peoples, I am talking about the Governments. There is not a single European country that escapes and is able say “my hands are clean”.
Because all of them, in the name of Freedom, Justice and Democracy, were great traders in Human Beings, the slaves they accumulated there in Africa, kept them in chains, so then buyers from European countries came there, came to visit, and they lined up children, young people, entire families, slaves. They put them in line and began to examine them as if they were buying an animal and then they chose those who looked in the best condition so as to exploit them, because they wanted them strong, who could perform well under the exploitation to which they were going to be subjected and were subjected.
And the slave trade, yes, progressed from Africa, passed through France, and with stops in England, where they came distributing slaves, selling slaves, and then they came to this region as well which all explains the population of Afro-descendant origin here, that is Afro-descendant found on the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua and all over the Caribbean region, in Honduras as well. They are brothers and sisters whose forebears came as slaves.
That is, we are in a world where the greatest murderers of Peoples, the Peoples that they occupied and colonized, the Peoples that they exploited; because they occupied all of Africa, they turned Africans into slaves, so Africans also had to set about fighting later so to be able to become independent, and what it cost them to become independent, with millions of dead so as to become independent, millions of dead!
And that mentality of superiority with which still now in these times the leaders of those countries continue to regard us, those of us who have indigenous roots, they also see us the way they see slaves, and they would like to treat us as they used to treat our Ancestors. Because the Spanish had slaves here, but because the Indians were dying, who were not prepared for that kind of work, so it was that Fray Bartolomé asked that they had better send black slaves who were stronger, so that they could work for the rich Spaniards who owned these lands, lands no one had sold them to them, no one had given to them, but they decided to come to these lands and take them over.
Just like when the English came to the United States and decided to occupy those lands populated by Indigenous Peoples. And what did they do? They started killing all those Peoples. These are the horrors of horrors that they have committed.
And we see them right now closing ranks to defending Nazis, a Nazi regime, the criminal regime of Ukraine, getting them weapons and giving them training, and exposing their own countries, their own peoples to a deadly clash, because there are atomic weapons and at any moment those atomic weapons may be unleashed.
So there are woe will befall those who today enthusiastically say that they are going to finish off Russia and that the victory will go to the Nazis led by the President of Ukraine, who is just another Nazi who came to occupy an office after the bloody, brutal coup d'état staged there in Ukraine. We can't help but see that reality, because it indirectly impacts us as well.
And that other barbarity... Who could imagine a government in Israel executing the crimes they are committing against the Palestinians. An Israeli government acting like Nazis, an Israeli government that is backed by the U.S. government, that is to say, armed by the U.S. government, but also backed and armed by European governments as well, so that they are murdering children and women there every day, and they have said so with great serenity; the President of Israel says that he wants Palestine to disappear.
And that barbarism continues! The murders are multiplying. Already today the People of Israel, very upset, very irritated, have demanded from the President of Israel that they negotiate, that they make a ceasefire and that they stop bombing; but he has replied that he is going to finish with the Palestinian People.
The People of Israel, to the extent that dead Israelis are appearing, then the People of Israel have now started protests, yesterday they even had the Airport paralyzed. Millions of Israelis protesting, demanding the government stop the attacks and seek a ceasefire, as as to allow the Israelis who are in the hands of the Palestinians to return to their families. A tragedy! A tragedy!
And here in our Latin America we are facing an onslaught by the North American Empire, wanting to overthrow governments, simply because they do not submit to them, and we see how they have acted and continue to act against the Sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
They simply say that they do not recognize the person the Venezuelan Electoral System and the Venezuelan Judiciary have already defined as the winner of those Elections, and they insist on saying that the winner is another person, because he has some papers claiming to prove that he has the votes. Papers they had already printed out so as to be able to mount this type of campaign.
And they are so brutal that they also recently caused blackouts across Venezuela, affecting the population, affecting the People. But the Venezuelan People, the People of Bolívar are a Heroic People, a Brave People, the People of Chávez, the People of our Brother Nicolás Maduro, and we tell him that we are with the Bolivarian People, that we are against the systematic aggression being committed against the Venezuelan people.
The Venezuelan people want peace, but their enemies want to turn the country into a hell, simply so as to steal Venezuela's Oil, the largest oil reserves in the world are in Venezuela. And that has been the practice of the Imperialists and they have killed each other among the Empires themselves fighting each other over countries that they subjugated as Colonies, disputing over the wealth of those countries.
And we greet the Brothers of the Bolivarian Army who are accompanying us. The one leading them, isn't he Major General José Antonio Murga Baptista? Come on, please. He is General Commander of the Bolivarian Army of the Republic of Venezuela, Major General José Antonio Murga Baptista. He was appointed by President Nicolás Maduro, who has delegated to him, and I'm going to ask you, Brother, for a few words for the Nicaraguan people.
Words of the Major General José Antonio Murga
Thank you very much, Mr. President. With the permission of you and all the Civil and Military Authorities, all the People of Nicaragua, and of course, all the Special Guests, receive a warm greeting from our Commander-in-Chief, Nicolás Maduro Moros, Constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and President Elected by Popular Will for the Period 2025-2031.
The People spoke through the ballot boxes and so, therefore, these Bolivarian National Armed Forces, and the People have supported him.
When you were placing the award on me, Mr. President, you told me that you were going to give me a word, quickly; and I proceeded, as we are men of discipline, to inform the Commander-in-Chief, Nicolás Maduro Moros, and he said to me: What a great honor that the People of Nicaragua should receive Words of Solidarity, a Bolivarian, Anti-Imperialist, Anti-Colonialist Greeting, and of course, one deeply Chavista.
Because when we talk about that being Bolivarian, it is because we support the Ideals of the Genius of America, the Man who wanted to unite America to give Strength and Well-being to its Peoples, guaranteeing, in his Bolivarian Thought, the greatest amount of Political Stability, the greatest amount of Social Security, and the greatest amount of Happiness possible for all Compatriots.
And we say this is a Chavista Greeting, because he is the Man who dusted off the pages of the history of everything that they wanted to hide from us. He made us see beyond our noses, he made us see what is important, which is the People. Because today, coincidentally, on the Forty-fifth Anniversary of this Dignified Nicaraguan Army, General Aviles said it very well when he said, that we come from the People, we are from the People and we owe ourselves to the People.
So, in the face of adversity, in the face of difficult moments, the People of Venezuela tell you that we must be United, United more and more every day, because in Unity there is Strength. And we, Latinos, want the Self-determination of our Peoples to be respected. We don't want anything else, but we do want Peace.
We want Nicaragua, Venezuela, to have Independence, Sovereignty and Freedom, to remove the absurd Sanctions, so that they will see how these Peoples will grow in Social Well Being, which is the most important thing we have. That Social Well Being which offers a friendly hand to the most needy; that hand which means always, as the stanza of the National Anthem of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela says, "Faithful compatriots, Strength is Union."
So, very content at receiving the Order from my Commander-in-Chief Nicolás Maduro Moros, to come to the Republic of Nicaragua, when I landed I have felt the kindness, the Love, the Socialism, the Humanity of all Nicaraguans.
The Commander of the Air Force received me, with the Foreign Minister of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and from there on we have been charged with energy, and I say that we have been charged with energy, because they have helped us to value their Heroes and Heroines. Today they were talking to me about our General Sandino, so much Example, so much Morality, so much Patriotism, so much Love; really, how admirable, just like our Poet Rubén Darío.
How much they have done for Nicaragua. Well, today, the 45th Anniversary of the Nicaraguan Army is a proper day to honor the Soldier of yesterday, to honor the Soldier of today, and to prepare for the Nation to continue, preparing to ensure the Soldier of the Future, to continue guaranteeing Independence, Sovereignty, Peace and to be able to see the smile of the Nicaraguan People and of the Bolivarian People of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
So, let us continue to be united and from the Venezuelan People for Nicaragua: Only United, will we Overcome!
Thank you very much, Comandante Daniel Ortega.
Words of Daniel
That is Bolívar's Strength, and Bolívar inspired Sandino, that is, Bolívar's Proposal to turn the Latin American Peoples into a single Nation. Without the Yankees. But the Latin American peoples! From Mexico to Chile. He fought and managed to unite a few Countries at the time of the Independence Battle, but then, due to different factors and of course the impact of the Empire, they began to fracture, to divide.
And Sandino, with whom Venezuelan Brothers and Sisters were accompanying him in the struggle, learned about Bolivar's Proposals, and wrote from the mountains a Message that he sent to the Latin American Presidents who were meeting at that time, and he titled it "The Supreme Dream of Bolivar”; that is, telling the Latin American Presidents: Let's make Bolivar's Supreme Dream come true.
And Sandino came and was already working out how Latin American Unity could be achieved, in the economic field, in the commercial field, in the military field, how to unite all the Latin American Armies, and how then to be able to count on such a Force, across Latin America and the Caribbean, that would make the United States respect the region as a Power as it was conceived, and will be one day, Latin America and the Caribbean will be a Power, because it will become united, and that was the Flag that Chávez raised much later, the Bolivar Flag. But they want to destroy every advance made.
Also here with us is Brother Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran Armed Forces, Brigadier General Hosvan René Barahona Alvarado. The General came on behalf of the Government of Honduras, and we awarded the Order to him.
I want to tell the People of Honduras, President Xiomara, that we are with them, that we are in Solidarity with the Honduran People, we are in Solidarity both with the Honduran People and we are in solidarity with Xiomara's government, and it is clear there that they want to destroy that Government, and they want to smear the Honduran Army.
Where are the biggest drug users in the world? Where are they? They are in the United States, there is the big market, and there are the millions and millions and millions of dollars that are laundered in the same Banks in the United States. In other words, where is the cause of situations of drug trafficking activities occurring in the Regions of Latin America and they are advancing, to where? To the United States.
In other words, the production of drugs occurs because there is a market in the United States. If there were no market, those who produce drugs would simply stop producing them. In the meantime, what are they doing in the United States to control the use of drugs, the consumption of drugs?
In fact, we see how many crimes occur every day, how many murders, where schools are attacked, children are killed, young people are killed. Because in addition, the firearms are there, loose everywhere, and then they want to blame the emigrants who go from South to North, they want to blame them.
Because that Candidate for President has said that quite clearly countless times, he has said that everyone who arrives, all the migrants that arrive from the South, that is, from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, that everyone who arrives from those Countries, all those people are drug traffickers, criminals, in other words, a total lack of respect for our Peoples, and that's why he says they shouldn't let those migrants in.
But he does not say how drugs are a big business in the United States itself, that large enterprises move the drugs and are installed there, that they have influence, influences in the institutions of the US Government. Well, there's the cause. If the cause is combated, the effect disappears, but no, they want to manipulate as they are doing in the case of Honduras, they want to blackmail, to bring down the Government headed by President Xiomara Castro.
We have listened to our Brother Mel Zelaya, the Party Leader, who suffered a coup d'etat. Let's remember, he spent a long time here, and then, fighting the battle from here trying to find how to return, but it was not possible, because the coup plotters were not condemned, either by the United Nations, or by the Human Rights organizations. They just let things stand.
And now that the progressive Party, that even joined ALBA with him, has regained the Government, its enemies are now launching themselves furiously seeking how to destroy the Stability, Progress, and Well-being that the Government of President Xiomara Castro has managed to bring to the People of Honduras. So we are in solidarity with the People of Honduras and we are in solidarity with President Xiomara Castro.
We greet the Commander of the Mexican Army and President of the Conference of American Armies, Major General Celestino Ávila Astudillo. We salute him, and the people of Mexico.
We greet the Head of the Naval Forces Academy of the Russian Federation, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov. Our affection, our embrace, for the People of the Russian Federation and for President Putin.
We greet the Representative of the Secretary of the National Defense Secretariat of the United Mexican States, of the Aviation Pilot Group, Jorge Arredondo.
Greetings to the Representative of the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Guatemala, Brigadier General Juan Ángel Carrera Sandoval.
To the Representative of the Minister of National Defense of the Republic of El Salvador, Colonel José Orlando García Méndez.
Also, we have already greeted the Head of the Army Corps, Álvaro López Miera, from Cuba, and Captain General Zheng Xuan, Political Commissar of the Northern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army of the People's Republic of China. Our affection, our embrace, for that Brave People, that Heroic People, that People of Solidarity, and for President Xi Jinping, our embrace.
This Army is one that has been forged as steel is forged. Steel is made in the forge in a way that makes the steel unbreakable. Because despite great limitations and with great difficulties, with powerful enemies like the United States, this Country, this People of Nicaragua, is a People that has been growing, has been developing throughout history. Since Diriangén defeated Gil González, it has been forged throughout history.
It has been forged as steel is forged. And that is why, beyond the fact that we are a small nation, beyond the fact that we do not have great riches, but we do have the riches that are the creativity, the initiative of Nicaraguans, there is the wealth in terms of everything that we are developing and we are going to continue developing.
The great challenge we have, Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, Nicaraguan families, Brothers and Sisters of the Army, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, General Julio César Avilés, Army Command, Soldiers, Officers, the great challenge we have is to defend Peace, to guarantee Peace.
It has already been demonstrated that this is the basis for continuing to grow, to continue improving in all fields, and for Nicaragua to finally be a Country with greater economic strength, with greater strength in its Armed Institutions, with greater strength in all its institutions serving the People. For what? So that the People of Nicaragua can get out of Poverty, so that they can be a People who have a Dignified Life.
We can never forget, we can never forget the blood spilled throughout history. We cannot forget the Heroes and Martyrs. We cannot forget the Relatives, we must always keep in touch with them, because by always keeping in touch with the Relatives of the Heroes and Martyrs, we also manage to strengthen our Heart, our Spirit, our Love for Our Neighbor; that is, our Love for Nicaragua.
Long live the 45th Anniversary of the Army of Nicaragua!
Viva, Viva, Viva!
Long live the Nicaraguan Army!
A Patriotic Nation and Freedom!
Sandino Lives On, the Struggle Continues!
On To Victory always!
A Free Nation or Death!
A Patriotic Nation and Freedom!
Our Patriotic Nation, Freedom, Christianity, Socialism!
A Patriotic Nation and Freedom!
Peace and Love!
Always Onward, Compañeras and Compañeros!
Always Onward! Not A Single Step Back!
We will Overcome!