Event to celebrate the 43rd Anniversary
of Foundation of the Ministry of Governance
Address by Daniel
Beloved Nicaraguan Brothers and Sisters, beloved Families, at this event in which we are commemorating the 43rd Anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior, Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez is present here, the person who had to organize, in difficult conditions, with limited resources, both organize and develop the Ministry of the Interior, or Ministry of the Governance. For all intents and purposes, the name remains the same, the name established by the Revolution of Triumph, when the institutions were created; institutions to serve the People, institutions to serve Nicaragua's families.
Also institutions to attend and protect the Families of increasingly improved socio-economic position; but protecting in the first place impoverished families, those who had been impoverished by the Somoza tyranny, imposed by Yankee Imperialism. They had to be attended to in every aspect, in every area, and it was not easy then, because we had to engage a new war, the war imposed on us by US imperialism. And we resisted, with much vigor, with much glory!
One only has to remember that the country was completely blockaded, but the People did not give up. It is enough just to remember that they dynamited, blew up the fuel and oil storage centers in Corinto, but the People were not intimidated. We only have to remember how they destroyed schools, health centers, machinery working to open up new roads where roads had never been before, especially in the center of the Country and heading towards the Caribbean coast.
And it was not possible to make progress, because a war was imposed on us and we had to face that war, with all the spirit of our People, with all the strength of our Heroes and Martyrs, with all the fire of the Heroes of San Jacinto, and Diriangén and beyond and then later General Benjamin Zeledón, facing the Yankee troops. And he didn't surrender. It is true that he was assassinated, because it was an assassination, and the example of Zeledón remained for Sandino, and Sandino became Zeledón, multiplying the struggle against Yankee intervention in our country.
Conditions in the 1980s were too difficult to be able to develop everything that we have managed to develop in recent years, beloved brothers and sisters, beloved Nicaraguan families, and it has been necessary to move forward, always full of Hope, full of steadfastness, even in the most difficult conditions.
And when we returned to Government in 2007, a New Light came for Nicaragua, a New Light giving stability, allowing the economy of our country to develop, a New Light allowing hundreds of public transport vehicles to be acquired, allowing health posts, health centers to multiply, allowing Fire Service stations to multiply, units that are a first assistance and essential for every community, for every region, for every town, and even in the midst of the failed coup attempt we continued to install Fire Service units.
And we also continue to work on improving the National Prison System. These days, a few weeks ago we have been seeing these construction works in León, an impressive construction, yes, put in harsh terms, it is a prison, indeed it is a prison, but it has humanitarian conditions so that those detained in that center can later rehabilitate themselves into Nicaraguan society having gained more knowledge through training courses.
Those courses, the educational programs that we have throughout the National Prison System. Yes, education not only for children, not only for our youth, not only for adults, but also education for those who are in our country's prisons. And it clearly incentivizes them when they graduate, because they do graduate.
I was watching one such graduation one the other day there, and saw how it gives them an incentive, they feel proud, and they feel more committed to the People, to society, to their family, to their community. The day they are released, they will join in developing the economy, developing services, developing what they have learned, in their community, in their region.
We really have to underline, that we have not stopped building. From the simplest, smallest health posts located in regions deep in the mountainous interior giving primary care to women compañeras who are going through pregnancy and who need care.
Likewise, the struggle for security, and so many other things, so much other work carried out with great sacrifice. Because while we are here working to improve the living conditions of our people, in the United States there are always those who would like to enslave us. But that can never be, no matter how much they want it. Nicaragua was liberated, Nicaragua's People freed themselves on July 19th 1979, and will never be slaves again!
After all we see a policy on the part of the US ruling class that is not new, US government practice is that of gangsters. They send messengers to every country in the World. Not a single country in the world escapes the message of the Yankees. And the message from the Yankees is, do what we say or we're going to sanction you, we're going to attack you. They say it as calmly as you please.
How many sanctions have the United States applied in the world? It is the country that has applied the most sanctions in the world, thereby causing the greatest damage, the greatest crisis has also caused in the world. And then they start complaining asking why there are migrants. Well, if you keep imposing sanctions, then more and more emigrants will travel to the United States.
As much as they may want to close their doors, there are no doors that can be closed for migrants, because migration is a force that has the right, has the moral justification to go and open the doors of the one who is closing them, denying them the right to work in their own countries.
Look at the blockade in Cuba, a brutal blockade. Ah, they say the culprits of the migration from Cuba are the Cubans, or that it is us here, because our Cuban sisters and brothers have a free visa to enter Nicaragua, likewise our Venezuelan brothers and sisters.
Those who provoke these waves of desperate migrants are the US rulers with their terrorist policies, violating human rights. Because they do violate human rights when they close the possibility of employment, when they apply sanctions, as they have against Cuba, against Venezuela, they even mistreat our Central American countries, threatening them and telling them, if you don't do this, then we are going to sanction you.
What is the result? If people do what they say, that makes more unemployed people and more people with the desire to go looking for somewhere to work. And if people say there is work in the United States, and people hear that the United States respects the rights of migrants, then migrants will go there. In fact, it is not true, rather they repress migrants, persecute them, murder them, imprison them.
The truth is that, this is a force that is growing and consolidating in the world, the force of migrants, because they are millions upon millions. In fact we know that there across from Europe is the Mediterranean Sea that connects with North Africa, and we know that thousands and thousands of sisters and brothers from those regions have set out looking for ways to cross into Europe in search of work, but the doors are closed to them, and in the end thousands of migrants perish.
That is not remarked upon, that is not denounced at the United Nations, that is not denounced in the international organizations, the thousands of migrants who die, who perish there off the coast of Europe.
This is the Europe of which a few days ago the gentleman who is the representative of the European Union boasted, this is the Foreign Minister of the European Union, and this gentleman's name is Borrell, the surname is Borrell, and he came out with a something idiotic. He set out to claim, to boast, quite brazenly that while Europe is a "garden", the rest of the countries are a jungle, a jungle. Imagine the disrespect for the Peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean. What disrespect!
What Mr Borrell omits to say is that this ”garden“, this wealth the European Union accumulated, this ”garden" was watered with the blood of millions of human beings. Yes, that's their "garden”, a bloodstained "garden".
Where did they get the wealth from? Why did they invade African countries? To rob them of their wealth and develop their own economies, with wealth stolen from the African peoples. That is, they occupied those countries, they occupied them, they settled as owners of those countries, in gigantic countries like India, the English settled there as lords and masters, imagine, plundering the wealth of India. And then, quietly, the very Christian and very democratic, their majesties, kings and queens, the European rulers, organized the slave trade.
Yes, Borrell, who was it? Who? Who set up the slave trade? Who promoted the slave trade? Capturing entire families in African communities, taking them to auction and sales centers. And there buyers from different European countries would came to buy slaves, Men, women, boys, girls, all there as a commodity. And then too the business of their shipping.
In other words, the slave trade became a big industry, a big business, that is, the owners of the large ships competed for the cargo of slaves, moving them in subhuman conditions on those ships.
They moved them in subhuman conditions in the basements of the ships, with their arms, legs, shackled and fettered, that's how they moved them, giving them, if anything, leftovers of food, because of course it was not convenient for the slaves to die because they had to to be brought later to the place where they were presented and auctioned. They were auctioned there.
In other words, the democratic, Christian, pure Europe, with the complicity of all the religious authorities. Not one of them raised their voice against this slave trade. Not the high religious authorities... No!
And what did they do in our America? They occupied our entire Continent, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, they occupied the entire Continent. And who authorized them to become owners of these lands? Who authorized them? Ah, simply because they had the power of arms, they had the economic power to organize navigation, to occupy these lands, naturally with very approval from the Kings and Queens and the Popes, yes, the Kings and Queens and the Popes! This must be made clear.
The Popes gave a permit that said: Wherever you arrive and find people in these conditions, indeed, you have the right to become owners of your lands and of those people. It would be a true horror movie if the movie about how the garden bloomed in Europe was made. How did that garden bloom? With the blood of the Peoples, with the blood of our Indigenous Ancestors.
How they stole all the gold from Our America...! They stole it! They were hungry for gold. There was no sensitivity for the People they found here, they simply saw them as beings who had no rights, other than to work for them. And they did the same in Africa, in Asia, in all the regions they occupied.
So, dear Joseph Borrell, that's his name, I knew him in the days when he appeared as a man of the Left. He belonged and still belongs to the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, and I remember that we used to meet with him and talk, and he was a radical man of the Left. And notice, now he has become the spokesman of those who bloodied the planet to turn Europe into a “garden”, as he calls it, a “garden”, Europe made into a “garden”. What shamelessness! What shamelessness! How dare he insult our people in that way.
In other words, it is arrogance, it is an arrogance whereby the Europeans believe they are still the owners of the World, together with the United States, except that now things have been reversed: The migrants who arrived in the United States left Europe, from England especially they began to leave, and they arrived in the United States to do what? To steal the lands of our American ancestors, to steal their lands with the same story: so as to turn the European countries into a ”garden“, to turn the European empires into a ”garden".
There they arrived, and how often, how many times have the great thinkers of the European Union reflected? How many times have you reflected? If Borrell calmly says that and they do not react to such barbarity. Why not? Especially because the European Union, which once wanted to become a power that could even, you might say, compete with other powers in the World, has now established its subordination to the American Rulers, in such a way that it is losing authority, it is become weaker.
The Yankees come, they press the button for "sanctions over there,“ and the Europeans come behind and they press the button, "sanctions over there". Indeed! And they are not ashamed.
And in the current circumstances that the world is living through, where we have NATO, which is really the European Union with the United States, involved in a war against Russia, because Russia launched an initiative after 14 years of demanding an end to the murder their citizens, the Special Operation, where those who live in those territories are Russians and where a fascist, Nazi Government had been installed in Ukraine via a coup d'état, a fascist and Nazi Government!
Now the Europeans come along and have become an instrument of American politics. The Yankees use the Europeans, they put them to the fore, and the Europeans also of course commit themselves and that is why it can no longer be said that this is a war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation... No! This is a war between the Capitalist World, the Capitalist Powers, those who possess the atomic weapon, who have united to seek how to destroy Russia. And also to destroy China.
That is, they come with two very clear targets, they see that China is growing, that it is a Power, they see that Russia is still a Power, so they say this is the opportunity to finish off Russia and China; that is, they are going with a hegemonic policy, namely, I am in charge here! This is how they speak to the Europeans, they speak to them the same as they spoke to the Latin American countries in the OAS, the self-same way they talk to them, the same way! And they just tell them what to do.
And what is the result of this expansionist, hegemonic policy of the United States with the European Union, using NATO? The result is that they are destroying themselves, because they have been applying so many sanctions that now they even have problems guaranteeing energy for themselves. Imagine, the "garden” has problems ensuring its energy! Who could have imagined that? It is their fault that they have caused this disaster by wanting to destroy the Russian Federation.
And they are there too, even talking about atomic weapons. Well, they well know that the atomic weapon is a weapon that cannot be touched, it cannot be taken out, it is better to have it where it is, in storage, with all the security measures. Because adopting the atomic weapon to blame Russia would simply mean the destruction of Europe, the United States, the World.
Look what this gringo says here, he is a gringo that they put him to talk every time. Look at how they manipulate people in the United States, that is a racist, class-ridden country, they hate blacks, they kill blacks; they are also like that with the Latin American, Mesoamerican, Mexican, Central American population.
How many barbarities they have not said about our migrant sisters and brothers, and they continue to say it! And look what the gringos do, they put citizens who are of African origin, their ancestors come from Africa, because you see this gentleman, very elegant, very well dressed, with his tie, but he is a Pentagon spokesman, look. The Pentagon does not put some insignificant guy to talk there, it does not put up a white man, it puts up a black man, because they think that in that way they will be able to win over the Afro-descendant population, but the black population knows that they have been used.
And what does this fellow say now? He says: "The Pentagon presented this Thursday its new defense strategy where it argues that China is the most momentous challenge to the security of the United States in the coming decades, while Russia poses an acute threat.” He also warns that ”the use of the atomic bomb by Moscow will generate a significant international response."
They are speaking barbarities, but look carefully, the American Empire is now officially saying it, it is not enough for them to have this war against Russia, they want to finish off China too, the People's Republic of China, a country that is an economic power, that is a commercial power, an intellectual power, a military power, one that has carried out very careful policies, but the US are provoking China, and as you can see, they are putting it as the main enemy, it is no longer Russia with which the Yankees and the Europeans are vying, because they are the ones who send the weapons and trained people to Ukraine. No they say, the main enemy is China.
And clearly, this Empire, the North American Empire together with the Europeans, do not realize, do not want to understand that the era of empires has already been buried forever, and that rather they have to get ready to work in what is now a multipolar World. Yes, here in Central America this is a small pole, Central America, in CELAC we have another pole, as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States we are another pole.
So, that's what the United States should be thinking about and not be making these kinds of statements, when what they are doing is rather sowing fear, insecurity of all kinds, affecting the economy of the United States itself, such that prices skyrocket, that the Stock Market plunges, the Stock Market falls... All of that they provoke with these statements!
Because everyone, even in the self-same United States, or in Europe are clear that China is a Power, with 1,400 million inhabitants, China, with an economy growing faster than the European economy and faster than the economy of the United States.
Thus, the Yankees and the Europeans realize that the Chinese economy is soon going to be, in the short term, the leader of of the world economy and they want to prevent this at all costs. And so you see how they send this gentleman to make those statements going and targeting China, which they have now done on several occasions.
These are considerations that we wanted to make today on this Anniversary of the Ministry of Governance, on what is also one more anniversary of the first guerrilla incursion of the Sandinista Front in Bocay, in Raiti and Bocay, led by Colonel Santos López, and there was Comandante Borge, and other Comrades were there too. It was the first attempt.
Well, it did not succeed, but there no one said: Ah, because it was not possible, we are leaving... No! Where we find something that is an obstacle, something that cannot be, what do we say? Of course, we think, we work, we join forces to break open the obstacles and so continue advancing in the struggle for the Nicaraguan people.
Long live the Ministry of the Interior on its 43rd Anniversary!
Sandino lives... The Struggle Continues!
Our Nation and Freedom!
Our Nation, Peace and Freedom!
And May Nicaragua Live Blessed and Always Free...
Thanks be to God, Thank God, Thank God!
Remarks by Rosario, Vice-President of Nicaragua,
after the Event in Commemoration of the 43rd Anniversary
of the Foundation of the Ministry of Governance
October 27th 2022
Good evening, compañeros and compañeras, beloved families. Each of these occasions, each of these memorable dates, each of these events bestows us with enormous learning.
Our anthem, the historic anthem of the Sandinista Liberation Front, says, "Fight, Fight, Fight! Overcome, Overcome, Overcome! And because we know how to fight, we know how to overcome!
We have patience, we have faith, we have confidence, and we always say, with Sandino, Always Further On! That is, if there is an obstacle, if there is a stumbling block, Always Further On, we can transcend it, with patience, learning from experience and focusing on the future.
Today we have made a review, Comandante Daniel has made a review of the injustice of the capitalist system, of global imperialism, of the Powers that intend to continue humiliating Peoples who are free, dignified and sovereign, in the World.
They don't learn...! And these Powers are self-destructing, and that is what the whole World can see and their own peoples are seeing... Self-destructing! To the extent that they attack Peace, they destroy Peace, they destroy sources of employment, food security, Peace, in their own countries they are destroying themselves.
And another World is already arising, it is what we are seeing, and it is the Light that illuminates us, like the Sun that does not set, another World... A World where the voice is of the Peoples, the voice of God, the voice of Justice. We have to work for Justice, from Peace.
Today I remember in a particular way the teachings of Comandante Tomás, when he transferred to us his life experience and that strength that we Nicaraguans, and especially the revolutionaries, have to face difficulties with courage and with certainty to continue overcoming and to have within us that Strength, a Strength that is Spiritual.
Our culture, our values, our traditions fill us with that strength of Spirit. No one gives up here. Never! We are always ready to keep making our way. 43 Years and we are moving forward...! 43 Years and we are continuing our History, which for us means pride and victories!
How proud we feel, and today when I was listening to the report of the Compañera Minister, Compañera María Amelia, she said: How much progress we have made! How much we feel strengthened with our institutions that are becoming more and more solid. And what gives strength to our institutions? The commitment to serve families, to serve our People. That makes each of our days more important, more valuable, for each of us, the servants of the People and its families, so that they feel cared for, recognized, valued, as we all deserve.
This is a People that does not stop, and this People of ours is a united People. We are talking about the fact that there is a revolutionary and evolutionary Process here that marks us all, and we know that it is together that we are moving forward. It's not that some are officials, with others as servants, or others as mayors... No. It's all of us together! The People is the protagonist of all the ways we travel.
Each challenge summons us all, and each teaching shows us all the route we are to follow, because the future is ours, a future of Justice, of Peace, of Fraternity, a future of Values, of Culture, of Spirituality, a future for our Families.
So, Compañeras and Compañeros, with Pride in Nicaraguan , with Love for Nicaragua, Always Further On! A warm embrace, thank you.