Remarks by Co-President Comandante Daniel at the Event in Commemoration of the 47th Anniversary
of the Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Defense of the Nicaraguan Army
July 31st 2026
Address by Daniel
Good evening, Brothers and Sisters of the Nicaraguan Air Force.
We salute Army General, Head of Nicaragua’s Armed Forces, as he is correctly defined.
We greet the Army Command; the Compañeros and Compañeros of the Police Forces that are accompanying this event, which is a force that coordinates many activities with the Army, especially in those relating to the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
We greet the President of the National Assembly, Compañero Doctor Gustavo Porras.
We are very honored to have presented awards to the brothers and sisters who have excelled in their work in the Air Force, and with their Commander, Army General Julio César Avilés, we presented the Decorations, something that fills us with pride.
Decorations to men and women from the different municipalities and departments of our country, to whom when we gave them the Award and placed it on their breast, we said: You wear this Award on your breast but you are putting them on your breast also for your People and your Families.
On a day such as today we want to pay tribute to a Hero who was forged in the Air Force during the time of Somocismo, but he was not content, he was not satisfied, because he realized that there prevailed a tyranny, and with other compañeros of the Air Force, they planned an uprising. They were captured, taken prisoner.
And so, I'm going here to read what Comandante Raul Castro said on the First Anniversary of the events of Bay of Pigs. He said, referring to Lieutenant Carlos Ulloa: "Then we learned of the death of Compañeros like Carlos Ulloa; he was a Nicaraguan who fell defending the Cuban Revolution, because he knew that it was Latin America’s Revolution he was defending. While in Nicaragua Somoza and Imperialism prepared and sent invading ships from Puerto Cabezas, here in Cuba, as if to wash away the affront those traitors had cast on his country, Carlos Ulloa generously gave his blood." These words on that Anniversary were published, and disseminated.
Comandante of the Revolution, Raúl Castro, said: Carlos Ulloa fell defending the Latin American Revolution.
And today we are celebrating one more anniversary of the consolidation, the founding of the Nicaraguan Army’s Air Force and Anti-Aircraft Defense. Today is your 47th birthday.
On one occasion, commemorating this date, as I have told you here, even before the Air Force had been formally constituted, we had a clandestine Air Force that was flown by Sandinista pilots, Panamanian pilots, Costa Rican pilots, and we got the planes at that time on loan; they would take off, leaving Costa Rica with weapons, because the guerrilla columns here were poorly armed. And how could we bring weapons, how to take them to León, or take them to Matagalpa?
Then, the planes would depart, at the risk of being shot down as they passed by. They landed on the highways, where the Sandinista columns prepared the conditions for the planes to land; they unloaded the weapons and the plane returned.
We always remember those pilots who even on one occasion decided to try throwing a few small bombs on La Loma (trans. Somoza’s command post). And they passed over and dropped the bombs on la Loma, and they had no ability to bring down the plane. They are Heroes, Heroes who are there always present in the heroic history of the Nicaraguan People.
We have to recognize the tenacity of General Avilés, the tenacity to ensure this Air Force goes on growing and strengthening. You have taken so many initiatives that have helped the Air Force to become stronger and not weaker.
Along with all this we also have to recognize the fortitude of all the Compañeros and Compañeras in the Air Force, all the pilots, all the mechanics, who know they are working in demanding, difficult conditions.
The work of the brothers and sisters of the Air Force is really heroic, and there they have been building it bolt by bolt, strengthening the Air Force, and deploying it as an active resource in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime.
To be active, together with the Naval Force, in protecting our Territory, in the surveillance of our Territory, in those territories we have managed to recover, our maritime territories. And in all this the Air Force and the Naval Force combine to ensure that those maritime territories, which are extensive, are not taken over either by drug traffickers or by terrorists.
And we express our greeting, our affection, to all the countries which have Military Delegates here in Nicaragua. There are a good number of them here and we greet all of you, you will always be welcome in Nicaragua.
We also keep the doors open for those countries which have not yet decided to appoint their representatives in this area, here in Nicaragua. Although we have also made a lot of progress, I would say, in terms of coordination, coordination with armies, and therefore with air forces we understand we must strengthen, build up a force to coordinate and develop planning, and that also meet to do so, because they do have meetings.
Sometimes there are even meetings at a Latin American level, and that is an advance. Why? Because that struggle is hard, since against us are those who do not want us Latin Americans to unite; those who do not want us to unite, what they want is to dominate us, to dominate, and they send their military representatives, they send them to find out how they can set rules and norms for Latin American and Caribbean Countries.
And it is a struggle that is going on, because we are sure that these Peoples, and the Governments themselves, do not welcome these visits; they are imposed visits on the pretext that they are going to coordinate to fight drug trafficking and to combat migration; when we know that the real fight against drug trafficking and organized crime is not in these countries.
Here we are victims of drugs consumption, of their consumption by the US population, a good proportion of the US population is the big consumer of drugs and that’s what makes the drug traffickers appear here, because they are doing good business there.
And the United States, which is a world power, we are already approaching the month of August, reminding us of that tragic date when they dropped atomic bombs on Japan; the United States, instead of using the millions of dollars it uses to promote wars, seeking to occupy countries, to kidnap Presidents, as they kidnapped the President of Venezuela. He and his wife are being held there in the United States, the US had the good fortune to be able to land with their military detachments and kidnap them, carrying them off, and there they are, he and Cilia are being held in the United States. A totally terrorist, criminal act.
So, instead of focusing on combating drug trafficking in the United States, to combat drug consumption in US cities, to exercise greater surveillance, greater control, having the capabilities to do so... No! They use their Forces to bomb other countries rather than using them to control drug trafficking and organized crime in the United States.
And that is the struggle we are waging right now and which we have been waging for centuries; but, we are sure that, to the extent that Latin American countries, Latin American governments, can join Forces, then with our joint operations and plans to confront drug trafficking and organized crime, and to strengthen the autonomy and sovereignty of our countries, there will be no other recourse for the US rulers than to find how to concentrate efforts there in the United States.
We are fully prepared to fight drug trafficking, and we do, there is a retaining wall here and we are ready for the United States to place funds at the disposal of these countries in order to strengthen the fight against drug trafficking.
That is to say, they have a budget and it is they whom we are protecting, it is US youth that we are protecting, they are the victims; but victims, in the end, of a governance that is not exercised to protect youth, but so that there young people are poisoned, so that young people chase after drugs.
Maybe in the US they think that this gives them more peace and quiet, so they don't have to be confronting young people who defend the US people, especially when the United States has launched military operations and invasions against which US youth has risen up to protest.
Big problems yes, but great hopes too, because we are making our way, we are making our own way, we are making our way... Yes, let us make our way and those who shout at us when they see we are making our way, will have no recourse except to go on shouting, they will have no other recourse except to bark at us, as Don Quixote used to tell Sancho when they were riding along and the dogs were barking at them, and Don Quixote told Sancho not to worry: “If they’re barking, it's because we are making our way.” If they didn't bark it would mean we'd been buried.
And the Nicaraguan people, the People President is ever more respectful and more committed to the Air Force. We know very well the Air Force is not only for combat, but also to save lives, especially in the rainy season.
The Nicaraguan people feel strengthened and have every disposition to reinforce the Army, the Armed Forces of Nicaragua, the Police, because that is the great retaining wall we are working on. And we accompany this with the reforms which need to be made to strengthen the Country's sovereignty.
We are working on Constitutional Reforms, the National Assembly is working on them so that elections can be held in Nicaragua with Sovereignty, and not as occurred at the time of the US invasions in Nicaragua, in the time of General Sandino.
When General Sandino was beating them, there in Ocotal, when General Sandino began, it was with a move to take the Ocotal garrison; that is to say, he started with a strategy of positional warfare. Later he corrected that, but he started with a strategy of positional warfare and went straight way with his small army to take the barracks where the well-armed Gringos were stationed.
And when the Gringos realized their barracks were being taken over, that they were surrounded, then they said, all we have to do here is order the aviation. I would say that here in Nicaragua was the first battle that the Gringos entered using their aviation.
Of course, the aircraft arrived and started strafing and bombing, strafing and bombing, and that's when Sandino said, we can't stay here, we have to change our strategy. And that's when he said, we're going to El Chipotón, to El Chipote, to the mountain, and they're going to come looking for us there in the mountain and there we're going to beat them... And indeed, eight years on and they could not defeat Sandino. Those are the truths of the history of a small country, but one that saw incredible aggression like that.
Today we insist that, yes, we want Peace! We have been fighting for Peace. For it has been shown that when there is Peace in our country, the economy grows, education grows, investments grow, and that is what we are defending, Peace.
When we talk about reforms to the Constitution, it is to strengthen Peace. Because while others continue to conspire to try and bring the war back to Nicaragua, we have to fight to strengthen Peace. And strengthen it with laws, strengthen it with those Reforms that leave no room for the terrorists, for the coup plotters, leaves them no space to be able to come and organize wars again, like the ones they organized back in 1856, when a filibuster, William Walker, came and made himself President of Nicaragua and was recognized by the United States.
We cannot give them that opening, that's why the work we are doing is so important from a legal point of view. Here it is not a question of imposing Peace using states of emergency, it is not a question of imposing Peace at gunpoint, it is a question of establishing Peace and maintaining Peace, backed up by laws.
And the laws are not being worked on so as to declare states of emergency, or to shoot anyone, but simply to ensure there are no openings left by which they can launch their criminal wars again, like the past ones they have launched against Nicaragua.
The US government should be clear about this: Nicaragua does not want war, it wants Peace, Peace, and we will continue to strive for Peace, and in this process of striving for Peace, the Nicaraguan People, the People President, will of course be at the forefront.
And on behalf of the People President, beloved brothers and sisters of this institution turning 47 today, on behalf of the Nicaraguan people we say to you: The People President is with you, the People President supports you, and the People President will continue to strengthen you.
Long live Peace!
Long live the People President!
Long live the Air Force on its 47th Anniversary!
For a Patriotic Nation and Freedom!