Oct 18 was the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Ministry of the Interior, which is the Ministry in charge of the Police, Firefighters, Penitentiary system and Migration Services. It is a difficult context for the Ministry, as international human rights organizations have accused the Police and Penitentiary System of serious human rights abuses including torture. The Association of Mothers of Political Prisoners have reported that their imprisoned relatives have been on a hunger strike, with some sewing up their lips. Ortega addresses these accusations in his speech and invites the families to visit their relatives to see their claims are false. In the days immediately after the speech they tried to visit and were refused entry.
Speech of Daniel Ortega on the 41st Anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior
Oct 19, 2020, published on El 19 Digital
Dear Brother and Sister Nicaraguans; Dear Families of this Country of Diriangén, Darío, and Sandino…[greets specific members of the government, cabinet, National Assembly, Judicial Branch of government]
And our Embrace for all Families, all the Families of the Brothers and Sisters who are in the different Offices of the Ministry of the Interior; those who are in the National Penitentiary System, a real work of service, under complex, difficult conditions. Complex, difficult for those who provide the service and for those who receive the service, and for the Families of those who receive the service.
And I can tell you what the contrast is with the treatment in the National Penitentiary System since the triumph of the Revolution to these days, of what the treatment was of the National Penitentiary System in the time of the Somocista tyrant, imposed by the yankees, where from experience I spent more than 7 years there in la Modelo [principal prison for males located in Tipitapa] and in other jails in the Country, and in torture chambers.
When the Modelo Jail was being built, at that time Somoza ordered that the Staff who were going to serve the Modelo Jail be trained, be prepared in Spain, and there they were given the specialization by the fascist who had committed thousands of crimes there in Spain, who had imposed one of the most brutal tyrannies of the World, accompanying Hitler, accompanying Mussolini, in horrendous crimes with their own Peoples.
And I remember that, in the Aviation jails, in a cell, Cell 16 was the famous one, it was a cell a little bit larger than this tarmac, there 120- 150 prisoners slept on the floor. Because we were Sandinista Prisoners, they threw us on the floor; the prisoners didn´t, the Wardens did. And sleeping there on the floor with other prisoners because the prisoners did not fit in the bunks that they had; there were bunks of 1 o 2 levels, but there were too few bunks and so they slept crossways in the bunks, 1,2,3,4,5,6. Those who could sleep in the bunks.
Then, there was a special bunk that was for the people who performed the internal oversight tasks at the service of the Warden, and who maintained authority, and with a cudgel. He was the person that they called the Cell Corporal. In other words, they were not Authorities like you, Dear Brothers, Dear Compañeros, but they were also prisoners who had long sentences, criminals, who the Heads of the Penitentiary Systems from the different prisons in our Country would choose, so that they would be responsible for maintaining discipline among the prisoners within the cells. All crowded together there!
And let´s not even talk about the food! The food was known as “The Lollipop”, because it was barely one tortilla with 4 grains of beans which you could count and another 4 grains of rice which you could count. That was it. That was the food.
Then, in La Modelo, they placed us in a cell, there were 7 of us Sandinista Brothers, they placed each one of us in a cell to isolate us in a cellblock. And there we came upon a sign that said: You have to remain standing the entire day. After getting up, until late into the night, you had to stand in the cell. You could not sit down but had to remain standing. Logically very small cells! And you could not talk; in other words, you could not be talking with the other Compañeros, nor even exchange words with the Guards who watched over us in the corridors of the jail. You could not sing, singing was prohibited, whistling was prohibited; in other words, it was a regime of complete isolation. And then, the control, the repression, the beating of the prisoners, that was at any time.
What a difference with the treatment that they receive today, but we already know how there are always prisoners who invent the fact that they are tortured. And the doors of the Penitentiary System, Dear Brother and Sister Nicaraguans, Relatives of the Prisoners who are in the jails of Nicaragua, the doors are open so that you can go there to visit them when it is said that they are being tortured, that they are dying, that they have their lips sewn shut…I would have liked to see them with their lips sewn shut!
They invent, how many things they invent, simply to create a negative image of Nicaragua. For whom? For International Organizations managed by the yankees, like the OAS, and try to create public opinion in some Countries of the European Union that easily lend themselves to also being part of the interventionist policy that the yankees manage. The yankees order them, and they run to repeat it. If the yankees apply a sanction, then they also come and apply the sanction; if the yankees apply another sanction, then they come and apply the other sanction.
And who are they sanctioning, the Europeans, the yankees, who do they sanction for the violation of Human Rights in these Countries? Ah, they feel they have the right to judge us the Developing Countries; they judge us, they rate us, they discredit us, simply because they do not accept that these Countries look for a bit of Independence, a bit of Autonomy, a bit of Respect, a bit of respectful relationships with Developed Countries. No! They feel they have the power that, because they have a Colonialist, Imperialist Policy, some European Countries have it, and without even mentioning the yankee Empire.
The yankee empire is showing right now, through the current Government, it is showing what it is. It has been this way always. Someone might suddenly be surprised, but why be surprised if this has been the behavior of Empires?
You will remember, you learned in School as boys and girls, or in the Family you learned how ancient Empires clashed to rule the known World when they had not yet arrived in America; at that time the control of Europe was disputed by the different Empires that formed at that time, and the Country that they subdued, that Country completely lost their identity…They lost it!
There the Empire that persecuted and finally ordered the crucifixion of Christ was the Roman Empire that had occupied that Territory where Christ preached. And it was the Governor, imposed by the Roman Empire, who had to decide who to execute before the People, whether Barrabas or Christ. Yes! Pontius Pilate, it was up to him to make the decision.
As children we also learned about the Story of Moses and the Seven Plagues of Egypt, and that subjected, oppressed, desperate People, later looking to find the Promised Land, until crossing the Sea and crossing deserts. Look, what we are seeing now is nothing more than the repetition of History, where Peoples, Nations, who try to develop with their own identity, are subjected to the more powerful ones, that have more resources, that have more wealth, that have more weapons, and that feel they have the right to take over the entire World.
That is what is being repeated now, and where the yankee Empire is simply being brutal, no longer against the Peoples that it attacks in a thousand ways, but also against the US People themselves. The US People have historically been attacked by that System. The Unemployment, hunger of US families have been present there all the time. I do not get tired of repeating, like Darío, when he went through New York, he spoke about the 50 story buildings, he talked about the rich and he also talked about that in the midst of so much wealth there was, my God, he said pain, pain, pain… Because there, in the streets, they were shaking from the cold and US Citizens were dying of the cold, as they continue dying in these times, and not because of the Pandemic, but because it is a Society where, in spite of such wealth, it has not had the sensibility to provide Well Being to all US Families, without even mentioning immigrants.
They, who are immigrants, who got in with blood and fire to take over the Territory that belongs to our Ancestral Indigenous, like what happened with these Lands, so, they come and also pursue the immigrants, jail the migrants, and jail Children and kill, every day they kill Citizens generally of Afro-descendent origins.
And there is no World Campaign, there should be a World Campaign. Where is the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations, where is it that it does not dare to speak as it should speak against the barbarity of the yankee Empire, the criminal violation, genocide of the yankee Government, when it blocks Cuba in the way that it has blocked it, and goes mad when in the United Nations Countries exercise their Right to Vote and elect Cuba to belong to the Human Rights Commission?
170 votes in favor of Cuba! What is isolated in the World? In moral term, in political terms the yankee Empire is isolated…170 votes! And the spokespeople for the yankee Empire came out there, upset, shouting, ranting because Cuba had been elected among other Countries that had every Right to be elected. Human Rights are violated.
Also a campaign has been launched, viciously against Nicaragua, this campaign intensified when the Coup attempt happened in April 2018, and then they have maintained it and continuously talk about the fact that Democracy has to be brought to Nicaragua, when in those same Countries we see that they are incapable of respecting the Principles of Democracy in a holistic way.
Democracy, it is true, are Elections, but it is also ensuring Health care to people after they have elected you, it is ensuring Education to people after they have elected you, it is looking for forms of work for people after they have elected you, it is building Fire Stations throughout the Country, like we are building here. We are going to have a Fire Station in each Municipality of Nicaragua, now at this moment, and you would have observed before, and the Minister reminded us in her Report, Fire Stations have been built in remote places of the Country, out of 156 Municipalities Fire Stations have already been built in 101 Municipalities.
In other words, we will begin the year 2021 with a goal of building 2 Stations per month in the Municipalities that need them. Advancing, and then continuing the next year until we have a Fire Station in each Municipality.
We already know what a Fire Station means, it provides Security to Families, it does not matter what the political thinking of the Family may be, it does not matter what ideology the Family has, it does not matter! A Family feels safe if it knows that there is a Fire Station close by, because a fire can happen at any moment; there are also fires in large Buildings. And forest fires, where we have to take care of the Forest, and how many more Firemen do we have as well, we have Firefighters helping, contributing to the fact that the Environment be protected.
I was saying, and I repeat to Nicaraguan Families who have relatives jailed in the Penitentiary System, the doors are open. Every day they create scandals, invent in the Communications Media that are paid for by the yankee Empire. Yes, Families lend themselves and when they are told, in some cases the Family has been told to go to see that you son is fine. Because on the other hand the Family is saying publicly that the son is dying, and they are told to go, and they do not go, and they are told to go accompanied by Social Organizations that can accompany them so they can see, and they do not go. And they do not go because they know that everything that they are saying outside are lies, and that if they do go to that place, accompanied by a Social Organization, they will be shown as liars. This is an approach that they have taken.
In terms of what is the area of Migration and Immigration we have a task in which we ensure passage in the Border Areas. It is true that there have been situations that have to do directly with the Pandemic where the borders have been closed, but the transit of what was heavy transport has been maintained, which has to do with foodstuffs, the transportation of food in the Central American Region.
Then restrictions were imposed, because the Pandemic shot up in Costa Rica, so communications were sought, dialogue with the Costa Rican Authorities and with all the Central American Authorities, it was affecting all of Central America and Mexico. In the end Agreements were reached for reproducing the Model that Costa Rica was installing, reproduce it in the other Countries, in other words, putting into practices the Principle of Reciprocity, that affects all of us, because the crossing now was not so fluid as it was before these measures were imposed.
There was a new Meeting now and those measures are now being dismantled and this is going to ensure a better flow of transportation. Because apart from the issue of the Pandemic there are protests there in Costa Rica, roadblocks there in Costa Rica…Yes, there are roadblocks in Costa Rica! But of course, since it is Costa Rica…
Now if those roadblocks were in Nicaragua, the Communications Media would be on fire, raging against Nicaragua, not to mention the Human Rights Organization of the UN and the OAS. They are raging now without this in Nicaragua. And the yankees, with whom we have communication, we have relations, know perfectly well how Nicaragua is playing a decisive role in all Institutions, because Nicaragua coordinated with them, works with the DEA, works with the US Army itself and with all the Central American Armies, and beyond that, it works with all the Central American Police and beyond that, also Migration and also with Central American Migration.
They know perfectly well that Nicaragua is the Safest Country, where there is an ongoing fight against Drug Trafficking and Organized Crime. A lot less drugs enter Nicaragua than what gets into a Neighborhood of the United States. And why don´t they stop those drugs from getting in? If they are a superpower, why don´t they deliver been on this? Because their Authorities are involved in drug trafficking as well, not all of them, but a good part of their Authorities are involved in drug trafficking, they also are making deals.
That is why the arrival of drugs in the United States has not stopped and it affects all of us Central Americans, and Mexico, because the drugs come from the south and will continue being produced as long as that market exist there in the United States. And they come in and release the Report and place us, Nicaragua along with the Countries of Central America, that we are responsible for not being concerned about drug trafficking. They mark us in their Reports, simply because what is at stake is the attitude of the Empire, that discredits us all at once and looks for “the splinter in the other´s eye”, is out looking for the splinter in these Countries, when it has a huge beam in its own eye, in its own Country, because that is where the big consumers are, there is the money that pays for the drugs.
If they were able to control this, which they can do, but which has turned into a big business, because in the US Banks there is huge amounts of money laundering as well, and they do not prosecute the Bankers, they simply fine them. So, if they would control the entry of drugs there in the United States; if they would do away with the corruption that they have with the entry of migrants in the United States, by land, air and sea; if they did away with the corruption that they have in their Police, their Institutions, their Intelligence Entities, in the DEA, in the FBI there is corruption, they know perfectly well, then drugs would no longer enter the United States in the way in which it is entering, then the movement of drugs would drop completely, and therefore the production of drugs in Colombia would drop, because it would no longer be a business for those who produce drugs in Colombia, they would not be producing if there is no Market.
The big Market is in the United States, it is in the Developed Countries, and that is where they have to look how to control it. We here do it out of Principles, out of Conviction, and because we have Institutions completely committed against Drug Trafficking, against Organized Crime, against Terrorism.
They are the ones who are out promoting terrorists all over, promoting terrorists here in Nicaragua, financing terrorists who are disguised as “democratic” Politicians, but they are terrorists, who murder Citizens, Teachers, they murder Compañeros of the Police, they murder Compañeros of the Army…They have done it! We have provided the data now countless times. And this is a conduct that does not disappear, and there are the resources flowing for these terrorist activities.
Well, they are looking for a way to give a bad image of Nicaragua, where even with this issue of the pandemic Nicaragua is one of the better qualified in the list of Countries; because it is true, here we have had several cases, hundreds of cases, and we have also had deaths due to the pandemic, but we have launched Systematic Campaigns through the Ministry of Health so that Protection Measures be taken, basic minimal ones: hand washing, masks, distancing; in other words, the elemental Measures, but we cannot force anyone, it has to be in a voluntary way; it is explained, and each person does it in a voluntary way.
Here, well, I would say that it has been decreasing, of course, we cannot be over confident, because in these moments the epidemic has shot up again in the United States and in the European Countries, and in other Latin American Countries the epidemic has shot up again, it has multiplied.
The deaths have multiplied by the thousands, and now in these times there is a little more than 40,100,00 to 40,200,000 Citizens on all of Planet Earth who have been affected, of whom 1,100,000 have died. Most of them have been contaminated in Developed Countries, and also in Developing Countries, some with small populations, others with large populations, but these phenomena have shown up there, and where even Measures have been taken to isolate the Population, close up the Population. And people don´t want to be closed up.
So, State of Siege! Or well, the Army goes into the streets, they bring out the Army and the Police so that people do not leave their homes. But of course, a month goes by, two months go by, three months go by, and the people get desperate, and begins to get sick, and their defenses go down and they suffer from stress and panic. So in the end they decide to go out, and that has been the struggle right now in Europe, of people wanting to go out. And they are going out, some go out with their masks, others go out without masks, but they feel like there is no other way.
And it would seem that all the people who were closed in and who now are beginning to go out, part of them are beginning also, of course they were not out in the streets, but you cannot spend your entire life closed in; so they are beginning to receive the impact of the virus which is multiplying by thousands every day. But thanks to God the number of deaths is not multiplying by day at the same amount as the People attacked by the virus or are carriers of the virus; note, 40,000,000 carriers and 1,100,000 deaths.
Of course, but I was telling you, we cannot be overconfident, this fight has to be always waged in the form in which we have waged it, appealing to Responsibility, the Awareness of all People, and without getting to extreme Measures, that rather become negatives for Families.
Well, Dear Brothers and Sisters, Dear Compañeros y Compañeras, we are going to be concluding, I am going to conclude referring to a political, social event that has to do with Democracy. Bolivia! Bolivia! Now some months ago, nearly a year ago, when Evo was a Candidate to the Presidency, all the Polls gave the victory to Evo, and this Organization was there which has been an instrument of death, of the aggressive and expansionist Policy of the United States… The OAS was there.
Well, and there were normal discussions like those that happen in any type of Election, there was challenges. There is no Election where there are no challenges, in the United States, don´t even mention it, don´t even mention the questioning that is done about the US Elections. Like they do not recognize them.
Now, the President himself is making the accusation that they want to set traps for him, that they are sticking in fake votes, falsified votes from the Democratic Party, and accusing the Democrats that they are communists. Imagine, what could be more incredible! It is crazy, crazy! The communist Democrats! Since when are the Democrats communists?
If it was Kennedy, a Democrat, who began the aggression against Cuba, he backed and organized the invasion of Cuba. And who did that Government of Kennedy, who has been presented as the most democratic President in the History of the United States, who did it resort to [for the invasion of Cuba]? Who did it go to? It went to Somoza, and went to the Guatemala Dictatorship, soldiers, so that here in the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua the Brigade or Brigades would be trained that were going to invade Cuba. And Somoza went to send them off when they were in their boats to disembark in Cuba, that was when Somoza said to them, and Fidel remembered it here in the First Anniversary of the Revolution, that Somoza told them, “And bring me a hair from Fidel´s beard.”
Look at that relationship between a Government that is being described as Communist now, or a Party of a Government, that Party is being described as Communist, and that Party had that behavior. So, the Democrat Party has nothing of Communism, nothing of Socialism; they are the ones who destroyed Libya, there is Libya broken up, and other Nations of that Zone, and they caused the migration of Africa on Europe.
So, there in Bolivia they did a plan, being clear that Evo won that Election, and the plan was to begin to question the Election, that it was not going well, there were no results yet; so the OAS came in, fulfilling the task of the Empire, and said: These Elections are contaminated, therefore they have to be redone. And this was immediately accompanied by a Coup against Compañero Evo Morales, where the Army and the Police told Evo that it was better that he leave, being the President, and Evo to avoid bloodshed, had no other option that to leave for Argentina.
But they have continued the Fight, and these Elections that were held yesterday, they had been postponing and they postponed them again, because, of course, they did their research and realized the strength of the Movement to Socialism that our Brother Evo organized and led. But they never imagined that there were going to be so many votes in favor of Compañero Luis Alberto Arce Catacora. Luis Alberto was the Candidate, along with Compañero David Choquehuanca, the Candidates backed by Evo, by the Party, by MAS.
And they thought that since these Candidates did not have the strength that Evo had, they thought that they were going to win the Elections. And it ends up that the number of Voters in favor of MAS and therefore for the President Luis Alberto Arce, yes, we do call Luis Alberto Arce President, because already in fact, even though the official results are not out yet, you well know that you always have to wait for the official results here, you have to wait at times several days for them to provide the official results, but now in the face of the reality, the Political Parties have made pronouncements recognizing what Party won.
So there the Opposition Parties, since the distance is enormous, there is no place for them to invent a second round, there the person who gets to 40%, if the person in second place is a little bit more than 10% lower, then the one who gets to 40% wins. But in this case, Luis Alberto, our Brother got to a little more than 52%. So now those who got second and third place have now recognized it, and the Council itself in those moments in fact are recognizing the Victory.
And the big Lesson there is that, no matter how powerful Imperialism may be, no matter how powerful their instruments are, the traitors who do work there for Imperialism, no matter the instrument the OAS may be, because the OAS is involved there as well, there are moments in which the Strength of the Peoples is so powerful and rises up, through the votes, in a way that steamrolls the conspirers.
Today it has been demonstrated those who lied a year ago, when they said that the Elections had to be annulled because there was a fraud that allowed Evo to win. What is being demonstrated is that, that despicable lie has fallen apart.
And today we have talked with Brother Evo Morales, by phone; we have talked with President Elect Luis Alberto, Vice President Elect David Choquehuanca, and we have transmitted to them the Joy of our People. Because this is the Victory of a People who come from our roots, and a People who are demonstrating, that no matter how powerful the Empire may be, that no matter how powerful the Communications Media may be that are there in Bolivia itself, and outside as well, because the Campaign against MAS, against Evo was worldwide, when the People make the decision to overcome, then the People achieve Victory.
Congratulations Brother Bolivians!
Congratulations Evo!
[ends by expressing appreciation for all those who gave their lives serving in the Ministry of the Interior through the years and their families]…